Sounds
They shine out of darkness with more chiaroscuro, more boldness. They are waves. They are not nothing. Except that waves are nothing.
They grow fond of a very little girl, with pony tails with fasteners that look like grace-notes. They like the lift, the curve of the arc of her pony tails, as they lift high on her head. The shape reminds them of Ravel. And her ears so more accessible. Easier to please.
She doesn't like Ravel, has never heard of his music. She likes Wagner. The sounds aren't sure she's mature enough to put him in context yet, may be making a mistake, taking in Wagner without the necessary qualifying statements one should make about his politics, his monsterhood.
They try to incorporate a little of Ravel around their edges, the ones where their molecules bump off into other parallel realities, into other non-localities, into other potentials. She isn't buying it. She's tuned in. And she can tell.
“Cut that out,” she says. “I know my Wagner. I know this reality. I'm sticking to it.”
“But” says the sounds, in their own special way, as they aren't very interested in English. Too bland, too many accents that have destroyed it, not musical enough. They like French.
“What about the French Horn?”
“Cut it out, you. I know that doesn't go there. You changed the works. Wagner is Wagner, and that's in the past.”
“But. You know the future affects the past. The waves go both ways from the present. We might as well start taking advantage of that. Only the young ones and the scientists and the yogis will take us up on it at first. But.”
“I show you waves,” she said. She waved good-bye at the sounds. And that was that.
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Author's Note
published in 2010 in Quantum Genre on the Planet of the Arts.
Really like the presence of music in this piece. Nice voice as well.
thank you, Sam.
nice piece. i like the way it catches (what i imagine) a child's relation to pitches might be like. it's a very pre-12 tone sensibiity too...all shades of light and waveforms as abstractions
(btw waveforms aren't nothing. they are what they are--patterns of motion. what they aren't is objects. but you can see them either via chladni diagrams or electronically. it's interesting how different the representations are, even as they're both taken to be what they represent.)
being immersed in wagner is entirely alien to me. but i'd rather visit that immersion this way than listen to more wagner. but i digress.
like the writing. well played.
I love all the play on words, the sound waves that go both ways from the present, the future affecting the past, the wave good-bye. Very surreal, sounds talking, but they are sounds after all. That's what they do. Delightful!
thank you, Gloria.