Bowie, Ep. 27 - Silence by John Cage & Why There Is Always Sound

Silence by John Cage is a collection of lectures and stories. Some are written in vertical columns. Some have, let’s call it interesting, spacing. And some, as Cage will tell you, have piano accompaniments, street noises, and the like. There was a lecture where he gave himself one minute to tell each story. So if the story had three lines, he had to stretch it. If a story was long, he’d have to talk fast to fit it into a minute. There’s a lecture called What Are We Doing? It’s actually three lectures sharing the same space on the page, written in vertical columns, one part in regular print, one part in bold print, and one part in italics. Mind blowing.

Even more mind blowing, thinking about what silence actually is. And does it even exist? Is sound a constant? Is it different for each individual based on surroundings, personal history, location of the individual to the sound, etc?

And mushrooms. John Cage had a thing for mushrooms.

There were short stories and anecdotes peppered throughout the book, and they were all delightful.

This is a book that any type of artist can appreciate. Also, do yourself a favor and go online and find a video of John Cage’s 4’33. Trust us.