I know I am suppose to use this blog entry to respond to a blog, but I didn't found one that really tickled my brain. Not only that, but I also have so many thoughts on today's class, so forgive me Professor Johnson, but I shall take this blog to further expiate my curiosities.
Honorary persons is what Davies compare musical instruments to, but why? Like I pointed out in class, I don't think this phrase is suppose to be taken literally. This phrase of "honorary persons," is suppose to be an exaggeration of some kind, a metaphor. Think of the word honor. Honor means to respect; honor your mother and your father, we honor our bodies, when we honor, we show respect to; no wonder Davies talks about this pertaining to instruments. There are many people who honor and respect their instrument, especially when there is a story behind it. Musicians honor their songs, artists honor their work, and in the case of Christians, we honor God. However, things get a bit misleading when he pairs the word honorary with persons in describing an instrument. When taken literally, how can we explain this? How can an inanimate object, that doesn't breathe, contain cognitive function, or have a heart beat or organs be a person.
I am almost certain that Davies meant to use the word persons as to show how much we respect instruments or whatever we love. Whatever we have an interest in, we usually hold it dear to us and treat it like we would treat another human being, or even better. We treat our valuables how we would treat someone, a person, worthy of respect. We develop this connection for something and a deep protection of it, whether it be because of monetary value, or because memories or attached to it, or even because it is just something we can call ours. There should not be a literal translation to what Davies says, because the worth of something and value f something depends on the connection a person places on it and how deep that connection is, could come close to it being called an honorary connection. I feel that sometimes, and I feel like I have said this before, we take things too literal and make them more difficult than they really are. I guess for this blog entry, that can be my question: Why try and make everything literal, isn't philosophy difficult enough?
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Destroying Instruments and Destroying the Body.
In this chapter, Davies talk about instruments being honorary persons. He talks about how he feels when an instrument is destroyed and what may be the root cause of these feelings. As we got into a discussion about this topic on Monday an interesting statement was made. I don't remember the direct statement but it compared destroying instruments to destroying the body. Why is it that people can cringe at the sight of instrument abuse and have their favorite past time be wrestling, football, boxing etc. Or how could abusing instruments be looked at as absurd and people cut themselves and kill their lungs slowly with cigarettes and their liver with alcohol?
I think this all depends on what you are actually interested in and where your belief is. Let me break this down by looking at my interest. I like music and it interests me, but I do not cringe when an instrument is abused. I do wonder why the person is breaking a perfectly good instrument and wonder what real satisfaction they would get out of it, but it doesn't affect me to the point where I wince in pain. I ,however, have total and absolute respect for my body. My interest and belief is in my religion and a part of my religion is to respect the body because it is the temple of God. I don't put any strong drinks, or unclean products in my body, nor do I take interest in a person bashing the brains out of another. I believe the body should be respected and when I see it being harmed or disrespected I wince and cringe and even shake my head and turn away. The people who can watch wrestling and be glued to the TV may not have an interest in how holy the body is, the person who smokes the cigarettes doesn't care about what it is doing to their insides, just like the person who gets excited when a guitar is smashed and a piano is burned, they don't have that deep love or connection for instruments. I know it may not seem right that people care so much about an inanimate object like a flute or guitar, and can watch the most questionable things on TV and do the most immoral things to their body; however it is their preference, their interest. Why should someone question that? People who are able to treat their dog better than they treat another human being is another example. Their interest is just simply in canines and not people. It isn't out of the ordinary that we hold certain things higher than other things and therefore treat things better. To one person an instrument is an "honorary person" and they hold instruments above themselves and other bodies. What we believe and what we are interested in drives how we react to the misuse and and abuse of that thing whatever it may be.
My question is can playing a burning piano or even a submerged one be looked at as art/music? Do people destroy instruments because they want to be unique in their art making?
I think this all depends on what you are actually interested in and where your belief is. Let me break this down by looking at my interest. I like music and it interests me, but I do not cringe when an instrument is abused. I do wonder why the person is breaking a perfectly good instrument and wonder what real satisfaction they would get out of it, but it doesn't affect me to the point where I wince in pain. I ,however, have total and absolute respect for my body. My interest and belief is in my religion and a part of my religion is to respect the body because it is the temple of God. I don't put any strong drinks, or unclean products in my body, nor do I take interest in a person bashing the brains out of another. I believe the body should be respected and when I see it being harmed or disrespected I wince and cringe and even shake my head and turn away. The people who can watch wrestling and be glued to the TV may not have an interest in how holy the body is, the person who smokes the cigarettes doesn't care about what it is doing to their insides, just like the person who gets excited when a guitar is smashed and a piano is burned, they don't have that deep love or connection for instruments. I know it may not seem right that people care so much about an inanimate object like a flute or guitar, and can watch the most questionable things on TV and do the most immoral things to their body; however it is their preference, their interest. Why should someone question that? People who are able to treat their dog better than they treat another human being is another example. Their interest is just simply in canines and not people. It isn't out of the ordinary that we hold certain things higher than other things and therefore treat things better. To one person an instrument is an "honorary person" and they hold instruments above themselves and other bodies. What we believe and what we are interested in drives how we react to the misuse and and abuse of that thing whatever it may be.
My question is can playing a burning piano or even a submerged one be looked at as art/music? Do people destroy instruments because they want to be unique in their art making?
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