Gamelan

I dread writing this blog because I can honestly say that World Music is perhaps the worst class I have ever taken at MSU. I think it had potential...but no perhaps we were all just doomed. When I met with Dr. Sexson this past week, we looked at a map of a gamelan performance held here. Dr. Sexson was interested in this and said that it sounds like something Nabokov would say..these words are complex and unordinary...are they even words? Gunung, angklung, jegogan...I was reviewing my notes on the gamelan (mainly because if I don't pass this stupid music final I will be increasing to 21 credits next semester to graduate...bitter tone inserted). The instruments in the gamelan and the songs themselves "help us to remember". Again, connections. Everywhere I go, I think of Nabokov or The Shade cast, but mostly Humbert. I swear I have seen more Humberts in my life the last month (we will skip past this point because it is rather disturbing to me to think that perhaps these really could be HUMBERTS!). Similar to Frye's levels of understanding, the gamelan too is composed levels in which the music becomes something more...more important or more spiritual. You have to become nothing to really appreciate the music or in the case of english majors the text. It is not only about appreciating the music or text, but understanding it to a degree one never thought possible. Thanks to everyone who has corrupted my mind and allowed me to now read too much into things. I need to become nothing again.