/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.9320263]

Is music superior to literature as an art form?

I mean, do the works of musicians like Anne Erin Clark and Beethoven contain more artistic merit than Infinite Jest, Catcher in the Rye and The Fault in Our Stars?

[Anonymous No.9320269]

Reported.

[Anonymous No.9320274]

>>9320269
You know that posts like "sage" and "reported" are against the rules, right?
Reported.

[Anonymous No.9320303]

Define artistic merit.

I would say the last two books on your list do not have any literary merit, though.

[Anonymous No.9320318]

>>9320263
No it is truly not, but it is good for a dopamine fix. Some good music function in a literary fashion, such as prog rock, and operas. Literature does not rely on cheap thrills the way music does. If you speak with writers and readers, you would see first hand. If you speak with musicians and music fans, you will lose your faith in humanity within seconds.

[Anonymous No.9320332]

>>9320263
Music can evoke emotion easier, but literature conveys complex ideas.

sage

[Anonymous No.9320588]

>>9320332
>but literature conveys complex ideas
so does music.

[Anonymous No.9320601]

Technically music has greater potential, but in practice no, not really.

[Anonymous No.9320612]

Can these "what is the superior medium" meme threads please die? They're aesthetically degenerate.

[Anonymous No.9320630]

>music
>finite and will eventually sound the same

>literature
>infinite and eternally beautiful

[Anonymous No.9320675]

i've always seen st. vincent as a good musician but nothing special

[Anonymous No.9320690]

I don't get the comparison

[Anonymous No.9320694]

>>9320630

[uuu !LOLiTa/4Ik No.9320711]

music is the ultimate art form; no other art form requires such a comprehensive knowledge of history, politics, visual arts, literature, philosophy, mathematics, etc. in addition to actual musical knowledge, in order to truly understand what's going on.

something like j.s. bach's st. matthew passion or beethoven's missa solemnis can't possibly be matched in other mediums simply because of traits inherent to musical form.

to put it another way, while things like ulysses are masterworks, you wouldn't be able to study a page of it for the rest of your life and come to new revelations every day. you could, however, study one single page of music (the aria of the goldberg variations, for instance) and find new things in it every single day for the rest of your life.

[Anonymous No.9320723]

They are not comparable at all. Literature manifests images in your head automatically, therefore it is more phenomenological I would say.

Music is way more immediate, it strips all abstractions down to it's purest form, which is why it resonates with everyone.

Art is rarely mutually inclusive in that way.

[Anonymous No.9320744]

>>9320711
>all lowercase

Arguments disregarded.

[Anonymous No.9320758]

>>9320711
tell me five (5) new things I could learn from a page of the Goldberg variations.

[Anonymous No.9320768]

stop making this thread

[Anonymous No.9320784]

>>9320630
>both will be produced by computers in a century

How can humans even compete?

[uuu !LOLiTa/4Ik No.9320796]

>>9320758
from the top of my head,
>comparing the use of rests from the new barenreiter edition to editions which use the composer's copy of the first printing shows strange discrepancies in terms of voicing, which, coupled with baroque-era keyboard playing, yield radically differing results and emotional impact; this leads to further research
>grouping of notes in phrases is ambiguous as there are very little slurs used by bach; how to group the notes changes the entire melodic structure, and there are infinite ways to connect each phrase, even just in the second measure, ie. is the second grace note an accented appogiatura, or a passing note to the next "D"?
>tempo, too, is extremely ambiguous; taking into account the tonal decay of harpsichords of the day, what would be the appropriate tempo, as changing tempo greatly alters the piece's meaning and affect as well?
>execution of ornaments is hotly contested; would it be okay to play the mordant not as a mordant, questions of this sort, and if ornaments are changed, how does this alter each ornamented note? is the aria itself considered an "ornamentation" of an otherwise unornamented melody line, as some performers contest?
[cont]

[uuu !LOLiTa/4Ik No.9320801]

>>9320758
>>9320796
>how should you pedal? assuming you are on a modern piano, would the pedal be used to help mimic the tone of the harpsichord, as it is more violent than the piano? or should pedal be left out entirely so as to not blend harmonies? on the other hand, there is a very steady and obvious bassline which could be helped with even the middle pedal.

you could study the first page for the rest of your life and keep coming up with new ideas, new ways to play it, new emotional affect. you'd be endlessly occupied as there is no definitive answer. you can't do that with a page of a novel.

[Anonymous No.9320853]

Music has 12 notes (gay)
Literature has close to infinite words.

You tell me?

[Anonymous No.9320909]

>>9320263
No. Fuck off to /mu/ and stay there.

[Anonymous No.9321313]

[Anonymous No.9321331]

>>9320263
The question essentially comes down to whether the universe a giant book, the logos made flesh

or the divine music of the spheres
like the music of the Ainur in the Silmarillion

I'm inclined to think they coincide simultaneously, but that sound is more immediate than the word, which is first heard and /then/ understood, and is therefore more primordial

At any rate, both are great so there doesn't seem to be a pretty reason to ask the question

[Anonymous No.9322471]

>>9320318
So true. Musicians -- and rock musicians in particular -- are fucking idiots.

[Anonymous No.9322483]

Music is similar to masturbation. It appeals to our simple instincts and imbues us with purposeless emotional charge that simply vanes away without making a true impact.
Litrerature elevates man higher away from his nature, music debases man down into the rut.