Madama Kennedy was writing about one of her characters when she penned that throwaway line that has my darling friend (I loves ya, ya know I does!
) WW up in arms....Dubdub, I suspect you will enjoy the book in its entirety, despite disagreeing with that sentiment. Kennedy was referring to an immature character who is very self-absorbed. However, she has other characters who are more involved in other arts who are also self-absorbed - but in different ways. And she has much praise for music in other contexts within the novel. Think the point she was trying to make was that though Rickie loved music and could make wonderful music himself, he wasn't terribly quick to pick up on "real-world" things.
So now I know you are going to argue that that could be character-specific, not music-general, and I would agree with you....!
And you're right, there's not much point to arguing this anyway. As Oscar said (it
was Oscar, wasn't it, and not Lear or Coward or some other clever epigrammaticist?!), "Comparisons are odious." So I'se sorry I brought it up! but 'twas an interesting debate for a little while there (I read every word, WW!), yes?
Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.
