Research Catalog

Title

Diary: how to improve the world (you will only make matters worse) Continued, part three, 1967.

Author

Cage, John

Publication

[New York, Something Else Press] 1967.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Something Else Press

Description

14 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

• "John Cage has for a very long time treated music as being not only about music, but as a language with whatever relevance it was given. So the essay in this pamphlet does not deal specifically with the musical format, but with the world of such possible relevances. Cage has said that his problems are not musical but social, and in this way his music itself has taken on a relevance that purifies both it and its auditors. Therefore we ought not be surprised at the scope of the "diary", or its quality, which is that of a poem. The painter is not, however, accepted as a dramatist (how about PIcasso and Oldenburg?) in our society. How about the composer as poet/designer? Cage has been interested in design and typography... For years he designed programs and posters for dance and music concerts, and many of his writings reflect his interest in painting... This pamphlet is an attempt to realize another of Cage's ideas as closely as possible to his intention. Dick Higgins, acting as printing technician, described the uses and limitations of the two-color process we have used and suggested feasible potentials, and in effect he provided Cage with an instrument on which to perform a visual realization of his idea. Cage entered into the proposal gladly, employing color-changes which, like the indentations, type-faces and number of words given a single story or idea, are the outcome of chance operations. The first section of the 'diaries', which are collections of thoughts that develop out of working and being alive, appeared in the little magazine 'Joglars', issue number three. The second is in the Spring 1967 issue of the 'Paris Review'. You have the third. What will the fourth be like?" -- Page [15].
• "The third in Cage's series of "Diary" essays (the other parts were published in different contexts), defined broadly as "collections of thoughts that develop out of working and being alive". The text is formally and discursively roving: its margins, typeface, and color undergo continuous alteration by chance methods as Cage contemplates computers, Erik Satie; life on the road with Merce Cunningham; death; encounters with Mies van der Rohe, Duchamp, and Marshall McLuhan; books; cold remedies, and more. Above all, "Diary" seems to confront the problem of truly ecumenical thought. Dick Higgins, as the publisher<U+2019>s original printing technician, meticulously engineered the variations in color, and as such, this may be the most outwardly beautiful of the Great Bears series" -- -- taken from the Primary Information publishing company's website [ https://primaryinformation.org/product/diary-how-to-improve-the-world-you-will-only-make-matters-worse-continued-part-three-1967john-cage/ ].
• "Third in a series of John Cage's published diaries... which utilizes creative typesetting and a two-color printing process to break up the text into a more poetic structure." -- taken from the Printed Matter website [ https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/39668/ ].

Series Statement

A great bear pamphlet

Uniform Title

Great bear pamphlet

Alternative Title

How to improve the world ...

Subjects

• artists' books (books)
• Diaries
• Cage, John > Diaries

Genre/Form

• Diaries
• artists' books (books)

Note

• Pt. 1 appeared in Joglars, issue no. 3; pt. 2 in the Spring 1967 issue of Paris review.
• Cover title.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Multi-coloured thoughts and social reflections; unique design by the artist

OCLC

• 14071089
• SCSB-11373393

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library