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From: ted@loft.tnolan.com (Ted Nolan <tednolan>)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: YASID
Date: 21 May 2024 19:19:39 GMT
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In article <v2iqq8$no9s$1@dont-email.me>,
William Hyde  <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:
>> In article <69mn4jppd29is4apku7o4njitkt5cpkhm6@4ax.com>,
>> Chris Duck  <chrisduck@coldmail.com> wrote:
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> On Mon, 20 May 2024 17:22:22 -0400, William Hyde
><wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> technovelist wrote:
>>>>> Anyone have a reference for a short story in which a famous composer
>>> is "brought back from the dead"
>>>>> by giving a completely nonmusical person a "personality transplant"
>>> (my term, I'm not sure what it
>>>>> was called in the story)? The twist is that the "revived composer"
>>> realizes just before they take
>>>>> away the personality transplant is that he is the critics' version of
>>> the composer, a complete hack
>>>>> with no actual original ability.
>>>>>
>>>>> I read this in a short story collection. It might be James Blish or
>>> Arthur C. Clarke but I haven't
>>>>> seen any titles that ring a bell in their bibliographies.
>>>>
>>>> It is "A work of art" by James Blish.  The composer was Richard Strauss.
>>>>
>>>> Robert Mills edited an anthology in which authors were invited to submit
>>>> their best stories.  This was Blish's choice.
>>>>
>>>> William Hyde
>>>>
>> 
>> That's interesting, in that it certainly doesn't sound as good as say,
>> "Surface Tensin".
>
>It's a complex story about identity, and while the context is distinctly 
>secular, I think it resonates with some of the religious issues which 
>form part of Blish's fiction.
>
>Also, it's quite an original story, and the twist at the end is nice, 
>the kind you should have foreseen, but probably did not. I can't imagine 
>any other SF author writing it.
>
>
>In addition, he seems to have known a fair amount about Strauss, and 
>this gave him a chance to look at the composer's work from the 
>perspective of the reconstructed Strauss.  The latter does not like some 
>aspects of the original's work, perhaps giving Blish a chance to air 
>longstanding irritations.
>
>If I were to write a similar story about Dvorak, for example, I'd have 
>the reconstructed Anton wonder how he could have marred so great a work 
>as this eighth symphony with such a slapdash ending (as I understand it, 
>the musical world somehow disagrees with me about this, perhaps as much 
>as I disagree with Blish about Strauss.  How inexplicable!)
>
>
>
>
>William Hyde
>

Thanks!

I haven't read the story (obviously), and from the initial description,
it sounded like a "gimmick" story like the one where Asimov had
Shakespeare fail a class on Shakespeare...
-- 
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