Harry Davis:

>I concluded by taking to the trash collection point a large number of
>disks and VHS tapes.  The books will remain with me.
>
>So much for my recent Wagner journey.  Would enjoy your response.

 From what you say about the music, you might have been better off dumping
the books and keeping the recordings--and I say this as someone for whom
books are nearly sacred.  I say this also as someone who has always thought
that knowledge about creative artists can add to the understanding (and
thus far, appreciation) of their works.  But if it prevents enjoyment of
what otherwise would be enjoyed, because of personal inability to
dissociate composer and work, then you may have a great personal loss.

Among many abandoned--or indefinitely deferred--projects of mine is an
essay on the "appreciative attitude and the judgmental attitude," which
came out of some philosophical discussions of the "aesthetic attitude," and
which took a new direction for me a long time ago when someone I cared a
lot about--and still do--objected to my pointing out how rusty cans and
dead fish detracted from the visual satisfactions of a beautiful beach.
Such judgments didn't amount to worthwhile observations, in her opinion,
and it wasn't so much fun to be with someone who thought they might be.
Very sobering.  So I tried filtering things like that out, the way I did
with noisy record surfaces.

Although "rusty cans and dead fish" might clutter up Wagner's life and
person, and perhaps even his libretti, there aren't any in his music.

Jim Tobin