Christopher Webber <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>In particular, I found Steve's suggestion that literature is somehow a
>technically less demanding discipline than music caused me at least one
>raised eyebrow.  In what important sense can this possibly be true?

Bad literature can make powerful statements; as anyone with a taste for
pulp fiction would attest.  Bad music just tends to clang, if it's even
picked up by musicians to play.

On related issues:  it's also been traditionally a lot easier to print
& distribute books in text format than the in high graphics format of a
music score; which is why a number of attempts at simplified notation have
been developed, inc.  one by Xian in China; as well as the reason many
orchestral scores are published in photgraphic reproduction rather than
typeset per se.

The late great Dr Isaac Asimov once admitted his relief by being an author
when he learnt that one of nevernamed colleagues had written a symphony
_which he'd never even heard_.  Pressures like this no doubt helped Anthony
Burgess to move from music to the novel:  even if the book was rejected
completed, it could still be read in samizdat format.

On the titular subject:  both men & women fell prey to these problems, of
course; but when you have multiple strikes against you, the harder it is
to fight your way out....

All the best,
Robert Clements <[log in to unmask]>