As I’ve mentioned here on occasion, there’s ongoing discussion of Disquet Junto projects and other sound/art/technology topics over at the recently introduced disquiet.com/forums. We’re going to have another book discussion club coming up. The first such discussion group, about Daphne Oram’s An Individual Note of Music, Sound and Electronics, went nicely, though I think participation was limited in part due to time — I only gave one week’s notice. This time I announced on the Disquiet Junto email list on the first of the month that on July 15 the Disquiet book club is going to read Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel The Memory of Whiteness: A Scientific Romance. It’s about music in the far future. Here is the description as it appears on Amazon.com:
In 3229 A.D., human civilization is scattered among the planets, moons, and asteroids of the solar system. Billions of lives depend on the technology derived from the breakthroughs of the greatest physicist of the age, Arthur Holywelkin. But in the last years of his life, Holywelkin devoted himself to building a strange, beautiful, and complex musical instrument that he called The Orchestra.
Johannes Wright has earned the honor of becoming the Ninth Master of Holywelkin’s Orchestra. Follow him on his Grand Tour of the Solar System, as he journeys down the gravity well toward the sun, impelled by a destiny he can scarcely understand, and is pursued by mysterious foes who will tell him anything except the reason for their enmity.
Thanks for considering joining in. There will be more such discussion groups in the future.