Go Ahead, Have a Thought!
How we’ve lost trust in our own feelings and ideas
Recently I’ve been obsessed with this piece Shine You No More by the Danish String Quartet from their album Last Leaf. I can’t stop listening to it, and I even played it for my friend who’s a non-musician. As we listened, I muttered under my breath “so good.” My friend then said, “I wish I could understand what makes it good.” I told her she didn’t have to understand anything, and should just let it make her feel however it makes her feel.
This made me wonder, when a sound is less familiar (in my friend’s case, the sound of four acoustic string instruments) do we shut off the part of our listening that allows us to just feel stuff? This particular piece has very simple harmonies and chord changes that might be heard in certain pop tunes, but for some reason, my friend felt like there was something more she should be “getting,” and that she was incapable of appreciating the piece. While I might be able to come up with some technical explanation of why the piece is “good,” (but probably not because I’m actually kind of dumb!) when I first heard it, all I thought was “fuck yeah.” I wonder how much music that is of a less popular genre alienates people simply because the sounds of the instruments make them feel that they aren’t informed enough to understand it. I would argue that when my musician colleagues enjoy listening to classical music (using this term incredibly broadly here), it’s mostly because the sounds are familiar, and so they can just enjoy the music in the same way a non-musician might enjoy, say, Adele.
If someone who thinks they can’t understand classical music listened to a classical piece multiple times, I wonder if they would start to enjoy it and realize there isn’t anything to understand. Maybe their ear would become more accustomed to the timbres of the instruments and the absence of words telling a story. Maybe then the listener could create their own story and feel their own feelings — a practice I find to be extremely therapeutic (and sometimes even euphoric).
While considering the possibility that many listeners shut themselves off to their own innate reactions to things when they feel there is something they’re supposed to know going in, I started thinking about the broader trend of looking up think pieces, reviews, podcasts, and social media posts about any piece of work before consuming it. While we used to look up a review or two of something to see if it was worth spending our money and time on, we’ve now gone a step further: If we decide to spend our money and time on something, we still must know other people’s thoughts about that thing so that we know how to think and feel during the experience (which ceases to really be an experience if we’re going in with our thoughts and feelings already planned — if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it except those who’ve read think pieces on trees falling in the forest, does it make a sound?) The same goes for events in the news, as we often glom onto the preaching of others rather than informing ourselves and having our own nuanced opinions.
We’re trusting our own thoughts and reactions less and less. Our phones have made virtually everyone’s opinions not only public, but also easily accessible (accessible might even be too soft of a word here, since our addictions to certain apps have made the thoughts of others straight up invasive).
Some might argue this as a good thing — after all, there are far smarter people out there who are more educated and informed, so why shouldn’t we just agree with them? This taps into society’s obsession with optimization and having “the best” of everything — the best blender, the best workout routines, and now, even the best thoughts. Setting aside the absurdity of seeking the “best thoughts,” and also the Orwellian themes it echoes, humans’ feeling of entitlement to “the best” prevents enjoyment. “The best” doesn’t exist, since it could always be better, so we’ve set ourselves up on a doomed quest that takes us around in miserable circles.
Also, let’s face it, most of the thoughts being fed to us aren’t from the smartest, most educated thinkers. They’re half-assed thoughts from idiots — just like us — who just happen to be louder.
So go ahead, I beg of you, have a thought!
Some updates
A while back I filmed a monologue as part of Eric Bogosian’s 100 Monologues project, and it’s finally out. You can watch mine (and others!) at 100monologues.com
I’ll be in Seattle, WA on May 31st at Benaroya Hall!
I’ll be in Wilmington, DE on June 20th at The Candlelight Theatre!
I’ll be in Houston, TX July 12th - July 13th at The Riot!
I’ll be in Chicago, IL July 26th - July 27th at The Comedy Bar!
All tickets and tour dates at isabelhagen.com!