Wednesday, April 04, 2007

The Right Questions

In today’s New York Times, Glenn Branca has a column “The 25 Questions.” Branca’s questions come from the perspective of a musician/composer, and he asks questions such as, “Why does the contemporary musical establishment remain so conservative when all other fields of the arts embrace new ideas?”

“I got the idea for this piece,” he says, “from mathematician David Hilbert’s well-known list of '23 Paris Problems’ (1900) that he hoped to see solved in the new century.” It’s a great reminder that a list can be a profound structure for thinking and writing about an issue. I don't, right off, have my ultimate list topic. However, the idea of listing important questions seems useful. For now, I’ll list the questions I’d like to answer in my life. I’ll revise it from time to time.

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