Empty Words: Writings ’73-’78

If you’ve read John Cage before, you’ll be aware of some of his concerns: the nature and future of music; the ways of dancers (and their appetites); the concept of the world as Megalopolis set in a global park; the ancient ideas of Eastern civilizations as they reverberate in Western minds; the several magics that reside in, say, the art of the painter or in the clashes and harmonies of words, whether arranged by chance or intent. All of these, in one fashion or another, are here in Empty Words; none of them, however, quite as you have seen them before. There are anecdotes, there are epigrams, there are even caustic analyses/criticisms of the world’s politico-economic puzzles and problems. And like all of John Cage’s writing, Empty Words is fresh, thought-provoking, full of beauty and challenge.