We're a plural system who loves queer & anarchist scifi.
But recently we just read a few randomly picked up mystery books in a row, in German, and we tend to review books in the language we read them in. That or similar may happen again, be warned.
No reading goals, just feelings.
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This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of …
The chapter on melody went over my head, and the lyrics one makes me want to stop reading and go listen to some songs with great lyrics. I think I've discovered a tendency in my music taste 🤭 but tbh in surprised because I love simple repetitive melodies a lot. But yeah maybe that's just it, I don't care much about melody unless it is just the right kind...
This here explains more background on speech to song illusions: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1OlTY0PEu0
This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of …
Nooo the "sometimes behaves so strangely" experiment doesn't seem to work on me 😕
It's this: m.youtube.com/watch?v=hSlISI9kUFs&pp=ygUeU29tZXRpbWVzIEJlaGF2ZXMgU28gU3RyYW5nZWx5
I listened to this explainy thing first and I have the sung melody stick in my mind, but I can still listen to the loop without feeling like it's sung. m.youtube.com/watch?v=mM43cuRbm7c
This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of …
Chapter 3 is about Novelty. I'm glad the examples include a song that I know and love, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's "Crumbling Castle", and comments that it's on the more novelty side of the curve, because otherwise I might not have noticed that I seek novelty in music! I like the song for how repetitive and simple-sounding it is, so I wouldn't have seen this as a novelty thing. Oh and also the free jazz example is surprisingly pleasant for me.
This is one aspect of music where I'm very curious how this plays out for our plurality stuff... I'm pretty sure some of us have their sweet spot on the familiarity side of the curve.
This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of …
Chapter 2 is about "Realism". That was interesting because the author points out that a preference for realistic or abstract in music doesn't mean you have the same preference with visual art or with food, for example.
And I discovered that my own preference for this aspect of music is a bit complicated probably. It seems like digitally generated sound is quicker and surer to pull me in than real physical instruments. And I can like digitally polished singing in something that's simply very "unreal" as a whole. But in general I prefer realistic singing that's messy and where you can hear the breathing. And what I seem to like the least is digitally perfected singing paired with realistic instruments. Although im sure I'd find counter-examples!
This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of …
Oooh, this one is good. It's about different dimensions that make up someone's music taste, and tries to help the reader explore theirs. Here's a list of the songs mentioned as examples: www.thisiswhatitsoundslike.com/songs
I'm through chapter one on "Authenticity", and the only song that I liked was "I'm So Happy When You're Near" by The Shaggs. Which I think tells me that Authenticity is an important part of my music taste... but other things can get in the way, things that I'll probably learn to name in the coming chapters.
But my favourite thing (besides the extremely odd story behind The Shaggs) is that I went looking for more of their songs and they have one, "My Pal Foot Foot", that is about how hard it is when a cat doesn't show up for a long time. I can relate to this much more than to many more popular subjects …
Oooh, this one is good. It's about different dimensions that make up someone's music taste, and tries to help the reader explore theirs. Here's a list of the songs mentioned as examples: www.thisiswhatitsoundslike.com/songs
I'm through chapter one on "Authenticity", and the only song that I liked was "I'm So Happy When You're Near" by The Shaggs. Which I think tells me that Authenticity is an important part of my music taste... but other things can get in the way, things that I'll probably learn to name in the coming chapters.
But my favourite thing (besides the extremely odd story behind The Shaggs) is that I went looking for more of their songs and they have one, "My Pal Foot Foot", that is about how hard it is when a cat doesn't show up for a long time. I can relate to this much more than to many more popular subjects in lyrics.
This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music that reveals the secrets …
On the penal colony of Hibiscus Station, there’s no personnel more vital than the Pomps, who direct the excavation of …
That was delicious, but leaves me a bit breathless. It's the first truly gripping book I've read in a long time. It gave me wanting to read through the night feelings. It also gave me the most intense body feelings I can remember a book ever giving me – shivers and goosebumps, and big solid disgust at that dumpster scene.
As I feared, the big solution to the mystery did not appeal to me very much. To be honest, I liked the story best before the mystery really started. But i still liked it as a whole, and the epilogue tied together some things that I'd missed in between.
I also had thoughts like "I love that this is not A Mental Health Book", which got dampened a bit, but yeah I still think this is mostly not A Mental Health Book, as the very ending reaffirms, and I'm happy …
That was delicious, but leaves me a bit breathless. It's the first truly gripping book I've read in a long time. It gave me wanting to read through the night feelings. It also gave me the most intense body feelings I can remember a book ever giving me – shivers and goosebumps, and big solid disgust at that dumpster scene.
As I feared, the big solution to the mystery did not appeal to me very much. To be honest, I liked the story best before the mystery really started. But i still liked it as a whole, and the epilogue tied together some things that I'd missed in between.
I also had thoughts like "I love that this is not A Mental Health Book", which got dampened a bit, but yeah I still think this is mostly not A Mental Health Book, as the very ending reaffirms, and I'm happy about that.
While different from my own stuff, the descriptions of not quite knowing what is real were something I related to a lot. Especially in those situations where it doesn't even matter much, because either way stuff has to be done.
Does everyone in my orbit have a secret tragedy, just crawling underneath the surface?
Glad to have read it again! I think in my memory I mixed the plot with The Yellow Wallpaper somehow. Anyway, I was a bit dubious about how it all came together in the end, but I had fun.
I wish all mysteries were as easily and innocently explained as yours, Carmilla
Picked it up again, this time without pressure, just for fun!
I don't trust human authors who say that in contrast to other animal stories, the animals in their story are just animals, not stand-ins for humans. Especially if this story is then about a dog and rarely even mentions smell as a way of knowing what is going on in the world. Sure, this dog's job is seeing, and smell is mentioned some times, but there were a few scenes where I was very confused why the dog had to go closer to see something, when he should have smelled it much earlier imo. I live with cats, and their sense of smell is not as good as that of dogs, but even they do magic shit like simply knowing which one is the belly rub carpet, months after the last cat lived there, who liked this carpet for belly rubs. Also, I think the life of a trash eating …
I don't trust human authors who say that in contrast to other animal stories, the animals in their story are just animals, not stand-ins for humans. Especially if this story is then about a dog and rarely even mentions smell as a way of knowing what is going on in the world. Sure, this dog's job is seeing, and smell is mentioned some times, but there were a few scenes where I was very confused why the dog had to go closer to see something, when he should have smelled it much earlier imo. I live with cats, and their sense of smell is not as good as that of dogs, but even they do magic shit like simply knowing which one is the belly rub carpet, months after the last cat lived there, who liked this carpet for belly rubs. Also, I think the life of a trash eating park dog is maybe painted as more fun than it actually is. I know happy calm healthy street dogs exist, but got the impression that's mostly ones that are cared for by humans. And since there's no mention of this dog hunting, I have to assume trash is his only food source.
That aside, I really liked this story. Johannes is a free dog living in a park and part of a big community of squirrels, sea gulls, bison, turtles, raccoons etc (but not ducks, nobody likes the ducks). He appreciates art so much that he gets captured once while entranced by a painting. But the others rescue him. That's just how it works. A bunch of stuff happens, and they always deal with it. And it's by far not as predictable as I thought halfway through.
What I like most is that animals count and estimate numbers, but are really bad at it. That feels very relatable.
