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Hornby
17 Feb 2003 by Matthew Linderman
This review of Nick Hornby’s “Songbook” (NY Times) offers an interesting insight about the author of “High Fidelity” and “About A Boy.”
His one profound worry, in truth, is his young son, Danny, who is autistic and can barely communicate. (Proceeds from the book benefit children’s educational organizations in London and San Francisco.) Danny’s relationship to music is different from his dad’s, but, not surprisingly, no less intense: he has to listen before he goes to sleep at night, he wanders the house with a portable cassette player, the volume cranked, and he goes to his room sometimes to listen to songs more carefully, his head lowered onto his player’s speaker. What can he be hearing? What can the music be saying to him? Perhaps, Hornby suggests, what Danny is listening so intently for is that something everyone longs for from a song — that ”something in him that he wants others to articulate.”
7 comments so far (Post a Comment)
17 Feb 2003 | hurley#1 said...
"Something in him that he wants others to articulate is one of the things that people look for in poetry and fiction, not just music.
People want to be unique, but they also seek affirmation that their thoughts and feelings have a kind of universality, that they're not alone in the world. When you listen to a song or read a poem that puts into words something that you've always felt but never articulated, it's a revelation and usually a comfort. Wow, you think, someone out there might actually understand me.
It's a two-way street. As Paul Celan wrote, "A poem, as a manifestation of language and thus essentially dialogue, can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the -- not always greatly hopeful -- belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps."
17 Feb 2003 | Steve said...
I love Hornby's writing. Haven't picked this one up yet. Not sure if I will, actually.
I first found out he had an autistic son when I picked up a copy of "Speaking with the Angel," a collection of short stories Hornby edited. The purpose of the book was to pull together a bunch of top writers, with proceeds going to the school Hornby helped start in London for autistic children. THe intro to the book, where he explains what the school is about and the huge difficulties parents have even finding such a school, is heartbraking.
18 Feb 2003 | ah yes... said...
I saw Nick Hornsby and the Range twice when I was in middle school. "that's just the way it is..."
18 Feb 2003 | sandi said...
If that was an attempt at humor, it was really poor.
17 Jan 2004 | Laura said...
If an application is designed well, the reward for users is that they will learn it faster, accomplish their daily tasks more easily, and have fewer questions for the help desk. As a developer of a well-designed application, your returns on that investment are more upgrade revenue, reduced tech support, better reviews, less documentation, and higher customer satisfaction. The rewards of building a good-looking Aqua application are worth taking the extra time.
17 Jan 2004 | Simon said...
At WWDC, I listened to Apple representatives make some excellent points about taking the time to build a 100%-compliant Aqua application, and I think all developers need to look beyond the code and listen to what the folks at Apple have to say
17 Jan 2004 | Randall said...
This topic is one we will tackle later in this article, but it refers to making sure that your application and the dock aren't fighting it out for supremacy of the screen.
