Nietzsche and Runaway Audio Consumption

And so we can value experience of original and reproduction each in it's own way. A printed reproduction may even provide greater cultivation of spirit vs original painting. Because the print has relatively little material value, nearly all value contained or perceived in what the painting says to us. The original may divert our attention to material value, artist's technical skill, etc.

This conversation brings to mind Robert Pirsig's, 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.' When quality only perceived as judgment on linear scale we lose sight of process and true values, we only see the ends of things.  A more holistic view understands and values all the parts that make up the whole. Complex systems are made more easily understood and each part becomes more valued.

Audio systems and motorcycles, and all complex systems for that matter can be contemplated in like manner. Rather than jump to conclusions based on simplistic notions of what is good and bad, we can contemplate the qualities of complex systems. Its in these qualities we find the human spirit. Capacitors, resistors, pistons, connecting rods, all the parts contained within audio equipment, motorcycles, and all complex systems, invented and manufactured by humans, all endowed with spirit of those makers.

And so, are audiophiles engaged in spiritual work when building audio systems? Perhaps those with above mindfulness are. On the other hand, maybe all of this  delusional rationalization, the whole endeavor may be in fact nothing other than a zero sum game, the wins are temporary at best, all become a succession of loses. The win only comes when no further upgrades desired or purchased, and this has to be permanent position. One may be contemplating or desiring audio system changes right up to death, in this case futile endeavor.

To me, this idea of how our spirit is tied in w/ our individual level of fulfillment as we pursue this hobby of ours, is how well content we are, at peace you might say, with whatever equipment we currently posses, or use to enjoy it.

Of course, how well each of our systems perform is not only very individualized, it's also very subjective. There's a certain level of smarts here, right? Prob why this hobby attracts so many intellectuals. I don't consider myself intellectual but I am eccentric as hell, and I kind of like that about myself. 

Love the part about poverty of spirit. That's exactly the way that I see it. At the end of the day if I'm not content with whatever I have, it may very well possess me. And that is a form of poverty, for sure. I'm sure we all know those who never seem to have enough or always want something they don't have. It's like a bottomless pit that can never be filled. 

Thank you for provoking such an interesting conversation, @hilde45 

Definitely also helps me understand better why I find listening spiritually fulfilling and uplifting. 

Wonderful food for thought.

My go-to aphorism for making sense of many interactions:

“When the pickpocket saw Jesus, all he saw was his pockets.”

nonoise: in China, and also in Japan, there is a serious market for the kind of hand-painted artistic copies you describe, to the point that particular "forgers" who are exceptionally skilled can sell "their" work for huge sums. The quotation marks here are necessary, as you surely see. Is a copy of a famous painting a "forgery" if it is not intended to deceive, but rather, is meant almost as a kind of tribute to the artist who created the "original" that it is based on? In many Asian countries, artistic values do not derive from "originality" at all, but rather, from successfully imitating some ideal. I spent some time years ago on a house boat on Dal Lake in Srinigar. All the house boats are elaborately painted, and all in much the same way. The artists don't try to be "unique," but rather, to most successfully express a Universal. As a philosopher, this makes me think of Plato's theory of Forms, according to which all sense objects are just copies of ideal archetypes. 

sns: I really like what you say about how even a poor copy can perhaps provide "greater cultivation of spirit" than the original painting because we are not distracted by "material value" or even "the artist's technical skill." That's a really interesting suggestion. Perhaps it has something to do with the decline in straightforward representation in painting, an historical fact often said to be related to the technological development of photography, which rendered realistic painting superfluous. But your insight is much more interesting than this commonplace "fact." Perhaps the "expression" managed in a genuine artwork has very little to do with "accuracy" (representational accuracy in painting, or "high fidelity" sound quality in music reproduction). There are some recordings of very poor sound quality that nevertheless are tremendously moving. My favorite performance of Brahms' First Symphony, for instance, is an old monaural recording by Furtwängler; every other interpretation of that work disappoints me.

And if this may be so, it brings us full circle. What is valuable in art, finally, is not something quantifiable: not "measurements" in audio equipment, surely, but also not exactly "SQ" either. Rather, aesthetic value comes from the expression (call it "spirit," since we've been using this word freely in this conversation) of the artist.

Shinto refers to spirit or holy powers that reside in everything from landscapes to objects to forces of nature and not just that of ancestors. I wonder if Nietzsche studied that or was it just coincidence. Different cultures have arrived at similar beliefs despite geography and time. Maybe Marie Kondo studied Nietzsche and didn't have that epiphany that led her to tidy things up and keep just what gives us joy. 🤔

All the best,
Nonoise