Radio... force-feeds us music... everywhere and all the time... sewage-water music in which music is dying.
Interpretation
This quote critiques the quality of music presented by commercial media outlets.
Milan Kundera's quote reflects a deep concern about the pervasive influence of radio on our musical experiences, suggesting that it inundates us with low-quality or 'sewage-water' music. He implies that this constant bombardment not only diminishes our appreciation of genuine artistry but also threatens the very essence of music itself, portraying it as a victim of commercialism and mediocrity.
In practice
In a discussion about the impact of streaming services on song quality, this quote can highlight concerns over artistry.
Which doesn't mean, of course, that I'd stopped loving her, that I'd forgotten her, or that her image had paled; on the contrary; in the form of a quiet nostalgia she remained constantly within me; I longed for her as one longs for something definitively lost.
Facts mean little compared to attitudes. To contradict rumor or sentiment is as futile as arguing against a believer's faith in the Immaculate Conception. You have simply become a victim of faith, Comrade Assistant.
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Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.
To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.
Sensuality is the total mobilization of the senses: an individual observes his partner intently, straining to catch every sound.
A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.
New Orleans had a great tradition of celebration. Opera, military marching bands, folk music, the blues, different types of church music, ragtime, echoes of traditional African drumming, and all of the dance styles that went with this music could be heard and seen throughout the city. When all of these kinds of music blended into one, jazz was born.
Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.
We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.
Usually, comedy shows only influence other comedy shows. 'M*A*S*H' is one of the few comedies that influenced dramatic shows as well.
How did writing come to me? Like birdβs down on my windowpane, in winter. Just then there rose in the heart a struggle of firebrands, which has, still now, not ended.
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