‘In our speeded-up world, transformation can happen much more quickly, especially if those to whom it matters the most – the young – believe that it can.’
Miriam Dobson wrote a thoughtful review of my book Bone Music in the London Review of Books
She says that I see grounds for optimism in the story of Bone Music with regard to the current conflict - and I do. Interestingly, so does my friend Artemy Troitsky - living in exile in Tallinn and recently declared an enemy of the state by the Russian government. Another friend, a famous `Russian rock musician (also living abroad), believes the internet is beyond state control in Russia - because of its inherent decentralised structure. It is often technology - aligned with countercultural endeavour - that brings about change:
“In the early 1960s, the Soviet government made the rash decision to mass produce reel-to-reel tape recorders. Fifty million were sold in the following decades. With music lovers now able to copy tracks quickly and cheaply, the recording lathes became obsolete and skeleton records were discarded. But for the authorities the challenge of non-conformist behaviour remained the same. In naming and shaming certain tastes and styles, they helped to produce the phenomena they feared. The more they denounced cultural dangers – first the stilyagi, then the hippies and rock groups – the more they lifted the curtain on a world of possibility”
The LRB piece by Miriam is HERE