A new, and major, publisher wants me to update YSYWAR!
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/
And, I'm going to do it.
This will only make sense to those who have read the book -- or alt least have a copy to look at, but here's what I have in mind:
Update Proposal – A Brief Sketch
I. My intent is to maintain the basic thematic content of the existing book, while incorporating significant musical and cultural developments since its publication. Namely,
- That America was and continues to be in the midst of a cultural revolution that is both driven by and exemplified by rock music.
- That the relationship between music and culture is best explained by a McLuhanesque interplay between the media and its varied messages.
- That the dynamics of revolutionary change are best understood by a creative use of an early Marxian style dialectic.
- And that the phenomenological depictions of the religious consciousness of Rudolf Otto and Paul Tillich help make sense of what is happening in the revolutionary interplay between music and culture.
II. I will also retain the first person POV in my writing.
III. Part One needs to be updated in two major ways to deal with historical developments:
- The year by year Suggested Typology of Chapter 3 has to be extended to the present.
- Similarly, the Chart, must be brought up to date
IV. Part Two also needs to be updated in two major ways in order to deal with new media:
- One chapter needs to be added to deal with the medium of CD’s.
- Another chapter is needed to deal with the Internet and the resulting importance of downloading individual songs to MP3 Players, iPods and similar devices.
V. Part Three requires one major rewrite concerning the perspective:
- Chapter 11 as it stands is more or less a forecast of things to come. Now, they have come! So the perspective must look backward – not forward.
- Material from the existing epilogue will be incorporated into this new, historically updated characterization of “The Reactualization.”
VI. Epilogue
- I will keep the same notion – “The Shape of Things to Come.”
- There will be an updated paradigm as well (involving the whole current sweep of African-American music).
Note: Obviously, the recent presidential election will figure prominently in this update. And, yes, somewhere in all of this I will deal with “the Michael Jackson” phenomenon! ;-)
So...any comments or suggestions?????
Posts
