Examples of the postmodern
condition seem to emerge with increased frequency with each passing year. We
have the absurd ongoing debates on global warming, wars with changing
justification from moment to moment, a spectacle society that has made
everything from devastating storms to political campaigns into sensationalized
entertainment, lies that become truth and stars that have become cottage
industries of one, changing chameleon-like based on public opinion surveys. In
this vein, a famous Japanese composer, once labeled a modern-day Beethoven, has
“come out” not once but twice divulging that not only did he not write the
symphonies that made him famous, but also isn’t as deaf as he has let on.
In something out of a bad
sitcom episode, it has emerged that Mamoru Samuragochi had risen to classical
music stardom in Japan by pretending to be deaf and claiming he could feel the
music in his heart. Last week we found out someone else has been writing his
music for 18 years, a 43-year-old part time lecturer at a music college. This
confession emerged the day before a tabloid published an interview with the
ghostwriter, who further claimed that Samuragochi could hear all along and
commented on his compositions (belying his contention that he lost his hearing
in both ears at 35 as the result of a degenerative condition). It’s hard to
believe he could keep up this canard for the past 15 years, as he is now 50,
but in our postmodern world where the line between truth and fiction seems to
forever ruptured, should we be surprised by anything?
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