Reviews and Comments

I picked this up from the library in astonishment, and kept reading it compulsively. I am fascinated by Wendy Carlos' music, and frustrated that I can't find more of her music, and more about her beyond 'transgender woman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' From the traces in this book of her personality, dug up without her consent or involvement, she seems like a real, genuine electronic artist. She also seems to have committed the usual sin of pioneer artists, e.g. hyperfocusing on the details and inner battlefields of art to the point where everyday life and interactions with others become disconnected and easily brushed off. I wish that this disconnect could have been overcome, and this book tries desperately to do so. It fails in this attempt and I'm sad that it does so, though without the involvement of the subject herself, it's hard to imagine how this book could have succeeded in giving us a fuller picture of who Wendy is as an artist and as a whole person. I enjoyed the process of learning details I didn't know about her. Ultimately, though, reading this book feels like voyeurism, and what's worse, amateur voyeurism. Wendy Carlos has been thoroughly informed by a world that hates and dismisses trans people that she should be silent, and only exist as a representative zoo animal. It seems that demand for silence has been acceded to, and much as I would love for it to be resisted, I also have a lot of respect for her privacy. She deserves like we all do to work and think and exist in as much privacy and respect as possible, and reading this book is as far as I want to toe the line. That and buying her CDs on ebay. I promise I'll rip them in lossless, Wendy!

I have an enduring fascination with the story of Shostakovich and the Leningrad Symphony, and this book digs deep into the open wound that is his life and this symphony and reveals the full spectacular irony of it all. A wonderfully written book, ostensibly for teenaged nerds but really for people of any age confused by the specific cruelty of the Stalinist totalitarian state culture. I've read a lot of other attempts to explain this particular period of history, and this book is the best I've read. Honorable mention has to go to the graphic design of the book as well. The book is a clean, Soviet modernist design, the pages neatly delineated with a classic font and small red blocks that hint at the red wedges of the future. A small thing, but like the best video games, the design supports and applies the topic, making the experience of reading the book and looking at the included pictures (including erased pictures of disappeared people) an immersive one.