Mr. Lee M. Walton

Associate Professor, Art, 2013
Professor, 2019

Conversing With Cage
by Richard Kostelanetz

The summer before attending Graduate school in San Francisco, I happened across this book, Conversing With Cage. This book is full of candid conversations with John Cage about art, music, philosophy, education, sociology, submarines, mushrooms, cats, and dreams of a better society.

Over the years, I have always attempted to have a copy of this book with me- most of which I either gave away, lost, borrowed, made art from, or it just fell apart. As of today (Summer 2013), I just have one copy and it is on my dresser.

John Cage is extremely generous in sharing his own individual creativity. But what makes this book so useful, is that he pulls the curtain back to reveal the interconnectedness of his ideas to the ideas of other critical thinkers, both past and present. Cage reminds us that ultimately art is a social activity.