Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists
Language: English
Published by Penguin Books, New York, NY, 2013
- Softcover
- Used
Seller: Shelf Control, Bainbridge Island, WA, U.S.A.Shelf Control
AbeBooks seller since August 19, 2026
Condition: Used - Very good
£ 10.89
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Condition: Very Good. Trade Paperback. Light shelf wear and minor edge wear from normal handling and storage. Covers remain clean and bright with light rubbing and faint corner wear. Binding is tight and square. Pages are clean and unmarked with no writing, highlighting, or bookplates noted. Includes notes, bibliography, and index. Listing photos show the exact copy included in this sale. An examination of composer and experimental artist John Cage’s intellectual and spiritual development, focusing on how Zen Buddhism transformed his ideas about creativity, artistic control, and the act of creation. Larson traces how Cage’s engagement with Zen and D. T. Suzuki helped him reconsider ego, intention, and attention, while his use of the I Ching gave him a practical method for introducing chance and allowing unexpected results to emerge. These ideas led to experiments with indeterminacy, environmental sound, and silence, including 4'33", and ultimately influenced artistic practices far beyond experimental music. The book explores questions that remain relevant to artists, writers, musicians, and other creative people: how to relinquish control without abandoning craft, how chance can generate new possibilities, how attentive listening can alter perception, and how the creative process changes when the artist stops trying to dictate every outcome.…
Seller Inventory # W_185
- Title
- Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists
- Author
- Larson, Kay
- Publisher
- Penguin Books, New York, NY
- Publication year
- 2013
- Condition
- Very good
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0143123475
- ISBN 13
- 9780143123477
- Printing
- 5th or later Printing
- Item weight
- 1.038 pounds
- Dimensions
- 5.51 inches width by 8.39 inches height by 1.1 inches depth
- Seller catalogs
- Biographies, Biographies & Autobiographies, Buddhism, Creativity & the Creative Process, Humanities, Religion and Spirituality Books, Social Sciences
Composer John Cage sought the silence of a mind at peace with itself—and found it in Zen Buddhism, a spiritual path that changed both his music and his view of the universe. “Remarkably researched, exquisitely written,” Where the Heart Beats weaves together “a great many threads of cultural history” (Maria Popova, Brain Pickings) to illuminate Cage’s struggle to accept himself and his relationship with choreographer Merce Cunningham. Freed to be his own man, Cage originated exciting experiments that set him at the epicenter of a new avant-garde forming in the 1950s. Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, Allan Kaprow, Morton Feldman, and Leo Castelli were among those influenced by his ‘teaching’ and ‘preaching.’ Where the Heart Beats shows the blossoming of Zen in the very heart of American culture.
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Shelf Control
Bainbridge Island, WA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since August 19, 2026
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| Item | 5 to 14 business days | 5 to 8 business days |
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| First item | £ 0.00 | £ 6.79 |
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An independent online bookseller offering a varied, deliberately selected inventory of fiction, nonfiction, collectible editions, advance reading copies, reference works, and other books chosen for their quality, interest, or unusual subject matter. We keep our inventory selective rather than building a large catalog of commonplace titles. Each book is individually examined and conservatively graded, with attention given to edition, printing, notable attributes, and condition. Listings describe the actual copy offered for sale, and photographs are provided whenever useful for evaluating condition or collectible features. Orders are carefully packaged, shipped promptly, and include tracking. Our focus is accurate descriptions, careful handling, and dependable service.…
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Shelf Control
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