John Cage explores the idea of silence and and sound. In his lecture, "Lecture on Nothing," Cage writes on just that, nothing. The actual words of Cage's lecture read as if someone is simply rambling, as he repeats himself and talks in circles. And while the content of his words should not be completely disregarded, it is clear that the focus of the lecture is on the frequent pauses which break up the text.
It is clear that "Lecture on Nothing" is a piece that is meant to be performed. Only when read aloud does the reader and/or audience get the full effect of the lecture. Cage writes:
" But
now there are silences and the
words help help make the
silences . "
Much like Mallarme, Cage uses white space. However, whereas Mallarme used the white space to create a visual image on the page, Cage uses the white space to create silence. The words in the above quote reinforce this idea. Cage writes, "But now there are silences and the words help help make the silences." As Cage says, the words are necessary to create the silences. In a way, the words serve as punctuation. Punctuation serves as a way to organize thoughts, and when one is reading something aloud, periods and commas signal when the reader should pause and take a breath in the middle of reading. In "Lecture on Nothing," Cage uses words as bookends to frame the silence. By definition, lectures are things that are listened to; one is not supposed to talk during a lecture, but rather, must only listen to the lecture. Also, by definition, lectures are built out of words. Cage needs words to create a lecture, and he needs to create a lecture because he needs a pretense for people to listen to him. Thus, the words serve not as the substance of the lecture, but rather as punctuation, marking the beginning and ends of sections of silence. There are white spaces breaking up sentences because the sentences themselves are important, and the sentence fragments serve as periods and commas, slicing up and organizing what is really a lecture of silence.
Cage's treatment of punctuation itself is interesting. The periods and commas in "Lecture on Nothing" are always isolated in the middle of two sections of white space (for instance, " . "). It is as if Cage is drawing attention to the commas and periods. Just as he is forcing his listeners to pay attention to silence, he is also drawing attention to punctuation. Because the periods and commas are always isolated and because one does not make a sound when they are reading punctuation, the commas and periods serve to prolong the sections of silence. Thus, Cage exaggerates pauses that happen naturally in every day speech. In this way, Cage is calling to attention how silence, even the slightest of pauses, is overlooked and taken for granted in every day life. With "Lecture on Nothing," Cage forces his listeners to hear silence in a new way.
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