this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
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Mildly Interesting

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[–] voldage@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I do think that there are layers to the corruption in play here. It'd be plenty evil even if it sounded good and looked bad, since cruelty and stuff. Pianos are expensive, and were even more back in 1853, so having and playing one was a hobby limited to elites, which had to exploit the work of the poor to afford it and the rest of their luxurious lifestyle, which makes it worse again. Due to it being one of the possible symbols of the class status, it's very ownership rather than a function became a priority, which then made it a piece of visual art to be admired rather than the tool to create such art, which degenerated the meaning of such expense even further. The author most likely wasn't thinking about the cruelty, about the class or about the demeaning the art, or maybe they were and it was the point. Either way, the result is something beautiful that shouldn't have ever existed, and the "incredible poetic" characteristic that I mentioned earlier (maybe a bit of an overstatement) referred in part to this contradiction.

[–] forrgott@lemmy.sdf.org 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh, yes, I'm being horribly pedantic due to quite obviously being triggered, so I don't argue the related points you are making. Not at all.

[–] voldage@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I meant to convey something more of a "yes, and..." rather than argue. It would be different kind of messed up if it sounded angelic but required a blood of a endangered turtle to be fed into the unholy tube in order to keep playing. But like this, there wasn't even the point. Vain, cruel, corrupt. Which is to say, I agree.

[–] forrgott@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 5 days ago

Ah, that does make sense