W3rd... sorry for posting so late; I hope it's not a problem.

After mulling over the two stories and skimming a little, I thought of the following:

Both artists find inspiration in sorrow
Both are incapable of fitting into rules
Both overcome eventual restraint
Both pianos play strange, inaccessible music
Music comes from a road/parking lot in both stories
The end reaction towards both finished musics is sort of some "he gets the Kerouac-ian IT"

An interesting contrast would be Card's inherent distaste for the fine art admirers, whereas Baldwin treats practice as a necessary means for an end.
It may also be interesting to look at Card's "fine art" isolation, and Baldwin's complete absorption in other music... don't know if i agree with Card.. lots of music contains musical allusions, intentional ones.



I was thinking there must be a reason Christian is named Christian... but I can't think of it. His story seems to be some sort of odd meditation on youth.