How Do We Make Ourselves Alert Again?

From a reader’s discussion to a book I’ve been reading on tour, Orfeo by Richard Powers:

Interviewer: “You mention close listening and focused attention. I found the study that you referenced about our loss of focus to be fascinating and disturbing.”

“When all of us can listen to every piece of music that was ever written, at any time, from anywhere that we want, how can we hear anything?

What happens is we cease becoming adventurers and participants in this grand experiment of art, and we simp...