For The Birds is a book, a dialogue and an event all at the same time. What had its origins in a simple but wide-ranging collection of conversations with Daniel Charles becomes under Cage's hands a work for many voices and many subjects. Cage's considerable wit and intelligence covers an astonishing range of subjects; his own explanations and ideas on his compositions and the place of music and sounds in our times. Also mushrooms, chess, James Joyce, Mao, Throeau, Satie, electronic music, Duchamp, the prepared piano, Zen, the environment, technology, politics, economics - all discussed here with an originality and a liveliness which belong to Cage alone.
