The Prayer Cycle is, without doubt, a millennial record. But let's not be too harsh on either its composer or its guests. Its expedience is not necessarily a cynical ploy, for it's difficult to resist being caught up in great cultural sweeps of emotion. If one such sweep has been the expression of a yearning for a type of spirituality suited for today's secular age, then music has been at its forefront. It's arguable that many records of recent years, ranging from the blissed-out trance tunes of dance floors to the huge 'new age' market and the 'holy minimalist' composers such as Arvo P rt and Gorecki, fulfil this need.
All art is, to use an ugly phrase, a cultural product.
And some art is more of a cultural product than others. Who Rules the Wired World will. The book's first chapter makes it clear that women's technological limits are not set by lack of talent, as it traces female innovations from early agriculture to the first computer language. What does keep women in their place, Melanie Stewart Millar reveals, is a clear line of lite male control that defines the mass of cyberspace we call 'the web'. She presses our panic buttons by illustrating how computer corporations help create and uphold a 'hegemonic culture of backlash that once again seeks to discipline feminine independence'.