An interview with Seth Kaufman about his title METAPHYSICAL GRAFFITI for Showcase

SHOWCASE: But as I understand from the book, you’re an avid supporter of air guitars, and I wonder why that is. Can you please tell us what is there to like about air guitars at all?

KAUFMAN: Yeah, well, air guitar, like singing, like clapping, like dancing, is a way in which people have come to react to music. But it’s a funny way to react to music. It makes you look foolish, often. It’s silly. But what I like about air guitar is the idea that we know guitars are real, but air guitar is not real, and yet, we all know what air guitar is. So on a philosophical level, it both is and isn’t, and there are many things that don’t have a physical, ya know… Thoughts; that are abstractions, and air guitar is one of those. But I like to ask people when they’re playing air guitar, what kind of air guitar are they playing, and no one ever thinks about this.

Watch the full interview here.