"Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, gaiety and life to everything. It is the essence of order, and leads to all that is good, just, and beautiful, of which it is the invisible, but nevertheless dazzling, passionate, and eternal form." -Unknown (attributed to Plato)
For my Open Genre Project, I decided to make playlists for each main character of the books we've discussed in class, reflecting each character's thoughts, emotions, or circumstances. Each compilation has 10 tracks that came to my mind whilst reviewing each book. Enjoy!
The first book we read for this class was The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker, whose main character, Howie, has an extremely positive and appreciative approach to life. This playlist contains almost obnoxiously happy songs, reflecting Howie's character.
Howie:
Howie:
The next character we critiqued was Mrs. Dalloway, a British woman stuck in her past between two lovers. Presently, she is married to a member of British Parliament, and plasters a mask of contentment on to hide her nostalgia each day. She just can't forget her past, constantly thinking about the time when she had relative freedom.
Mrs. Dalloway:
Mrs. Dalloway:
This playlist focuses on Jake Barnes' pain as he realizes he can never be with the woman he loves. Jake also pulls a disguise of happiness as he goes about Paris and Spain, partying, having fun, being strung along by Brett, and hiding his suffering.
Jake:
Jake:
Our next character is Gregor Samsa, a hardworking son-turned-cockroach with family problems. He becomes increasingly more insectoid, losing his humanity, and will eventually die.
Gregor:
Gregor:
In a previous blog post, I had discussed songs written about The Stranger, particularly Bohemian Rhapsody and Killing an Arab. This playlist has songs based off of Camus' book, as well as songs that explore themes of existentialism.
Meursault:
Meursault:
Antoinette Cosway, after a disruptive childhood and marriage, becomes an oppressed madwoman in the attic of her husband, Edward Rochester. This playlist has dark themes of being thrown away, inescapable oppression, and some rebellion.
Antoinette:
Antoinette:
Our last character is Milkman Dead, a man who still acts like a teenaged boy. He takes all of the love offered by his family and people around him never reciprocating it. For much of his life, he has never left his hometown, but feels out of place there, despite partying all the time and having some close friends. Even as a thirty year old man, he spends most of his time smoking, drinking, and having sex, activities usually ascribed to a younger man.
Milkman:
Milkman:
I like how this project translates these novels to music. I think that if movies were made of these novels, many of the songs you picked here would be appropriate choices for the soundtrack. While many of these songs were not already familiar to me, I listened to a few of them and I could instantly notice the connection between the song and the novel that you connected it to.
ReplyDeleteI really like your choice of music for Milkman as it does a good job of embodying his carefree adolescent years. ScHoolboy Q's "Man Of The Year" does a particularly good job of this, and could even be the theme song to his life for a good chunk of the book.
ReplyDeleteThis each one of the mixes in this set of make powerful connections to the psyche and emotionally ascetic characteristics of each character as they walk, stumble, gleefully skip, and drag themselves through their lives. Personally I really fucks with that. I found Your playlist for Jake the most effectively telling of the bunch. The combination of those sorrowful, longing, even resentful sounds of those classic ballads speaking of resignation and failure in the face of complicated love from artist like Amy Winehouse, Dianah Washington, Billie Holiday, and Al Green with the up-tempo hopefulness of Beach Boys, up beat Droning style of the vague tone of hopelessness in "Mr. Brightside", even loudly deliberate self-disillusion in the case of the Wombats ":Lets Dance to Joy Division" (fantastic song btw), creates a fervid, comprehensive portrait of the personal pathology Jake has created to deal with the unresolved heart break that plagues him through the entirety of his narrative as well as the emotional roller coaster that pathology sends him through.
ReplyDelete