Dear Listener,
More often than not, a book cannot be defined or exploited by just one song or just one album or just one musician. This being the case, choosing certain albums for certain sections can be rather difficult, especially when the characters and scenes carry a similar aura throughout the book. And that is exactly why I am going to cop out and discuss a book that separates itself in a way that easily allows me to mention a couple different artists of varying tastes.
If you read the title, it’s clear I can’t keep this a secret anymore. The book in question is Cloud Atlas (2004) by British author David Mitchell. If you haven’t read Cloud Atlas (which would be your first mistake) you wouldn’t know that there are six different stories ranging from the 1850s to the 19oos to the recent past (kind of) to the present to a futuristic world to an even more futuristic post-apocalyptic world.
I’m going to start in the middle and work from there. In the futuristic section the protagonist is a clone who was made to be a servant but turns out to be more intelligent than anyone suspects. Her story is being told to a documentarian before she is put to death. The prose itself is far more inviting than I’m making it out to be, but it is dense. And it is suspenseful. And it sure does feel futuristic. That is exactly the way I feel about post-dubstep soul hero James Blake (not the tennis player). His self-titled United States debut was released this year to much critical acclaim. (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15081-james-blake/) (His song Unluck is track eight on Issue #3). Blake creates a tension between his crooning and his startling, unpredictable laptop noise. The tension adds suspense to a chapter that was already suspenseful. The electronic quality of Blake’s music adds “future” to a chapter that was already “futurey.” Like two peas in a pod, these two.
Another chapter I want to mention takes place in the present. It’s about an older man who has to flee some thugs and accidentally ends up in a retirement home that he can’t leave. The general feeling is light hearted and rambunctious. Although it never veers away from hilarity, the plot itself moves the way an old man would move: calculated and slow. I have recently revisited this chapter while listening to a band from Chicago called Maps & Atlases, most specifically their 2010 album Perch Patchwork. (Israeli Caves from Perch Patchwork is track six on Issue #3) Although they can and will slow down songs, they are a band who are clearly most comfortable watching the audience’s feet tap. Not only did the music and prose share a riotous attitude, the high-paced complex workings of Maps & Atlases pushed the old man to move a good bit faster.
Hopefully the beginning of August will see the “release” of Issue #4, and perhaps a look back at the chapters that I didn’t touch. There are still a few (FREE!) copies of Issue #3 in the fiction room at Lemuria.
by Simon
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