Category: music (Page 1 of 4)

American Fantasy in a Box of Rain

Ross Douthat had an op-ed a few months ago where he posited that America needed its own quintessentially American fantasy novel/series, and while I immediately objected to the headline’s premise that we’ve never had one (ever heard of Oz, my dude? Or the John the Balladeer stories?), I understood that Douthat was arguing for a “Great American Fantasy,” a Lord of the Rings for our purple mountains’ majesty.

He also acknowledges the Oz books and others, and yes, he does say we can have a great American fantasy that is for children or that does something outside of epic fantasy.

In his opinion, no “American fantasy” has achieved greatness yet, and that’s what he’s challenging authors to do. “Make American Fantasy Great” (but not “again,” because, well).

Okay, cool, fine, whatever.

I’ll admit that I have a fantasy novel idea (that I first developed back in my early college days) that seeks to blend my love for psychedelic 1960s music with my love for fantasy, but I don’t know if it would meet Douthat’s idea of “great.” Too quirky, perhaps. Too niche.

In many ways, the Between Earth and Sky trilogy by Rebecca Roanhorse is what I would call an “American Epic Fantasy,” but I’m not sure it counts for Douthat’s vision, and I don’t think he’d call it “great.” For Douthat’s “American Fantasy,” America = United States, whereas Roanhorse is definitely America = non-European, indigenous America. She’s decidedly pre-Colombian.

My idea is of the “magic school,” magic-in-the-real-world variety. Think A Separate Peace set at a music school with magic and dragons and it’s the 1960s.

For me, psychedelic rock & roll has a lot of fantasy connections. It’s why hippies and college students were all saying “Frodo Lives” in the 1960s, making The Lord of the Rings into a huge American bestseller. We all know Led Zeppelin was putting Tolkien references into their lyrics. And the weirdness of an LSD trip can definitely feel like traveling into another world, a magical world (so I have heard).

In particular, the Grateful Dead’s music and Robert Hunter’s lyrics have always been a source of inspiration for my imagination and for my fantasy writing too. If there’s an “American Fantasy” soundtrack, I think it might be the Dead who plays most prominently on it. This is partly because of the free-form style of their music, the occasional weirdness. But it’s also because of Hunter’s lyrics, which blend Americana with mystical imagery; a very grounded, homespun sensibility with a dream-like lyricism:

“Walk into splintered sunlight

Inch your way through dead dreams

to another land

Maybe you’re tired and broken

Your tongue is twisted

with words half spoken

and thoughts unclear”

“Just a box of rain

wind and water

believe it if you need it

if you don’t just pass it on

Sun and shower, wind and rain

in and out the window

like a moth before the flame”

(“Box of Rain,” words by Robert Hunter)

“Box of Rain,” “Ripple,” “Dark Star,” “St. Stephen,” “Terrapin Station,” “Franklin’s Tower”: These are only a few of the Dead’s songs that carry me away to an Otherworld, to fantasy.

I think we tend to associate British bands like Zeppelin, or heavy metal and prog rock in general with fantasy — which makes sense. These genres and bands are often heavily influenced by fantasy literature. And fantasy literature has, to Douthat’s point, been generally associated with European culture for a lot of its history (though this has changed more recently).

But the Dead are also a band with a fantasy vibe, it’s just that their vibe isn’t always drawing FROM fantasy literature but instead from a different corpus that includes American history and folklore as well as classical literature, the Bible, the folk, blues, and country traditions, and, of course, the Ken Kesey Merry Prankster LSD stuff from their early years. The Dead are American Fantasy to me because of the way they bridge so many different influences, while also bringing their own original visions to bear on these source materials. It’s old and new, traditional and experimental. Earthy bluegrass and psychedelic flights of fancy.

One need only look at the album artwork and overall aesthetic of the band’s merchandise and promotional art: animated skeletons and dancing bears and all kinds of fantastical and sumptuous pastoral imagery. Crows and cats and harlequins. Banjo-playing turtles and skulls and starry skies.

(To be fair, lots of promo art from the psychedelic sixties and seventies fits this bill. But the Dead have kept it going beyond that particular period, making this aesthetic an integral part of their oeuvre.)

In some ways, the “Great American Fantasy Novel” isn’t even a novel at all. It’s the body of work done by the Grateful Dead. Maybe this isn’t what Douthat is looking for — this isn’t a Moby Dick but for “fantasy” — but as the man once said, “Believe it if you need it. If you don’t just pass it on.”

I believe it.

Listening to Starlight

Been listening to a lot of synth from HDK, an Italian record label that specializes in, as they call it, “ambient punk, minimal-synth, dungeon-drone, wartime music and post-nuclear wave.”

I’ve written before about how I discovered the dungeon synth genre and then eventually found out that some of the artists have disgusting Nazi/fascist leanings. Not all of them, thank goodness, but enough to make me wary of seeking out new bands.

I vowed in my earlier post that I would give up the genre and stick with other music for inspiration, but HDK is one of those labels I haven’t given up on. They still release incredibly cool music, and since they are left wing politically, I don’t have to worry about supporting fascists by listening to the music they put out.

(I have also found a couple other dungeon synth artists whom I researched to make sure they weren’t gross, so I’m proceeding with caution with their music at the moment too. But it’s too bad I have to do this in the first place.)

Right now I’m listening to Starlight by Logic Gate. It’s futuristic, very 1980s sci-fi/thriller movie vibe. The cassette tape is made of yellow plastic and the liner notes come with a little grid game called “Asteroids Storm.” Every product from HDK has this kind of playful, throwback aesthetic and interactive quality. I really should splurge some day and buy a cassette of one of these albums. The dungeon synth ones often come with a little dungeon crawl module inside that fits with the music.

What I like about this kind of synth music, especially when I’m writing or getting ready to write, is that they set a distinct mood and ambiance, and since there are no words, I can get lost in the vibes of the music without getting caught up in the lyrics.

I do like music with lyrics for inspiration too, but I’ve found that I do better when I listen to those songs outside of my writing time. Maybe when going on a walk or driving or biking. Then my mind can interact with the poetry of the lyrics.

But before putting my fingers on the keyboard to type, I tend to prefer the synth stuff, especially when I need to get into a certain mood. Classical music works for me similarly (or movie soundtracks). Or other instrumental music.

What’s cool about the stuff from HDK is that they really carry the vibe over into the whole product. Even though I’ve never purchased a cassette from them, the pictures of the product are inspirational, as is the narrative aspect of the songs themselves. These are concept albums telling cohesive stories, and that kind of conceptual design helps focus my own attempts to create narrative.

Some of what HDK releases is not to my taste aesthetically. Some of the more horror-related albums, for instance. But in general terms, they have a vibe that I very much dig. It’s punk and pulpy, both tongue-in-cheek and earnest in its dedication to reviving a look and feel from the past. They’ve created a sonic universe that makes me want to write stories in their world.

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