On Pitchfork’s Review of Lorde’s “Melodrama” by Athena Haq

After the 2017 release of second album, Melodrama, all eyes were on Lorde. Stacey Anderson wrote a Pitchfork review about the album. The piece begins by talking about the feeling a listener gets when first listening to the album. She describes it as electric, and notes that we can see the influence of Lorde’s synesthesia in her music. The review then summarizes the meaning behind the album:

Lorde’s study of being a young woman finding her own conviction in unsteady circumstances.

Anderson emphasizes the difficulties and confusions that come with being a young woman, and how Lorde centers her album around this experience. The album then compares Melodrama to Lorde’s debut album Pure Heroine, describing the New Wave rhythms that differentiate the two. Anderson touches on the instrumentals, the lyrics, and the sound of Lorde’s voice when analyzing the album. Anderson concludes the piece by saying that Lorde is one in a generation, implying the excellence and uniqueness of her music. 

Anderson didn’t seem to show much bias towards Lorde until the end of the piece, when concluding that Lorde herself was one in a generation. Outside of this, the piece mainly focused on describing the album, its sounds, and the feeling it gives the listener. Anderson used many lyrical lines to convey the sound and energy of the music. For example, she says,

…within its first 60 seconds, a spectral synthesizer wobble, a strident line of house piano, a subterranean vocal plunge, and an apropos-of-nothing gear shift that feels like storm clouds ebbing to the sun.

She uses imagery to paint a picture of the feeling of the album as well:

…but the album is no saccharine journal entry by any means. Her party has pills, dresses rumpled on the floor, no absence of profanity, and a sense of humor, too…

Although some of Anderson’s descriptions may sound esoteric to an average reader, her figurative language uniquely conveyed the feeling of Melodrama in a way that most regular prose can’t. This piece can be used as a model in its descriptions, bringing up the question of how to balance concreteness with abstraction when writing about music. 

Discussion Questions: 

1. How important is it for a reviewer to consider an artist’s past work, versus only the work at hand? 

2. Is it okay for descriptions of music to be mainly abstract, or is it important to use concrete language as well?

Megan Thee Stallion’s debut album, feminine power, hustle, and sex; shifting the narrative by Chanice Posada

fever : a personal review 

Fever is Megan Thee Stallion’s debut album as a mainstream artist. This album combines the eclectic and mezmerizing lyricism of a Southern woman and the hard hitting and unapologetic nature of the themes behind the scenes. For many Fever was the first album that extended audiences expierienced alongside her fans, which she has coined the Hotties. With this album, she creates a powerful sequel to the album Tina Snow. The tracks featured are hard hitting, thought provoking, and reek of sexual prowess and feminity. In this album, Megan illustrates a self portrait of her relentless command over men and the strength of her words and seductiveness. Each track is more flirtatious, persuasive and potent than the last. 

Pitchfork’s review on Fever; with my thoughts included 

Pitchfork’s review is written very well to say the least. The article celebrates the new era of female rap that has arrived, with headliner Megan Thee Stallion. The article is very specific and deliberate in the themes and topics that it explores. I appreciate that it details and describes the power of Black femininity and power that Megan has weaved throughout her her small, yet vastly diverse and unique discography and especially in the tracks included in this album. The spotlight that author, Taylor Crumpton, puts on the sexual politics that Megan dissects in her lyrics is brillant. The author makes direct connections to societal and historical trends and stereotypes that have been perpetuated by the music industry, Megan is one of the many pioneers that work to deconstruct the male assertive and dominance that is plaguing the rap industry. This was a nice analysis of the work as whole, and not just a focus on Megan as an entertainer, but rather providing validation and reconciliation as an audience member with an eye to the actual themes and topics that the album addresses. 

For decades, black women in rap have been reduced to one-dimensional characters that lacked complexity, but Megan asserts herself as “Thee Stallion” and undoes the historically male-centered framework in favor of black women’s sexual narratives. 

My own review: 

Female rap is a rising power in pop culture and media. Artists like Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat, and Megan Thee Stallion have started a rise of femininity in mainstream music. Megan thee Stallion, one of the most influential female voices in rap and pop culture, has had an exceptionally fast acclaim to fame. Her projects are filled with pro-women anthems. She is a die hard advocate for womens rights and is always striking down double standards surrounding women and sex. These messages can be found in every crevice of her discography, but most prominent in her 2019 project, Fever. This album is Megan’s 14 song album, focusing on power, the art of hustle, and being unapologetically you. Megan’s sexual convictions are spotlighted. She breaks down stereotypes in rap music that have been perpetuated for decades. Black women in the rap industry have been subdued and restricted in their messaging. They are often marketed as sex symbols for the male enjoyment. Megan’s Fever, strikes down these innuendos and portrays women in a different spotlight. She highlights themes of sexual pleasures and desires and women empowerment. Her delivery is solid and fierce. Her bars are entrancing and a major wake up call to not only the male dominate drap industry, but pop culture as well. Tracks like Pimpin, knock down the classic male sexual fantasies and introduce a womanly approach to desire. This album is an essential for those looking to empower themselves and unleash their inner “Hot Girl”. 

discussion questions: 

In your perspective, how have you watched the music industry evolve over the past 5 years? Have you consumed any female rap media in your personal life? 

“The perception of women is highly stereotypical, sexualized and without skill. Until those core beliefs are altered, women will continue to face a roadblock as they navigate their careers.” Do you think that the rap genre is becoming female dominated, and caters to the female audience more?

“A Manual For Cleaning Women” Write Up by Mar Bradley

what happens?

“A Manual For Cleaning Women” by Lucia Berlin is the tale of a tired, troubled cleaning woman going through her routine. Through her days, she goes between houses to clean, fights the public transport system, gossips with other cleaning women, and steals little things like sleeping pills or spices. She has a litany of rules for herself as a cleaning woman which intersperse and occur in the story: not to steal the actual valuables, always take what your missus gives you, never work for friends, etc. The narrator does not seem to fit in much with the cleaning women or have any particular drive, instead drifting through her jobs to keep her and her kids afloat, all while mourning her old life and particularly her dead husband, Ter. Yet during her drifting, her clients force her to deal with her emotions in odd ways: her old friends, who make her remember life before Ter’s death, the Blums, who are both entirely different and yet harshly similar to the narrator herself, Mrs. Jessels, the old woman with poor memory who the narrator misses working for in some strange way.

The Burkes in particular are an interesting contrast to the narrator, as they in some ways have what she might’ve; they are educated, they have several children, they are trying to do their best for them and each other. They still are full of oddities, and the narrator clashes and comments on and observes, never fully sure of what to make of it. Ter and his details always come back into her thoughts, connecting back to whatever moment the narrator is in. One day, she gets a new client, Mrs. Johansen, who is very similar to her. Mrs. Johansen is an older, somewhat eclectic woman, who abides by few rules, loves puzzles, and had just lost her husband. The narrator has only been hired for one afternoon, and does little during it, making conversation, cleaning the windows, and most importantly, finding the last piece of the puzzle Mrs. Johansen has been working on. “I found it!” Both the narrator and Mrs. Johansen exclaim. When the narrator leaves, she asks Mrs. Johansen when she’ll be needed again, but the older woman just replies “who knows?” and they laugh. Later, the narrator is back at the bus stop. The world moves around her as it always does, and, finally, she begins to cry.

The chronic tension here is the narrator’s depression and the death of her husband, while the acute is a little harder to track as the story intercedes on a seemingly long standing routine. I find the acute best described then as her continuous life as a cleaning lady and new interactions with her clients and the world around her.

what makes this story compelling

From an objective point of view, very little happens throughout “A Manual For Cleaning Women.” The narrator cleans houses of mildly interesting people, takes (again) the bus, and just seems to sink into the mundanity of it. We are left, instead, to observe her as a character and all the little ways her personhood leaks into the story despite the bare bones we are given. Sometimes this comes in the way of her literal character traits and small actions, from her smoking habit to the sleeping pills she steals. Her habits as a cleaning woman are some of the clearest moments of her character we get, setting everything out in straightforward but often unorthodox rules.

Some lady at a bridge party somewhere started the rumor that to test the honesty of a cleaning woman you leave little rosebud ashtrays around with loose change in them, here and there. My solution to this is to always add a few pennies, even a dime.

Still, though, we get little of her character from the literal. We understand the narrator is often a clever but sparse woman; she knows how to worm her way into conversation but often keeps to herself. She does a lot of little things throughout the day, and she repeats some sort of routine each week at the different houses. It’s all a kind of drudgery through life, slow and depressing and then she laughs and cries at the end; it builds her only to a certain degree. It is then the perspective of the story, her perspective of the story, as simple as it is, that brings her character into utmost focus.

It is her perspective and that perspective tone through which we understand her best. A thin gray veneer smothers most of the story, as if the world the narrator lives in is permanently in a state of dreariness, on the verge of downpour. Everything is narrated in plain, simple terms and nothing is dwelled on—except when it is. Everything reminds her of her dead husband, everything reminds her of cleaning. Nothing does. Life goes on. We are granted a simultaneous (or supposed) intimacy to her character through the close 3rd of the perspective, and yet nothing at all. Which itself is a statement on her character.

Her passing internal commentary builds her as determined to ignore herself, passively observing the world around her while glazing past her self—downplaying everything from her faith to her suicide pact with her dead husband. Time drifts from scene to mundane scene, dinner, to cleaning, to the art of travel, cut and assembled next to each other with vague chronological order as the narrator haphazardly sorts through her feelings, though only in the background of her regular life. Cleaning the top of a fridge is given equal page space as the line about identifying her husbands’ dead body, only an unrelated paragraph apart.

My masterpiece in this area was when I cleaned the top of Mrs. Burke’s refrigerator. She sees everything, but if I hadn’t left the flashlight on she would have missed the fact that I scoured and re-oiled the waffle iron, mended the geisha girl and washed the flashlight as well…I refused to identify your body, Ter, which caused a lot of hassle. I was afraid I would hit you for what you did. Died.

We find through this frequent style the narrator is perhaps avoidant of her own feelings or that she is beginning to grieve in pieces. That she is far too busy for most of her emotion; that the emotions are leaking out nonetheless. Through the story, the mentions of Terr grow longer, into fuller scenes and memories from the sprouts of heavy, off-handed mentions. She is coming, unwilling, to deal with it all, though she acknowledges this very little. Still, even as she has what we know must be a great emotional push or acknowledgement, it is kept simple, in the style of how she thinks and understands the world. Kept uncomplicated for the sake of moving on forward.

“​​Ter, I don’t want to die at all, actually.” She thinks near the end of the story, then walks to the bus stop. She almost never views herself as able to stop, not truly, and we’re made aware of that constantly.

There is a definitive aspect of storytelling that characterizes her: the story she tells us is framed as the titular “manual for cleaning woman” as well as a kind of letter to Ter, what with the semi consistent use of “you” in reference to him. This is heightened by the position of this story within the collection and its perspective. A Manual For Cleaning Women is vague in its line between fiction and autobiography, between stretched truth and harsh realities. Much of what populates the book is tied to Berlin’s own experiences collected across the years, and the titular story is a prime example. The narrator’s dead husband, her stint as a cleaning woman, her kids and addiction all were very prominent aspects of Berlin’s life. At a point, the “narrator” and the half-made-up half-truth details become inseparable from what we know or think of Berlin—it becomes a game of finding the person hidden between the lines.

It’s also in the complexity of that “character,” whatever you understand of it or have context for, that makes the story engaging. The steadily complicating and unraveling of the narrator’s character, of what we understand to Berlin by proxy, is what pulls the reader into the simplicity of the story. Everything is honest, or maybe intentional, or just a method of engagement. A both false and real memoir: the most interesting type to read.

What can you find to imitate or use in your own writing?

I like the stark simplicity of Berlin’s writing. There is a lot of strength in its minimalism and the amount of character and potency she’s able to establish in so few words as well as within such a simple plot. I would like to imitate her use of small details to establish very tangible characters and moments, as well as the brevity of a lot of her scenes within.

Writing prompt

Write a series of three interconnected, minimalist vignettes that have a strong focus on their central character’s perspective and the details of the world around them.

Discussion questions

How does Berlin establish the chronic tension of her narrator? How does this work with the slow pace of the story’s acute tension to create a sense of resolution?

How does Berlin’s particular use of setting build the story?

On “Lost In Time: A retrospective on Ryo Fukui’s ‘Scenery’” by Luka Neal

Summary:

Scenery is a jazz album that was released by Ryo Fukui in 1976. Fukui himself is a pianist, and takes inspiration from prominent figures in jazz like Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson, showing their influence in his deep harmonies and bombastic solos. In this article on Fukui, Anay Katyal speaks on how Fukui never had a chance to reach the global stage that was meant for him and how Katyal also speaks on how Fukui may have even reached the skill of his idols, only to not be recognized for it as American Jazz hit an era of “crisis of identity and relevancy.”

Throughout this piece, praising language is used to describe Fukui and Scenery as a whole, and it’s hard to ignore when the author uses words like “an expert homage,” and “upbeat cadence and flair.” I think this article should not be looked to for an unbiased review of Scenery, as the author clearly leans towards Fukui and his style of music, while not offering much criticism or feedback that’s anything other than positive. Although this article is meant to be a retrospective and not a true review, I think some inclusion of negative feedback would have been helpful for readers to build a better understanding of the album and the whole context surrounding it.

This article is a great example of music writing for fans of said music, and a great example of what not to do in a review. This retrospective is meant as an admiration piece for Fukui, and doesn’t offer much else. Although it accomplishes establishing influences for Fukui and Scenery, it only lightly touches upon the historical context and origin of the piece. After all, this album is Japanese, and was released near the end of an era for jazz. Not only was jazz losing popularity in the U.S, but globally it had already died for the most part. Overall, this article reads as a love letter to some incredible jazz that arrived at just the wrong time.

1. If you come across an article that is written admirably towards an artist you don’t know, do you still enjoy reading it? Do you feel left out if you have no context on who the artist is, and do you feel like you would’ve had to listen to their music before being able to read the article, or are you able to look at it and feel the admiration of the author with no disconnect?
2. Are retrospectives good pieces of music media for our modern climate, or is recounting past musical trends useless when it comes to how much things have changed in the past decades?

“Speech Sounds” Write Up by Caroline Woods

Summary:

“Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler depicts a world where an illness struck humankind, leaving people without the ability to read, write, or comprehend speech. We follow Rye, who is on the bus attempting to visit family when a fight breaks out among two men over a misunderstanding. She leaves the bus and hopes that she will be able to reenter, since public transportation has become rare after the illness.

A man in a car arrives wearing a police uniform and throws a gas bomb into the bus to dissove the fight. Rye finds this interesting, since there are no more policemen and cars are rare due to lack of fuel and maintenance. The passengers and driver are angry at the man and throw aggravated hand gestures at him, which are the prime method of communication now without speech. Rye assumes that the man must be less affected by the disease due to his composure and lack of frustration at communicating. He asks Rye to leave with him in his car, and though she at first resists, she finally obliges, the reminder of her loneliness consuming.

In the car, Rye and the man introduce themselves with the pendants that they wear around their necks–a black rock and a wheat pin respectively. Rye decides to refer to him as Obsidian based on his necklace. Obsidian pulls out a map to ask where she is going, which reveals to Rye that he is able to read and write, of which she is very jealous. Having formerly been a writer and history teacher, she mourns her own illiteracy, and briefly is very angry at his abilities and entertains the idea of killing him. She reveals to him that she can speak, and his brief jealousy soothes her own.

Obsidian makes it clear that he wishes to have sex with her, and after hesitating over the terrible thought of bringing a child into the world, she finally obliges. Afterwards, she thinks about her own dead children and the children born after the disease, unaware of what the world had been before the illness and unable to communicate. She asks Obsidian to come home with her.

On the ride back to her own house, trip to Pasadena abandoned, a woman abruptly runs in front of the car, followed by a man with a knife. Obsidian jumps out of the car, gun drawn, but the man manages to stab the woman before Obsidian is able to shoot him down. Rye gets out of the car to help, but it is too late and the woman is dead. She turns to tell Obsidian that she was beyond help, and looks just in time to see the man open his eyes and shoot Obsidian in the head with his own gun before dying himself.

Alone with three dead people, Rye is overcome with grief and loneliness. She had come so close to finding someone to accompany her for the first time in three years, only to have it taken away from her so suddenly. Two small children come out of the car, their mother presumably the stabbing victim. In her anger, Rye gets in the car, figuring that the two kids could fend for themselves, even knowing that they would likely die regardless. She has the thought that Obsidian should be buried, and she vomits and gets back out of the car to grieve, deciding that there has been enough dying and she would have to take the kids home with her.

When Rye grabs the woman to drag her to the car, one of the children shouts “No!” She is amazed. The kids were able to talk, and she was able to understand. She wonders if children were able to learn how to speak, and that all they needed was a teacher. Rye decided she will be both their teacher and protector.

After she loads their mother into the car, she tells the children that it is alright for her to speak and gets the children to follow into the vehicle. Finally, in the car, Rye introduces herself to the children, the first communication that she has had in years.

Tensions:

The chronic tension was the illness that killed most of humankind and had rendered the rest of humanity unable to speak, write, and read. The acute tension was Rye meeting Obsidian and deciding that she no longer wants to be lonely, which in the end results in her finding the children and taking them home with her to teach.

What makes the story compelling or interesting to read:

This story proposes an alternate reality where humanity has been struck by an illness, rendering the survivors unable to communicate. Communication is an integral part of human culture, and the world that Butler has set up is both terrifying and intriguing. One thing that really works in this story is the use of human connection in the story and the level of detail that is shown by the hypothetical world she has created.

Though the story establishes early on that people are unable to communicate, throughout the story we receive more and more aspects of what the illness has done to people further than just through speech. In Rye herself, she is not only coping with her loss of reading and writing, but she is mourning her past life as a professor and writer, in addition to her dead husband and the children that were taken from her by the disease as well. The story does a good job of showing how the illness affected humanity on both a cultural and personal level, and Rye herself coping gives the imagined world a better perspective. Butler’s balance of how she presents the worldbuilding information works well with the story, because the reader is able to place trust in the narrative without having to undergo a confusingly long explanation or being confused by a lack of description. The alternate Earth struck by this disease is not too dissimilar to our own–the resilience of the people through the tragedy, the fact that humanity adjusted to the lack of speech by developing hand signals because of their inherent need to communicate, and the emotional conflicts presented in the piece are all inherently human qualities. Though Butler is typically credited for her science fiction work, the dystopian world painted here is memorable because of the depictions of how people are always inherently people despite the situation that they have undergone.

In any type of writing, but especially sci-fi and fantasy, it is important to give readers a grasp on something that they can relate to. Since it is likely that most people have never gone through something quite like the speech-stealing disease,  Rye’s struggle with loneliness and grief are both inherently relatable emotions, which humanizes the entire piece despite the unfamiliarity to the actual situation. The connection between the dystopian aspects of the story and the universal emotions that Rye represents  gives the piece its

By having a humanized character, Butler is able to draw a level of connection through the more sci-fi aspects of the piece to the humanity of the characters. This balance is ultimately critical in this story , showing both the dystopian, otherworldly elements in comparison to the very human quality of seeking communication and struggling in the aftermath of loss and depression.

What can you find to imitate or use in your own writing:

One thing to take from the writing is the communication in the story. The alternate world presented in this piece has no written or spoken language between people because of the effects of the illness, and it has presented an interesting set up for the writing in his piece. Because of the inherent human need to communicate, the people came up with a colloquial series of hand gestures to substitute for conversation, which can be very difficult to communicate through writing without having to painstakingly describe every aspect of the gestures. By keeping it similar and reminiscent of hand gestures that people in our world use in everyday life, Butler effectively is able to convey both the conversations between the people and the struggles that miscommunication brings to human interaction, and how in this world that has been the foundation for a lot of suffering and grief.

Writing exercise:

Write a story that shows an alternate form of communication in the human race. What effects has this had on society? What was the cause for this communication shift?

Discussion Questions:

How do you think that Rye changed over the course of this story? At what point did you notice the change?

Do you think that this story would have been as impactful if Obsidian hadn’t died? Why do you think his death was important to the narrative aside from causing Rye suffering?

The story ends on a fairly open note, with Rye in the car with the children preparing to take them home. What do you think Rye’s future with the children would be like, and do you think that it should be expanded upon? Would Rye’s narrative arc be better satisfied showing her finally being able to teach and communicate again, finally reaching peace after the death of her own children and her loneliness?

On “China has some 29 opera houses. Only Italy, Germany, the U.S. and Russia have more” by Jamie Garcia

For a great many people involved in the arts, opera is a sacred and underappreciated niche. This is the case in parts of the countries of China and Taiwan, though the cultural operas that take place here are very much admired, appreciated, and elevated. Not only is it very different in terms of the public response, it is also extremely separated from European influence. Recently, Chinese Opera has become world renowned, and thus more supported by their government and other public figures. 

“China has some 29 opera houses. Only Italy, Germany, the U.S. and Russia have more” from the Los Angeles Times, the music critic Mark Swad addresses this cultural shift and explores some examples of it, namely ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’, opening in Chicago but still very much inspired by its origins. 

He explains his viewpoint on the matter of the opera’s background, starting with its directors and writers (one of whom is famous for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and stating how they were esteemed and thus this opera had a high platform to begin on. He believes that the story and tone of the opera is bland though, despite enjoying it himself and critiquing the music as an elegant twist on Chinese folk tunes which were, quote, ‘’Transformed into rapturously expressive new music, gorgeously colored.’’ 

Swad uses evidence to point out clear tropes in the opera itself, but is overall very positive about the music, even seeming to use it as a balance to the other parts of the work. A teenage adolescent? Trope. Love triangle? Trope. But the author stays logical in his review and gives a good, simple breakdown of the events in the play (in order of importance to his critique) and description of the musical process. He ends with an address to the cultural importance of the opera. It is admirable that Mark Swad wrote such a neutrally informative piece of work about an underappreciated art form; Chinese Opera. 

1) Do you think it affected Swad’s point of view that the Opera he watched was originally run in Hong Kong, where its cultural significance is most important? 

2) The author does not go into depth about it, but how do you think the romantic and intercoursal adult topics in the opera will affect its viewing and showing in China?

“Lamb to the Slaughter” Write Up by Jamie Garcia

Summary 

In Roahl Dahl’s “Lamb to the Slaughter,” a pregnant middle aged woman by the surname of Maloney waits patiently with an ice-like tenacity for her husband to return from work. She pours drinks as he sits down at the dining table, before bringing the two glasses to his side. 

They both drink in silence until the husband addresses her, asking if she is tired. She says yes, before he downs the rest of his drink. She stands up, offering to get another, but he refuses her. This is the primary illustration of the chronic tension; the husband and wife’s relationship and the tension between the two of them. 

After more smalltalk, the husband brings up that he has something to tell her, and she is shocked to her core whenever he infers that he wants to separate from her. She excuses herself, mumbling about supper, and returns from the cellar with a frozen leg of lamb, intent to make a meal. He tells her as she comes up that he’s leaving right then and there, and hearing this, Mary Maloney walks up behind him and hits him in the head with the leg of lamb. He falls, head crashing into the corner of the table, and does not stand back up. She quickly realizes that she’s killed her husband, and returns to the kitchen to begin cooking the murder weapon. Upstairs, she makes an effort of appearance, before going to the corner shop. She makes small talk to the grocer, and ultimately buys potatoes and cheesecake. 

She returns home to find her husband dead, and merely acts as if her alibi was real, even with no witness there to see the performance. This is where the acute tension really takes form. She calls the police, and they send one officer, who after investigating, calls for others to come. They interview him, and the grocer, getting the story piece by piece. Irony is introduced with the detective’s statement ‘’Get the weapon, you get the man’’. The police, after hours have passed in the search, begin to drink lightly, and turn Maloney’s oven off. They then eat the murder weapon; the evidence is gone. The story ends with Mary Maloney laughing quietly at the police’s expense. 

What is intriguing about Roahl Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter? 

Roahl Dahl is always a surprisingly dark author, and this story does very well to illustrate that fact. The murder happens shortly into the actual stubstance of the story, which sets up the investigation and the manipulation of Mrs. Maloney to be the real meat of the piece. It makes it almost confusing on who to cheer for, and leaves the husband’s personality vague so we don’t feel either way on his death. She is shown to be innocent in the eyes of everyone else, but her behavior shows no regret, and maybe even a capacity to enjoy the act of power that is involved in taking a life. 

Irony 

Throughout the story, which shows Maloney’s thoughts, the characters are all portrayed on the outside as having suffered a great loss. The poor housewife archetype is sinister in this context, as it is nothing but a mask for her previous abhorrent actions.

Later, one of the detectives came up and sat beside her. Did she know, he asked, of anything in the house that could be used as a weapon? Would she mind having a look around to see if anything was missing — a very big spanner, for example, or a heavy metal vase.

Even though the reader knows of everything that has transpired, it is still difficult to see the character for who see really is: a murderer. 

What can you do to imitate this in your writing? 

I would love to have a dichotomous character like Maloney. It’s set up beautifully, and Roahl Dahl makes us part of the ruse, and the crime, by choosing the point of view that he does. It works as a sort of ironic, comedic horror. 

Writing Prompt 

Write a short format story with a character living amongst their metaphorical opposites. The character should have a struggle with blending in, but still have some power over the surroundings that they are written into. 

Discussion 

1) The point of view is extremely important to the reader’s perspective of the story. What would be the tone you pick up if we had no background on how the character thinks, and just how she acted. How different would it be? 

2) How do you think the character Maloney would react if at the end of the story, she ended up being caught in a lie, and subsequently her secret was revealed?

On “Taylor Swift Is a 2017 Pop Machine on ‘Reputation,’ but at What Cost?” by Kate-Yeonjae Jeong

In 2017, when Taylor Swift dropped her sixth studio album, ‘Reputation’, she was at the edge of a divisive, hostile public opinion. After her hiatus from music and showing of her personal life, Reputation came as a surprise drop to both fans and haters- and its music itself was an unexpected turn from the music she had released in the past. 

In an article for The New York Times titled “Taylor Swift Is a 2017 Pop Machine on ‘Reputation,’ but at What Cost?”, Jon Caramanica writes of Swift’s album as one that is contemporary beyond its peers and one that boldly transcends the expectations of the music industry. Caramanica says:

“Reputation” is fundamentally unlike any of her other albums in that it takes into account — prioritizes, actually — the tempo and tone of her competition. … “Reputation” is a public renegotiation, engaging pop music on its terms, not hers.

Caramanica’s review of ‘Reputation’ lists in detail the stand-out characteristics of the album, such as its way of redefining music as a whole. Caramanica argues that Swift does not stay on track with the expected industry standard of recreating past successful music, and rather forges a path forward to offer a new outlook into her art. 

Central to ‘Reputation’ is the tense environment that Swift was in at the time of this release. Swift was embroiled in highly-publicized feuds with highly-publicized celebrities, and much of the public did not hold the highest praise for the star herself. However, when describing the album, Caramanica remains  neutral while listing Swift’s personal history and its effect on the album. There are no hints of bias in his article, but rather an appreciation of the way she applies a new side to her music.

In making her most modern album — one in which she steadily visits hostile territory and comes out largely unscathed — Ms. Swift has actually delivered a brain teaser: If you’re using other people’s parts, can you ever really recreate yourself?

Caramanica points out. It’s a rhetorical question: despite being clearly widely disliked, Swift dares to go out there with her work by experimenting with sounds, lyrics, and collaboration- and stuns with successful feedback. 

The article is notable for the ways in which it dissects not only the history of the artist and the album, but the way it describes the different aspects of the album. As Caramanica writes, half of the album is filled with almost vengeful music that takes swings at her haters, but the other half is also soft, gentle, and an ode to a lover. “She still has adversaries in her sight; there are jabs at Kanye West, and also at an ex-boyfriend or two. But here, too, she turns the magnifying glass around. Some of the most caustic and aware songwriting on this album is about herself,” notes Caramanica. In this sense, ‘Reputation’ is reclaiming Swift’s musical power by having more than just one side to offer.

Discussion Questions: 

1. How much does the artist’s personal history affect the album? Do you believe in researching their personal lives when listening to their music? 

2. Many musical artists tend to stay within the same lane when creating music continuously. Take Meghan Trainor for example, who has caught the attention of various news outlets as “coming back” with her 2010s pop music. What are your thoughts on genre-synonymous artists branching out into new fields?

“The Music of Erich Zann” Write Up by Luka Neal

Summary: 

H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann” follows a poor, young university student as he is forced to move into a new neighborhood that falls on the street Rue d’Auseil in order to be able to afford the cost of living. He begins living on the fifth floor of a mostly uninhabited house, and within the first night he hears bizarre music coming from one of the rooms above him. This music, as he learns by asking the owner of the building, comes from a man who calls himself Erich Zann, a German viol player who plays night jobs at a cheap theater orchestra and continues to play most nights in his room after he returns. The student continues to hear Zann’s music every single night as it keeps him awake, and he finds himself haunted by its strange harmonies. 

One night, the student gets a chance to talk to Erich Zann, asking him if he could sit in and listen as he plays. Zann reluctantly agrees, allowing the student to enter his room which is barren and neglected, with the only furnishings being a couple chairs, an iron bedstead, a washstand, a small table, a bookshelf, and a music stand. There is sheet music strewn about the room in a disorganized manner, and dust and cobwebs infest each corner. Zann sits down and motions for the student to do the same as he removes his viol from its case and proceeds to play for over an hour from just memory alone. The student adores the music, and requests that Zann play some of the melodies he had heard in the nights before. Zann doesn’t seem to understand the request so the student whistles some examples of what he’d like to hear, only to be met by a horrified look from Zann, who covers the students mouth while pushing him out of the room in a fit of anger. The student is shocked and angry at Zann, who quickly motions for him to sit down again and writes him an apology letter in broken french. Zann explains in the note that he is afflicted with paranoia and nervous disorders linked to his music, and that sometimes just hearing the melodies can send him spiraling. The student grows some sympathy for the old man, understanding now why he had pushed him out earlier. Zann offers for the student to sit in more often, however when he does in the coming days, Zann seems uninterested and hesitant. All of Zann’s sporadic behavior aside, the student still holds a fascination with his strange music. 

In the next couple weeks, Zann’s playing becomes more bizarre and unpredictable and he allows the student to visit less and less. The student (who within those weeks moved from his original fifth floor to the third floor) creeps up the stairs to be able to hear the music once more, and as he does he is thrown into a stunned state, shocked at how the music is able to sound like an entire symphony at once and horrified by its mysterious melodies. The student goes so far as to describe Zann as “a genius of wild power.” 

In the climactic moments of the story, the student listens to Zann by putting his ear to Zann’s door, hearing horrifying music and banging on Zann’s door to make sure he is okay, assuming no sane human could produce music of this terrible quality. Zann opens the door, seemingly delighted to see the student, inviting him in again. Zann seems shaken up and scared, and as the student sits down the sound of a note whispers through the window, triggering Zann to go into his most insane playing yet. The music makes the student question his own sanity as he hears a shrill note appear from far away, one that merges with Zann’s music to create a truly stupefying experience. The room seems to spiral as the windows shatter and the streets outside dissolve into illimitable space. The student tries to feel for Zann’s face, but as he touches it he feels it’s disfigured and cold. The story ends with the student bursting out of the room and sprinting away from Rue d’Auseil, never to be able to find it on a map again.

Tensions: 

The chronic tension in this story is most definitely the music itself keeping the student awake and the new environment overall, with the acute tension being the specific song at the end that drives the narrator out of Rue d’Auseil. 

What keeps you reading? 

This story ropes you in with the character of Erich Zann and the fact that you have to trust the narrator. First off, this story opts to have no dialogue but the physical description alone of Zann paints him as a strange old man who is out of place in Rue d’Auseil, and one who has not much else to do other than play his viol. Another side effect of there being no dialogue is the fact that we have to hear about all the events and interactions with Zann through the narration of the student. This creates a dynamic between the reader and the narrator that can lack in trust, possibly causing us to think that some of these events are being exaggerated by the narrator, or it’s really him who’s losing his mind throughout.

I have examined maps of the city with the greatest care, yet have never again found the Rue d’Auseil. The maps have not been modern maps alone, for I know that names change. I have, on the contrary, delved deeply into the antiquities of the place; and have personally explored every region, of whatever name, which could possibly answer to the street I knew as Rue d’Auseil. But despite all I have done it remains a humiliating fact that I cannot find the house. 

Coming back to the character of Zann, although he is presented as having nothing else to do but play the viol, he also doesn’t seem to particularly like it in later parts of the story. For example, his nervous fit when the student whistles one of his previous melodies leads us to think that when he played that melody to begin with he must’ve not enjoyed it, so what is forcing him to do it?

…but rather an exquisitely low and infinitely distant musical note, suggesting a player in one of the neighboring houses, or in some abode beyond the lofty wall over which I had never been able to look. Upon Zann the effect was terrible, for dropping his pencil suddenly he rose, seized his viol, and commenced to rend the night with the wildest playing I had ever heard from his bow save when listening at the barred door.

I think it’s this contrast between something one would be passionate about and do out of enjoyment and the feeling that Zann is forced to do it by some unknown force that kept me coming back to the story, as it really solidifies the haunting feeling of what he’s capable of. 

Writing exercise: 

Write a story that is told by an untrustworthy narrator. Don’t use any dialogue, and see if you can reveal how the narrator isn’t telling the truth throughout the story. 

Discussion questions: 

1. Is the fact that the story is limited to surrounding mainly two characters an issue? Would you have liked to see other characters from Rue d’Auseil and what they think of Zann?

2. At the end of the story, Zann begins to write out his secret, but the note flies out the window as he plays his last song. Would you have liked to see what the note said, or is it better left ambiguous to create better mystery?