I’m
writing my dissertation right now and for once I am trying to be bold, to not
worry about whether what I am arguing has been substantiated by someone with
more knowledge or status than myself. This is probably what is called for.
Sometimes,
though, it is nice to shut up and let the wise ones have their say. This is my
sixth annual end-of-the-year playlist for Good Letters, and unlike previous
years, I am not going to offer any commentary on the songs I’ve chosen; instead,
I offer these songs paired with excerpts of books, articles, or other things I
have read recently (or not-so-recently) which resonate with me and, I hope, the
songs.
If
you’ve read my previous Good Letters posts, you know what kind of music to expect
below -- all are songs that were on a 2013 release, most are by artists I have
been writing about for a long time. The first half deals mostly with God, the
second mostly with people -- though thematically, those are always (and should
be) hard to separate.
Oh,
and I play drums on #4.
1. "Ya Hey," Vampire Weekend
I
cannot say, "I know what I am: I am this and nothing else." I
wouldn't say, "I am an atheist" and I wouldn't say, "I am a
believer" either. I find the statement absolutely ridiculous. Who can say,
"I am a believer?" Who knows that? Who can affirm and confirm that he
or she is a believer? And who can say, "I am an
atheist?"
Jacques
Derrida
2
"Riddles," Hymnalya
The
human mind is splendid; lips powerful, and the summons so great it must open
Paradise.
Czeslaw
Milosz
3 "Song of Praise (from a Recovering Cynic)",
Church of the Beloved
For
every good deed there is someone, who is not doing a good deed, who is, for
instance, gardening, questioning exactly how you're doing that good deed. For
every secretary giving her uneaten half-sandwich to a haggard, unwashed
homeless vet, there is someone to claim that act is only, somehow, making
things worse. The inactive must justify their sloth by picking nits with
those making an attempt.
Dave
Eggers
4 "Act Justly," Jeff Hawker
He
hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee,
but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?
Micah
6:8 (KJV)
5
"Against a Sea of Troubles," Five Iron Frenzy
Are
we carrying the fire?
Cormac
McCarthy
6 "Look at the Light," Sin Fang
C.S. Lewis
Some say the loving and the devouring are all the same thing.
7 "Strange Interlude," betacicadae
Pardon
me while I have a strange interlude.
Groucho
Marx
8
"Afterlife," Arcade Fire
The purpose of death is the release of love.
Laurie Anderson
9 "The Horrors," Lee Bozeman
All
at once it became clear to me that this woman was dearly loved. And it was as
if she were like a stone that has been lying in the sun for years and years,
absorbing all its radiant warmth, and now was reflecting back cheerfulness and
warmth and serenity.
Helmut
Theileke
10 "Residence of Rome," The Cellar Door
One
of the peculiar ironies of being a human self in the Cosmos: A stranger
approaching you in the street will in a second's glance see you whole, size you
up, place you in a way in which you cannot and never will, even though you have
spent a lifetime with yourself, live in the Century of the Self, and therefore
ought to know yourself best of all.
Walker
Percy
11 "Chum," Earl Sweatshirt
How
do we forgive our fathers?
Sherman
Alexie
12 "We Were Rock & Roll," Janelle Monae
The art critic
can never be epistemologically capable of describing art by thinking at
being but must think from and within being. I have thus deemed it
a necessity to describe rock ‘n’ roll by allowing my description to be itself a
parallel artistic endeavour.
Richard
Meltzer
13 "So Long," Hem
Nothing
is absolutely dead; every meaning will have its homecoming festival.
Mikhail
Bakhtin
