Good fiction involving music somehow

nomos

nomos

Administrator
Can anyone recommend me some? I don't necessarily mean book-length stories centred on music (e.g. HIgh Fidelity), but good fiction that involves some amount of music in an interesting way. For example, there was Ralph's Ellison's use of Louis Armstrong and turntables in the opening of Invisible Man (and sound in general in other parts). Or in Hanif Kureishi's Black Album early rave is a backdrop that periodically comes forward to confuse his situation (as does Prince). And there's the Ballard story with the singing plants. So, things like that....
 
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M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Bret Easton Ellis' last one 'Lunar Park' uses the Zombies 'Time Of The Season' really well I thought, and we all know what he did to Phil Collins even if we haven't read 'American Psycho'. Dennis Cooper similarly uses music well, mainly dippy grunge type stuff, but I think Husker Du in Frisk if I remember rightly.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
memphisunderground.gif


http://www.myspace.com/memeunderground
 
STN

STN

sou'wester
'King Rat' by China Mieville, while basically being a load of old toss did have some quite good descriptions of d&b records, I think. Jake Arnott's 'Johnny Come Home' is pretty good, focused around glam-rock.

James Baldwin's 'Another Country' opens with a very evocative description of a jazz club (the focus of the novel being a musician).

HP Lovecraft's 'The Music of Erich Zann' is worth a look too and I suppose 'A Clockwork Orange' merits mention as well.

It's quite hard to do well really isn't it (Richard Hell and Martin Millar, I'm looking at you)?
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Murakami often features pop music as something quite important in his novels. I think he used to own either a jazz-bar or a record shop or something.
 
S

Snaps

snaps
Im just coming to the end of a creative writing program at university and I billed my final project as a dubstep detective novel.

I'm just interested in what you guys would think of the Dubstep mood (dark, sorrowful, wet, London, Street lights etc.) as a overarching vibe?

Do you think it is a cliche to think of Dubstep in this way?
What does dubstep or Grime mood mean to you's?
 
T

tryptych

waiting for a time
Snaps said:
Im just coming to the end of a creative writing program at university and I billed my final project as a dubstep detective novel.

I'm just interested in what you guys would think of the Dubstep mood (dark, sorrowful, wet, London, Street lights etc.) as a overarching vibe?

Do you think it is a cliche to think of Dubstep in this way?
What does dubstep or Grime mood mean to you's?
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Sounds a bit like "Haunted Dancehall" - the imaginary novel quoted in the sleevenotes of the Sabres of Paradise album...
 
M

mms

sometimes
Snaps said:
Im just coming to the end of a creative writing program at university and I billed my final project as a dubstep detective novel.

I'm just interested in what you guys would think of the Dubstep mood (dark, sorrowful, wet, London, Street lights etc.) as a overarching vibe?

Do you think it is a cliche to think of Dubstep in this way?
What does dubstep or Grime mood mean to you's?
Click to expand...

to be honest those are tropes of standard detective novels, from gumshoe to the present.
you have to think about what specific things you get from place, experience and the dubstep idea i think.
 
S

Snaps

snaps
mms said:
to be honest those are tropes of standard detective novels, from gumshoe to the present.
you have to think about what specific things you get from place, experience and the dubstep idea i think.
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Yeah that was a thought that I had. But really it isn't a traditional detective story. (i.e. hard bitten detective is sought out by a willowy blond to solve a case of intrigue) It's about this layabout kid whose into dubstep and grime who follows the trail of his recently disappeared uncle through a 24hr night day night period.

Basically Im just trying to get that strong sensation that dubstep and grime evokes for me and I guess all those who are into it, into my writing. It is London, in my opinion. It's the shadows, the street lights, the gossip about people, the concrete, the car engine's.

Sorry, Im not blowing my trumpet.
Im just looking for any helpful advice or interest from you guys on this forum whose ideas I respect about grime, dubstep, life and everything.

So any ideas what sensations and emotions dubstep and grime evoke for you guys?
What relation do you reckon ( if any!) it has to being London on May 4th 2007???
 
S

Snaps

snaps
tryptych said:
Sounds a bit like "Haunted Dancehall" - the imaginary novel quoted in the sleevenotes of the Sabres of Paradise album...
Click to expand...

Yeah. I was just looking at what that is on google. It looks interesting.
Does it incorporate the tone of the music with the words?

I did have a outlandish, dream-like idea that when I've finished writing this book I could include a chapter by chapter Dubstep/Grime soundtrack.

But that is a bit of a pipe dream I think...
But it would be wicked I reckon.

Anyone know of any other books which have a soundtrack or music concept...?
 
R

robin

Well-known member
its more quasi-fictional than actual fiction,but i really enjoyed but beautiful by geoff dyer,its a series of sketches of old musicians,each chapter is a little scene involving one of them,based on a mixture of autobiographical fact,hearsay,conjecture,and the author's imagination.
 
J

John Doe

Well-known member
The James Baldwin short story 'Sonny's Blues' is fantastic - though more about a musician than his music
 
T

tox

Factory Girl
Snaps said:
Anyone know of any other books which have a soundtrack or music concept...?
Click to expand...

In Morvern Callar by Alan Warner, the main character aquires a mixtape which she listens to throughout the book. There are quite frequent references to exactly what is "in the ears" at specific points in time as well.

There's also a very good passage about dancing in massive clubs.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
STN said:
HP Lovecraft's 'The Music of Erich Zann' is worth a look too and I suppose 'A Clockwork Orange' merits mention as well.
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I tried to start a thread about TMoEZ but no-one replied. :(
I was basically saying that Autechre's Incunabula album reminded me of HPL's fiction - mysterious, otherworldly, uncomfortingly cosmic...

I'm re-reading A Clockwork Orange at the moment - not sure there's anything in it I didn't get first time, but I'm enjoying watching the author play with language like that.
 
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Z

zhao

there are no accidents
mistersloane said:
Dennis Cooper similarly uses music well, mainly dippy grunge type stuff, but I think Husker Du in Frisk if I remember rightly.
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the stuff of Coopers I've read featured many scenes of long haired teenage boys fist fucking (eachother) to an endless Slayer soundtrack. homo-core at its finest surely.

IdleRich said:
Murakami often features pop music as something quite important in his novels. I think he used to own either a jazz-bar or a record shop or something.
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main character in Wind Up Bird always listened to... Brahms was it? or Liszt? and his dry-cleaner would always play sachrine shitty easy-listening -- and there was this great and hilarious line where he thinks to himself "people who love free-jazz can never own dry-cleaning businesses" or something like that :D and through out the book there are several other references to avant garde jazz.

not sure if it's entirely in good taste, but the rasta taking the main character to "Zion" in Neuromancer was playing dub in the, um, space craft or whatever.

Snaps said:
I'm just interested in what you guys would think of the Dubstep mood (dark, sorrowful, wet, London, Street lights etc.) as a overarching vibe?

Do you think it is a cliche to think of Dubstep in this way?
What does dubstep or Grime mood mean to you's?
Click to expand...

i think it can be very powerful to use this music as inspiration or a backdrop or simply as space / vibe. but maybe too much of an overt association would be too close to, like you say, "cliche" territory. i personally would try to evoke those moods without too much, if any, mention of the music. anyone read the book from which Children of Men was adapted? does it mention dubstep at all?
 
M

mms

sometimes
Snaps said:
Yeah that was a thought that I had. But really it isn't a traditional detective story. (i.e. hard bitten detective is sought out by a willowy blond to solve a case of intrigue) It's about this layabout kid whose into dubstep and grime who follows the trail of his recently disappeared uncle through a 24hr night day night period.

Basically Im just trying to get that strong sensation that dubstep and grime evokes for me and I guess all those who are into it, into my writing. It is London, in my opinion. It's the shadows, the street lights, the gossip about people, the concrete, the car engine's.

Sorry, Im not blowing my trumpet.
Im just looking for any helpful advice or interest from you guys on this forum whose ideas I respect about grime, dubstep, life and everything.

So any ideas what sensations and emotions dubstep and grime evoke for you guys?
What relation do you reckon ( if any!) it has to being London on May 4th 2007???
Click to expand...

i would try to keep it away from 'harsh reality' personally, one thing that dubstep and grime evoke for me are things above and beyond, and probably below reality, they're armoury and hall of mirrors at the same time, but not like those mirrored shirt things that sylvester used to wear.:) i think dubstep and grime are pretty different in emotion mood and intention in alot of ways too, dubstep is at its best kinda haunted and intense,tension release and bassweight are big in it, whilst grime is a kinda jerry built but complex rage machine to me.
 
L

LRJP!

(Between Blank & Boring)
zhao said:
not sure if it's entirely in good taste, but the rasta taking the main character to "Zion" in Neuromancer was playing dub in the, um, space craft or whatever.
Click to expand...

What do you mean by good taste? Of all the problematic issues surrounding Gibson's usage of Rastafarianism in Neuromancer, I don't think the depiction of music is one of them:

As they worked, Case gradually became aware of the music that pulsed constantly through the cluster. It was called dub, a sensuous mosaic cooked from vast libraries of digitalized pop; it was worship Molly said, and a sense of community.

Unless Gibson's being deliberately vague to the point of obfuscation here, it seems that this is not Dub in the strictest sense; from the description i'm not sure it's really a Dub that we would immediately recognise as such.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
LRJP! said:
Unless Gibson's being deliberately vague to the point of obfuscation here, it seems that this is not Dub in the strictest sense; from the description i'm not sure it's really a Dub that we would immediately recognise as such.
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Well for a start it's 'dub' 50+ years in the future, presumably...
 
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