Dear Jukebox Writer 2014
May. 3rd, 2014 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minutia_rDear Jukebox writer:
Hi there! May I compliment you on either your excellent taste in music or your willingness to try something new and write fic about it, or both? In any case, I’m really looking forward to reading what you come up with.
A few things that apply to all of the songs, before I get to individual prompts:
I don’t expect you to treat every line of the song as canon the way you might for a book or TV show. If you want to do a close reading of the text, that’s cool! If some phrase or image or mood from the song suggests a story to you, then run with that and don’t worry too much about contradicting or fitting the rest of the song in around it--and especially don’t worry about the prompts in this letter, which are really just there to give you ideas in case you’re stuck.
I like stories with speculative elements best. I’m a big fan of the power of science fiction and fantasy to concretize metaphors, so if you’re listening to the song and wondering, “Is this line meant literally or figuratively? Figuratively, right?” you will make me very happy by going for the literal interpretation.
Most of these songs are kind of dark to one degree or another. I expect and welcome dark fic--including character death, violence, consent issues sexual or otherwise, bleak dystopias, and trauma of all kinds--although if your muse takes you to a warm and fluffy place instead, I wouldn’t complain.
Just because most of these songs are sung by men doesn’t mean I interpret or expect you to interpret the narrators as men! Go with what you think would make a more interesting story, not with what the singer’s voice sounds like. (Although I happen to like all the singers’ voices a lot. Yes, even Leonard Cohen.)
Fistful of Rain - Warren Zevon
song with lyrics
Apparently the protagonist of this song is coming into conflict with an enemy who has powers over the flow of time and nature of reality--what with being able to turn diamonds back into coal and all--and maybe their entire life is a fiction manufactured by this enemy? But their mind is fighting back against it although they don’t totally understand what’s going on? And the only way they have of fighting back is a metaphor for embracing the transient nature of reality?
The Future - Leonard Cohen
song | lyrics
So this seems to be a dystopian science fiction story about someone whose precognitive abilities have unmoored them in time? Is there a specific murder they’ve foreseen--is it their own murder, or one they’re going to commit? Who said repent, and what did they mean? In general, please explain to me what this song is about, ideally while preserving as much of the weirdness as possible.
The Green Valley - Puscifer
song | lyrics
I didn’t actually nominate this song, and wasn’t familiar with it before now, but I listened to it on the nominated songs playlist, and wow, so many possibilities. Maybe the residents of the community are surprised that a stranger has made it to their community because they are so remote and inaccessible--perhaps magically inaccessible, like Hogwarts or Brigadoon--or maybe it’s because this is a post-apocalyptic thing and they had believed they were the last people alive on Earth, or maybe they are living on a generation ship being borne along by some sort of hyperspace current and this guy just docked onto them from the formless void between the stars. Maybe Her Majesty is a person, or just a literal plain old river, or an actual goddess, or some sort of artificial intelligence? How does she test the stranger’s worth, and what sort of worth are we talking about--moral worthiness, reproductive fitness, not being a radioactive zombie?
Ketzele Baroyges - Barry Sisters
song with lyrics
I would like to think that this song is addressed to an actual kitten. I would love to read about the adventures and hard times of the Jewish street cats of the criminal street cat underworld in New York in the early twentieth century. Something like The Aristocats or Oliver and Company but grittier and more Yiddish?
Long Steel Grass (Noche Espagnola) - Edith Sitwell and William Walton
song (starts at 2:50; what comes before is another song from the same suite. Sorry, this was the best link I could find.) | lyrics
So according to the link with the lyrics above, Edith Sitwell said this was about a couple of cats having a love affair, which I guess is as good interpretation as any other. There is definitely some kind of courtship as battle or battle as courtship going on here, on a weird and epic scale which brings to mind space opera or the faerie court. I’m particularly (though not exclusively) interested in the white soldiers--what does a grunt’s-eye view of this conflict and/or reproductive process look like?
The Ragpicker's Dream - Mark Knopfler
song with lyrics
Tell me more about the rail-king and the scarecrow and their wizard hobo adventures! I really like the idea of them literally drinking people’s dreams.
I hope you find something that inspires you in this letter, but if these songs take you in a completely different direction, I’d be thrilled to read that too. Thank you, happy writing, and I hope you get a lovely story as well!
PS if you are reading this and are not aware of jukebox, the details are here and signups are open for one more day. It is a fun and different exchange and you guys should do it with me.
Hi there! May I compliment you on either your excellent taste in music or your willingness to try something new and write fic about it, or both? In any case, I’m really looking forward to reading what you come up with.
A few things that apply to all of the songs, before I get to individual prompts:
I don’t expect you to treat every line of the song as canon the way you might for a book or TV show. If you want to do a close reading of the text, that’s cool! If some phrase or image or mood from the song suggests a story to you, then run with that and don’t worry too much about contradicting or fitting the rest of the song in around it--and especially don’t worry about the prompts in this letter, which are really just there to give you ideas in case you’re stuck.
I like stories with speculative elements best. I’m a big fan of the power of science fiction and fantasy to concretize metaphors, so if you’re listening to the song and wondering, “Is this line meant literally or figuratively? Figuratively, right?” you will make me very happy by going for the literal interpretation.
Most of these songs are kind of dark to one degree or another. I expect and welcome dark fic--including character death, violence, consent issues sexual or otherwise, bleak dystopias, and trauma of all kinds--although if your muse takes you to a warm and fluffy place instead, I wouldn’t complain.
Just because most of these songs are sung by men doesn’t mean I interpret or expect you to interpret the narrators as men! Go with what you think would make a more interesting story, not with what the singer’s voice sounds like. (Although I happen to like all the singers’ voices a lot. Yes, even Leonard Cohen.)
Fistful of Rain - Warren Zevon
song with lyrics
Apparently the protagonist of this song is coming into conflict with an enemy who has powers over the flow of time and nature of reality--what with being able to turn diamonds back into coal and all--and maybe their entire life is a fiction manufactured by this enemy? But their mind is fighting back against it although they don’t totally understand what’s going on? And the only way they have of fighting back is a metaphor for embracing the transient nature of reality?
The Future - Leonard Cohen
song | lyrics
So this seems to be a dystopian science fiction story about someone whose precognitive abilities have unmoored them in time? Is there a specific murder they’ve foreseen--is it their own murder, or one they’re going to commit? Who said repent, and what did they mean? In general, please explain to me what this song is about, ideally while preserving as much of the weirdness as possible.
The Green Valley - Puscifer
song | lyrics
I didn’t actually nominate this song, and wasn’t familiar with it before now, but I listened to it on the nominated songs playlist, and wow, so many possibilities. Maybe the residents of the community are surprised that a stranger has made it to their community because they are so remote and inaccessible--perhaps magically inaccessible, like Hogwarts or Brigadoon--or maybe it’s because this is a post-apocalyptic thing and they had believed they were the last people alive on Earth, or maybe they are living on a generation ship being borne along by some sort of hyperspace current and this guy just docked onto them from the formless void between the stars. Maybe Her Majesty is a person, or just a literal plain old river, or an actual goddess, or some sort of artificial intelligence? How does she test the stranger’s worth, and what sort of worth are we talking about--moral worthiness, reproductive fitness, not being a radioactive zombie?
Ketzele Baroyges - Barry Sisters
song with lyrics
I would like to think that this song is addressed to an actual kitten. I would love to read about the adventures and hard times of the Jewish street cats of the criminal street cat underworld in New York in the early twentieth century. Something like The Aristocats or Oliver and Company but grittier and more Yiddish?
Long Steel Grass (Noche Espagnola) - Edith Sitwell and William Walton
song (starts at 2:50; what comes before is another song from the same suite. Sorry, this was the best link I could find.) | lyrics
So according to the link with the lyrics above, Edith Sitwell said this was about a couple of cats having a love affair, which I guess is as good interpretation as any other. There is definitely some kind of courtship as battle or battle as courtship going on here, on a weird and epic scale which brings to mind space opera or the faerie court. I’m particularly (though not exclusively) interested in the white soldiers--what does a grunt’s-eye view of this conflict and/or reproductive process look like?
The Ragpicker's Dream - Mark Knopfler
song with lyrics
Tell me more about the rail-king and the scarecrow and their wizard hobo adventures! I really like the idea of them literally drinking people’s dreams.
I hope you find something that inspires you in this letter, but if these songs take you in a completely different direction, I’d be thrilled to read that too. Thank you, happy writing, and I hope you get a lovely story as well!
PS if you are reading this and are not aware of jukebox, the details are here and signups are open for one more day. It is a fun and different exchange and you guys should do it with me.
