Imagining books and music in quirky and creative ways
I read an article about a piece of music the other day where each section started with a direction, like “to be whispered like an incantation.” Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, it took me a while to figure out what these directions actually were. Continue reading “If Authors Told You How to Read Their Books…As Inspired by Music”
“The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting `Off with his head!’ or `Off with her head!’ about once in a minute.” —Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
A man wearing a top hat in a crowded Continue reading “Hyperbole in Literature…and Classical Music!”
“There are no facts, only interpretations.” So said the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Each person sees the world from a slightly (or extremely) different point of view, so every time you read a story (or listen to music for that matter) it’s like you’re walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. Continue reading “Different Perspectives in Books…and Music!”
I mean, surely they had favorite colors, but we’re never told what they are (as far as I can remember). Since people seem to believe that our favorite colors say something about us, I thought I’d try to enter into some characters’ minds and imagine what theirs might be… Continue reading “If The Great Gatsby Characters Had Favorite Colors”
A while back I posted a brief, 30 second piece and talked about how it reminded me of Tinker Bell (Classical Music Stories: Tinker Bell (Plus Flash Fiction Challenge!)). But little did you know I had more Peter Pan stories for the other bajillion movements in the piece! (Mwah ha ha!)
Here are just a couple of them: Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Peter Pan”
When the Cheshire Cat fades to just a smile in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the reader is more or less nonplussed. Weird, abnormal stuff has been happening for the entire book, so a cat disappearing is accepted as part of the established universe of the book. But if you were Continue reading “How to Understand SuRprises in Classical Music”
Have you ever thought about how much repetition there is in music? If you read my last post on the subject (Repetition in Pop Music, Classical Music, and Poetry) then you probably have! And since you guys seemed to like that post a lot I’m back to talk about other types of cool musical repetition! Continue reading “Repetition, Fairy Tales, and Classical Music”
I never really thought about it until I started writing this post, but there don’t seem to be a whole lot of pets in literature or YA books. (Maybe because the characters are off on crazy adventures so having a pet just doesn’t fit in the story?) Be that as it may, Crookshanks (Hermione’s cat in Harry Potter) and Dinah (Alice’s cat in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) are two pretty great felines. Continue reading “Which Cat Would Make a Better Pet: Crookshanks or Dinah?”
Have you ever thought about how much repetition there is in music, whether popular or classical? It’s so ubiquitous that it’s easy to forget about how weird it actually is. If you were reading a book and the exact same chapter was repeated you’d probably be scratching your head and wondering if you had a messed up copy. But in music, that’s the norm! So Continue reading “Repetition in Pop Music, Classical Music, and Poetry”
Sure, the song itself mentions Juliet at one point. But have you ever thought about how the song really does mimic Shakespeare’s play in certain ways? Continue reading “Romeo and Juliet in Top 40 Music”
If Mermaids Wore Suspenders 