21st Century Literature discussion

Name an example or two when another medium (art, film, music) turned you on to a book you ended up loving or where a book turned you on to another piece of art/culture you ended up loving?
(Let's try to avoid reinterpretations like the movie version of the same book, or the book version of a movie. Thinking more along the lines of seeing a film like Good Will Hunting mention a book like A People's History of the United States and you going on to read and highly value the book because you saw it mentioned in the film.)

Richard Powers’ description of the writing of and listening to Messaien’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps, which is now one of my favourite pieces of music.

I remember listening to OK Computer for the first time back in 1997 and puzzling over the track Fitter Happier. Eventually I found out the band used Jonathan Coe's What a Carve Up! as inspiration and I read it. It still remains my fave book of all time.

1. Book to art -- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt to painter Carel Fabritius.
2. Novel to poet/essayist -- The Big Green Tent to poet and essayist Joseph Brodsky and Brodsky essay about Venice - Watermark.
3.Book to music -- Like Neil, some of Richard Power's books - e.g., Orfeo and The Time of Our Singing: A Novel -- have led me to listen to new to me music, some of which I liked, some of which I did not!

LindaJ^ wrote: "1. Book to art -- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt to painter Carel Fabritius..."

Can relate to that one, Linda. The goading book for me right now is Tocqueville's Democracy in America - Volume 1 & 2, with all its notes and references to related correspondence. It has taken me to the Great Courses series on the French Revolution, to Private Lives: From the Fires of Revolution to the Great War, to Tocqueville's biography to Fukuyama's Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment . As if the 700+ pages of DIA weren't enough! But the astute, sometimes naive, sometimes outdated, sometimes just ... Tocqueville pushes one to think in so many directions about democracy in a time when I experience our U.S. conception of it to be under considerable duress.

Memory lane: When in 1973 I interviewed for work in the Cunard Building near Bowling Green in Manhattan, my mind jumped back to pictures in a book in the library of the rural mid-western school where I attended grade school. I couldn't believe I might be working there, but I did.

I was teaching Oedipus Rex to high school kids and they were so bored. To get them involved, I ended up finding a lot of multimedia things that are glorious, some of my favorite things ever filmed. Starting with Stravinsky's 1927 opera, a performance with Jessye Norman as Jocasta and performed partly in Japanese, conducted by Seiji Ozawa in Japan, and filmed in 1992--this is truly extraordinary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYypS...

Also a Martha Graham's "Night Journey:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFNsK...

Last but not least, Oedipus Potato:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OkMq...

I love the internet. The first two are masterpieces of interpretation, and last one is a little bit of a joke, but honestly, even with vegetables people are so creative.

Lark wrote: "I was teaching Oedipus Rex to high school kids and they were so bored. To get them involved, I ended up finding a lot of multimedia things that are glorious, some of my favorite things ever filmed...."

That is so cool! How did the kids respond?

I am struggling to think of any examples, but I don't watch much film or TV. I did first read Borges because I was intrigued by a Peter Hammill lyric:

"Turn a card, turn a page,
the action sure to start,
second-stage reaction
to illogical thoughts on random lines -
in a Borges dream we move toward
the writing of lives.

Leave it out, leave it in,
no edits -
with a shout, with a grin I said
it was a certainty that I'd arrive
in an Escher sketch
we walk around
the drawing of lines."

There have been quite a few books I read because they were mentioned in lyrics - or lyrics emphasised the importance of books I'd already heard of. There would be plenty more if I combed through 90s indie lyrics, but right now two examples spring to mind.

Firstly, because I've typed out the title One Hundred Years of Solitude today, and I generally hear the words in my head as a snippet from the chorus of the Levellers album track of the same title
Excuse me ma'am for being so rude
Feels like 100 years of solitude
But my mind is numb but my mouth's okay
And you can listen or just walk away

And a somewhat more recent example of what was for me mostly a teenage phenomenon - from one of the best indie tracks of the 00s,
The Past Is a Grotesque Animal by Of Montreal
I fell in love with the first cute girl that I met
Who could appreciate George Bataille
Standing at a Swedish festival discussing "Story of the Eye".

I probably would never have bothered to read the Story of the Eye if it weren't for that, but I've found it useful for allusions and to understand more meaningful references.

Whitney wrote: "That is so cool! How did the kids respond?
..."

It energized them. The experience changed my teaching approach a lot--I also started to teach Shakespeare with a live performance or taped performance -before- making them read the play, instead of struggling through the text for a semester and then showing the play as some kind of reward. These plays were meant to be seen and not read.

My example is very Canadian. If you're not Canadian you might not know the band The Tragically Hip, but they are huge here. One of their older songs, "Courage", was dedicated to Canadian author Hugh MacLennan (also a big name here and not well known elsewhere). One verse of the song is taken from this passage in MacLennan's book The Watch That Ends The Night:

"But that night as I drove back from Montreal, I at least discovered this: that there is no simple explanation for anything important any of us do, and that the human tragedy, or the human irony, consists in the necessity of living with the consequences of actions performed under the pressure of compulsions so obscure we do not and cannot understand them."

I had read a few of MacLennan's books before reading this one, but it was from this passage that I was motivated to read the book.

Way to connect with your students, Lark! I had a very brief and fall-flat-on-my-face attempt at teaching Language Arts to 6th graders quite a number of years back and the students really liked when I substituted in popular song lyrics for their daily "find the grammar/spelling mistake" activity we were supposed to give them. It's pretty exciting to see them motivated/inspired.

David, I think of The Tragically Hip as fairly well-known in the U.S.

I still remember my English teacher giving a "lesson" in which he asked us to judge four different versions of My Way including Sinatra and Sid Vicious - I voted with the punks!

Can't believe I forgot, as I have a GR shelf I named after the song, but one of my favourite albums, Promenade by The Divine Comedy has a track which is basically a list of authors, The Booklovers
http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-booklo...
I bought the album in its week of release in 1994, when they were still a very obscure act, and if I'd been told then then that I still wouldn't have read at least one whole book by all of those authors when I was double my age, it would have shocked me terribly. (There are still 24 I haven't, and several others where I don't think what I've read really counts because it was a short and unrepresentative work e.g. Turn of the Screw, The Old Man and the Sea.)
The track is also the reason why I had wrong assumptions about Doris Lessing for such a long time, now altered by GR friends who like her work and who wouldn't have if she'd been a caricature man-hater. Now I know more about Lessing, I hear that "I hate men!" line in quite a different and more flippant way.
However I agree with it about Conrad. ("I'm a bloody boring writer")

It was much later that I discovered another book-list song, Bluestocking by Momus (lyrics definitely NSFW) but I soon realised that I couldn't be bothered with several of the books in it, such as Wings of the Dove. And it also mentions Story of the Eye, which I'd read by then.

Like many others, in both directions, I found the The Absolute Sandman, Volume One series and Neil Gaiman because of mentions in Tori Amos songs. I know others who went in the opposite direction.

Just remembered another one. It was because of Mad Men that I read Meditations in an Emergency. Here's the scene where Don Draper reads from the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPPhd...

An interesting retelling of Wuthering Heights in 4 minutes. https://youtu.be/GpDoZZBkHTw

Kathy wrote: "An interesting retelling of Wuthering Heights in 4 minutes. https://youtu.be/GpDoZZBkHTw"

I totally forgot about that. Kate Bush introduced me to Wuthering Heights. (I still like the song more than the book.)

Kathy wrote: "An interesting retelling of Wuthering Heights in 4 minutes. https://youtu.be/GpDoZZBkHTw"

A year before that song came out, Genesis released Wind and Wuthering, my favourite album of theirs. The last three songs on the album in particular are inspired by the novel. The first two of those songs are titled "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers..." and "... In that Quiet Earth", which together are the final words of the novel.

I loved early Genesis when Peter Gabriel was still with the group. I saw them in concert at Ag (Agricultural) Hall in Bethlehem, PA , April 25, 1974. I think there was about 500 of us present. I am sure I had that album (Wind and Wuthering). I now have to look for those songs!

I used to listen to loads of early Genesis, though I discovered it as a teenager in the 80s - I preferred the Gabriel era too. The two tracks David mentions are instrumental and are something of an acquired taste.

Yes, I think the song David is thinking of is Afterglow.

David wrote: "Just remembered another one. It was because of Mad Men that I read Meditations in an Emergency. Here's the scene where Don Draper reads from the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPPhd..."

Wow, hard to believe that was in a US TV show. I bet John Hamm was very happy to be given that acting opportunity.

Kathy wrote: "Yes, I think the song David is thinking of is Afterglow."

That's the third of the three songs I was referring to. The first two are "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers..." and "... In that Quiet Earth" which, as Hugh points out, are instrumentals. "Afterglow" has lyrics. The three songs are presented at the end of the album as 11+ minutes of continuous music without a gap between the songs, so could be viewed as one piece.

Nadine wrote: "Wow, hard to believe that was in a US TV show. I bet John Hamm was very happy to be given that acting opportunity. "

Mad Men was a work of pure genius ... for about one season and a bit. It was a bold exploration of the theme of identity - who a person wants to be, how a person is perceived, and who a person really is - through four main characters (Don, Peggy, Pete, and Betty). But then it ran out of steam and became just a stylish soap opera. The poem Don Draper reads is a perfect fit for that overall theme of identity.

Remember, Mad Men was only the second original series AMC ever produced. To that point, AMC was still living up to its name and showing American Movie Classics. They pretty much gave free range to Matthew Weiner to do what he wanted. So yes, it was unusual for a US show to have such a specific poetic reference like this, but it was an unusual show in many ways.

David wrote: "Nadine wrote: "Wow, hard to believe that was in a US TV show. I bet John Hamm was very happy to be given that acting opportunity. "

Mad Men was a work of pure genius ... for about one season and a bit..."

So true - seems like American TV milks the life out of any series of value. I loved the first season of Handmaids Tale, was less enthused about the second, and have given up after one episode of the third. Taking a series past the point of the original book is rarely a good idea.

This is an excellent question, Marc. I love the intersection of literature, art, music, and film.
Two recent examples:

A connection on Goodreads posted a review for a book by Murakami and in his review, he drew a bridge between the book's themes and literary style, to the music compositions of Max Richter. As someone who loves classical/ambient/atmospheric/new age/minimalist/orchestral music, I was surprised that Richter had never come to my attention. Or perhaps he had, and I didn't know it.

Anyhow, the reviewer's equation of the book and Richter's music intrigued me so much that I soon thereafter streamed several of Richter's ensembles on Spotify, and immediately, I knew his music was for me. An added bonus was that it was this review that got me excited to explore the works of Murakami, so I added several of his books to my to-read list, of which I plan to read one of them in either July or August.

As perhaps can be expected, as I see others listed it already as an example, when I read 'The Goldfinch', I was constantly googling painters from several eras, including the Dutch Golden Age. Because of it, I discovered that I love the trompe-l'oeil style of painting, in addition to liking the mood and settings of some of the Dutch masters. In addition to loving the novel for it's own merit, I loved that it also afforded me the opportunity to research painters from the era, an overall wonderful experience. I also intend to read several books mentioned and or books Theo read throughout the novel.

Lastly, I intentionally watch films at home with closed-caption on, for the simple reason that the name of a soundtrack or composition is usually displayed on screen as the corresponding scenes begins. When I hear a composition I like, I pause the film, search Amazon Music and or Spotify to save it for listening later. I've discovered several great artists this way who fit the style of music I like to listen to.

Other examples: while watching a short travel film on Vimeo several years ago, I discovered the orchestral music of Blake Ewing; a miniseries on Netflix introduced me to a sublime composition by John Murphy ... all wonderful artists to add to my existing favorites such as Yanni, Ludovico Einaudi, Enya, Vangelis, Yo-Yo Ma, et.al. To come full circle, I usually play these styles of music as I read.

C I N D L E wrote: "This is an excellent question, Marc. I love the intersection of literature, art, music, and film.
Two recent examples:

A connection on Goodreads posted a review for a book by Murakami and in his ..."

A little Aside - If you're into Richter do check out Nils Frahm and Chilly Gonzales' Piano albums. I'm sure you'll like them.

not really a book, but catching up on Luther season 4 before diving into season 5 for the first time got me caught up in The Cure repeatedly for the last week. I do the same thing with the captions. Amazon has a thing where you can "x-ray" the scene for all the info.

Robert wrote: "A little Aside - If you're into Richter do check out Nils Frahm and Chilly Gonzales' Piano albums. I'm sure you'll like them."

Thanks for the recommendation, Robert. I'll look them up and listen.

C I N D L E wrote: "As someone who loves classical/ambient/atmospheric/new age/minimalist/orchestral music, I was surprised that Richter had never come to my attention. ..."

At the end of the Shutter Island soundtrack, there is a beautiful and achingly mournful composition that is a mix of Richter's music and Dinah Washington's recording of This Bitter Earth. I really enjoy this entire soundtrack, and the finale seems perfect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXHGo...

Bryan wrote: "At the end of the Shutter Island soundtrack, there is a beautiful and achingly mournful composition that is a mix of Richter's music and Dinah Washington's recording of This Bitter Earth. I really enjoy this entire soundtrack, and the finale seems perfect."

Oh how I love achingly mournful compositions. Truly. The power of those strings, to evoke thinking deep from within. Thank you so much for the link, I loved it! It's been over a year or two since I last saw 'Shutter Island', this jogged my memory wonderfully.

You're very welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it--I think it's a great piece

C I N D L E wrote: "Robert wrote: "A little Aside - If you're into Richter do check out Nils Frahm and Chilly Gonzales' Piano albums. I'm sure you'll like them."

Thanks for the recommendation, Robert. I'll look them ..."

actually I should link :

Nils Frahm - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sd9c...

Chilly Gonzales - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHY-C...

If you like mournful strings then there's A Winged Victory for the Sullen and Riceboy Sleeps

Robert wrote: "If you like mournful strings then there's A Winged Victory for the Sullen and Riceboy Sleeps"

Robert, these are awesome! I've streamed Nils Frahm, and A Winged Victory for the Sullen. I like both. Perfect for wounding down in the evening before falling asleep.

I'm just about coming round to the home stretch of Powers' 'The Overstory', at less than 100 pages left, and it matched nicely to Riceboy Sleeps, as the sound tends to hold extended notes, with the occasional ethereal vocalizing. 👍

All great recommendations, thank you kindly.

This contribution is a bit tongue-in-cheek but the cover and content of this book Adventures in the Skin Trade encouraged my taste for the pictured beverage in my youth.