SOUNDTRACK: ULVER-Shadows of the Sun (2007).
I really wanted to like this album because of the cover–which is striking. I know, I know, never judge… My initial reaction to the disc was kind of poor. I’ve followed Ulver’s progress through their many incarnations, and it’s not entirely surprising that they should make an entirely ambient record. It just strikes me as an odd release–mellow and almost lullaby-ish but also a little creepy (the voice mostly).
But at the same time, musically it’s quite pretty. And while it wasn’t a very good listen for a car trip to work, it was actually really perfect for listening to at work–where headphones allowed for hearing so many nuances.
There’s not much point in a song by song listing, as the songs are similar–washes of music with slightly distorted, deep vocals. But there are some interesting musical choices that make each song unique, and consequently better than a lot of ambient in which all of the songs use the same musical palette. “All the Love” employs piano and come cool electronic sounds near the end.
“Let the Children Go” is a much darker song (with drums!). “Solitude” is the most melodic song of the bunch. It reminds me of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” (which should tell you something about the overall tone of the album). It has a noticeable vocal line (and really audible lyrics, which are quite melancholy and more emotional that I would have expected: “You just left when I begged you to stay. I’ve not stopped crying since you went away.”
Another observation. At times when he actually sings, the vocals sound a bit like XTC–“Shadows of the Sun” in particular. And since that song has pianos it’s not inconceivable that this could sound like XTC (although not really).
With the right atmosphere, this record proves to be a very impressive listen. Kristoffer Rygg’s vocals really suit the mood and, all in all, it does reflect the album cover rather more than I initially thought.
[READ: March 18, 2012] The Marriage Plot
I had put this book on hold a few months ago. And I was ninety-something on the list, so I didn’t think too much about it. I looked the other day and I was 10. Yipes. How was I going to read this 400 page book in three weeks while also reading Gravity’s Rainbow??
Well, amazingly, The Marriage Plot worked as a nice foil to GR. It is a supremely easy read. It is completely uncomplicated. And, it actually has some unexpected parallels to GR–specifically, two of the characters travel to Europe, one on a pilgrimage the other on a honeymoon, and they travel to Paris, Geneva, Spain, Zürich, and even Nice. There is literally no connection between these two books (although Mitchell does bring Pynchon’s V along with him), but it was fun to see new people go to the cities that Slothrop has been traveling to for very different reasons.
I powered through the book, reading large chunks and staying up way too late both because I liked the book and because I wanted to get it back on time (beware the library police!). And there really is something about finishing a book quickly, it really keeps the story and characters fresh and makes the experience more enjoyable.
But on to the book.
This book centers around three people in a kind of lover’s triangle. The woman at the center is Madeleine (and yes there are wonderful tie-ins to Madeline the children’s book series). The two men are Leonard and Mitchell. All three of them are graduating from Brown in the mid 80s.
I identified with the book immediately because Madeleine is an English major (as was I). She studies the Victorian era [and I had just read the piece by Franzen about Edith Wharton] and is on track to write her thesis on this era. The title of the book comes from this section–novels written at that time were especially focused on marriage–if a woman did not marry, she was more or less doomed, and so the plots centered around her quest to find a suitable mate. As Franzen noted in the above article, Wharton and some of her predecessors sounded the death knell for the “marriage plot” and Madeleine was going to do her thesis on that.
As the pieces of the triangle fall into place we learn (skeletal at first with much detail added later) that Madeleine and Mitchell were very good friends initially. So good, in fact, that she invited him back to her parents house for a vacation. He was head over heels in love with; however, out of fear (mostly) he never acted on the opportunities she gave him, and she thought that he wasn’t interested in anything more than friendship. Basically, he blew it (although he doesn’t learn this until much later–I can relate to this all too well). As the story opens, she has just woken up, hungover, smelling of a party, with a mysterious stain on her dress. She knows she did something with someone last night but she’s not sure what. Not atypical college behavior. But the kicker is that it is graduation morning and her parents are ringing the doorbell of her dorm right now.
They had a falling out because she felt a bit offended by the fact that he wasn’t interested, but he kept hanging around her. Ultimately things get weird and they stop speaking. Turns out (of course), that Mitchell is the man she made out with (but nothing more) the night before graduation.
Leonard, on the other hand, is an intelligent, aloof philosopher/scientist. Madeleine first encounters him in a class on Semiotics (the transition from Victorian literature to Semiotics is wonderful, especially if you were an English major). I could relate to this because I took a class in Post Modernism, so I had read Foucault, Derrida, Eco etc. Leonard has an amazing confidence that Madeleine finds seductive. But she is not willing to pursue him (she’s had some very embarrassing hook ups at school so far). Finally he asks her to the movies and they become a couple.
Mitchell is devastated, but since he knows that he and Madeleine are destined to get married, he’s just going to sit back and wait. From there, there is not a ton of plot to describe, which is not to say that there isn’t a lot of drama.
Leonard and Madeleine see a lot of each other. He is kind of obnoxious, but in a fun, intellectual sort of way. And the sex is great. After graduation, they are planning to head off to Cape Cod together. He is going to work at a science facility and she is going to work on getting her thesis published.
And then they have a huge fight. The excerpt of the fight was published in The New Yorker (I reviewed it then). I loved it then and I enjoyed it even more with more context. When they break up, Madeleine is angry but Leonard falls into a major depression. It turns out that he is manic depressive and has been taking lithium for a long time. But he recently went off his meds which coincided with this breakup. He ultimately admitted himself to a hospital, which Madeleine learned about on graduation morning.
After an intense detailing of their long recovery, they reunite and decide to go to Cape Cod as planned.
Mitchell, on the other hand, has been watching on the sidelines–appalled that she is dating that phony Leonard. He and Madeleine seem to have an uncanny knack for running into each other. Which is not surprising given that it is a small campus and they know all the same people, although they do run into each other twice in new York City as well. And on graduation morning (before Madeleine learns about Leonard), Madeleine and her parents see him sitting on the grass meditating. Her parents (who liked him quite a lot) invite him for breakfast.
Mitchell explains that he is going to Europe and India on a kind of pilgrimage. Madeleine’s parents are very supportive of him, although when Madeleine says she is too (just to see their reaction), they blow her off. They don’t know that she and Leonard have broken up and she can’t face the thought of moving home with them, so she’s pretty agitated. Not to mention hung over. And embarrassed.
But sure enough, the next we see of Mitchell, he and his friend Larry are flying out to Europe to rough it for a year or so. And excerpt from this section was also published in The New Yorker (I reviewed it too). And again, more context is helpful although the excerpt worked on its own.
It’s interesting because Mitchell is basically away from the Madeleine/Leonard sides of the triangle for most of the actual time of the story. And she really doesn’t think of him at all. Although Leonard actually does think of him–they took a class together and Leonard was respectful of Mitchell’s intelligence and mannerisms in the class, although that was before he knew that Mitchell and Madeleine had a history. There is one connection, though, when Madeleine sends Mitchell a letter updating him on what’s been happening (basically telling him to leave her alone).
And so we see Mitchell flitting around Europe, getting overthrown by his friend Larry and becoming a more spiritual person. He ultimately winds up volunteering to work with Mother Teresa. All the while Mitchell is down on himself for not doing more (especially compared to the family (a man brought his young children to volunteer! gasp) who are so selfless.
The drama culminates in a (believable) coincidental meeting in New York where things come to a head for the entire triangle.
Throughout all of this Madeleine has to deal with her parents not liking Leonard, as well as Leonard’s erratic behavior. Her parents are thoroughly believable, as are Mitchell’s parents (who are much less present in the novel but show understandable concern for their globetrotting son). Leonard’s family are almost completely absent, even when they are present.
And when all was said and done, I found the ending to be well thought out and really very satisfying.
I was surprised at how much I related to this story and how much it grabbed me. Between Leonard and Madeleine’s studies and Mitchell’s behavior, I felt like a whole chunk of my college life was comparable here. So I was completely absorbed in the story. And some of thee story is set in Prettybrook, New Jersey which I have narrowed down to possibly being Pennington which is not far from where I work.
There were a few sections that I didn’t enjoy–a very scientific/medicinal section during Leonard’s breakdown) and a couple of religious/angsty sections (in Mitchell’s section). Although really those were only a few dozen pages out of 400–not bad at all. I really enjoyed it.
I read the India section that was excerpted in The New Yorker; missed the earlier excerpt. I’ve been debating reading this, figuring maybe later, when all the buyers sell their copies back and I can pick one up for a couple of bucks. 😉 I’m glad to see your comments, the length had me a little intimidated, and that’s less of a concern for me now.
It was a really fast read. There were only one or two parts that I got bogged down in, but otherwise it was a breezy treat (especially while reading Gravitys Rainbow).
I’ll bet – I considered doing Gravity when I saw you starting it, but, like Infinite Jest, it’s just too scary. 😉 At least right now. Someday.