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Nov. 11th, 2013 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsAges ago -- maybe even like years -- agonistes recced me John Darnielle's 33 1/3 on Master of Reality.
BECCA: But I've never listened to Black Sabbath . . . ever . . ."
SWEENEY: Eh, you're fine.
BECCA: Also, how is it a novel, I don't understand, aren't these 33 1/3 things supposed to be music criticism? What's going on here? I'M CONFUSED.
SWEENEY: Becca, just read the damn book.
So finally I did just read the book, and then sat on this review for quite a while, because it was pretty amazing and I did not know how to write about it in a way that would express that.
Okay. So the first half of Master of Reality is the counselor-requested journal of a teen in a mental institution who would really just like to be allowed to listen to his Black Sabbath tapes, and is attempting to explain to his counselor why he loves this music, why he needs this music, why this thing that he loves is not going to hurt his mental state but is in fact a desperately-needed lifeline.
Unsurprisingly, he doesn't get it; the second half is set some ten years later, in an open letter to the same counselor that may or may not ever be read, attempting to explain exactly what the consequences were of the counselor epically not getting it. Attempting to make him get it.
And, I mean, look, if you've heard the Mountain Goats, you know about John Darnielle and his words. Everyone's got that Mountain Goats song that never fails to be a punch in the gut. (For me, it's Ama aka Spent Gladiator 1.) I still am not into Black Sabbath and I still haven't actually listened to Master of Reality. But for the length of this book -- I think maybe at least for the length of the book I got it.
agonistes recced me John Darnielle's 33 1/3 on Master of Reality.BECCA: But I've never listened to Black Sabbath . . . ever . . ."
SWEENEY: Eh, you're fine.
BECCA: Also, how is it a novel, I don't understand, aren't these 33 1/3 things supposed to be music criticism? What's going on here? I'M CONFUSED.
SWEENEY: Becca, just read the damn book.
So finally I did just read the book, and then sat on this review for quite a while, because it was pretty amazing and I did not know how to write about it in a way that would express that.
Okay. So the first half of Master of Reality is the counselor-requested journal of a teen in a mental institution who would really just like to be allowed to listen to his Black Sabbath tapes, and is attempting to explain to his counselor why he loves this music, why he needs this music, why this thing that he loves is not going to hurt his mental state but is in fact a desperately-needed lifeline.
Unsurprisingly, he doesn't get it; the second half is set some ten years later, in an open letter to the same counselor that may or may not ever be read, attempting to explain exactly what the consequences were of the counselor epically not getting it. Attempting to make him get it.
And, I mean, look, if you've heard the Mountain Goats, you know about John Darnielle and his words. Everyone's got that Mountain Goats song that never fails to be a punch in the gut. (For me, it's Ama aka Spent Gladiator 1.) I still am not into Black Sabbath and I still haven't actually listened to Master of Reality. But for the length of this book -- I think maybe at least for the length of the book I got it.
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Date: 2013-11-12 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-12 10:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-14 03:43 pm (UTC)Like. The story is a total gutpunch! But there's also another reason I totally adore this book, which is that it shows that you don't have to write nonfiction to write music criticism. (See also: Steve Scafidi, The Denunciation of Ricky Skaggs from On High.) This book pairs really well with another 33 1/3, which is Carl Wilson's Let's Talk About Love, which is also about the process of understanding and explaining how and why we like music that other people don't like. (I think I have recommended that one too?)
But yesssss, JD and his words. I am cautiously excited for his novel! I don't know if it has a release date yet, but apparently he's got one under contract to Farrar Strauss & Giroux.
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Date: 2013-11-14 04:12 pm (UTC)And yes! I read and loved it a couple years back, which is what resolved me to take all of your 33 1/3 recommendations henceforth (I feel like you had another for me too that I have now forgotten, but maybe I'm misremembering?)
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Date: 2014-01-02 05:33 am (UTC)There is one other 33 1/3 at the moment that I will rec wholeheartedly, do not pass go, do not collect $200, and it's Dan Kois's Facing Future, which is about the eponymous album by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, who is famous on the mainland for that "Over the Rainbow"/"What A Wonderful World" medley, and who is famous in Hawai'i for other, way more political reasons.
Like. If Master of Reality is only sort of about Black Sabbath and more about why we love the things we love and how that love can sustain us, and Let's Talk About Love is only sort of about Celine Dion and more about how we create standards for the things we love by which to judge other people, Facing Future is about how things we love mean different things to different people depending on race, class, geographic location, etc.
Such as Native Hawaiian sovereignty vs. legacies of U.S. imperialism.
It is a hell of a book.
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Date: 2014-01-03 01:30 am (UTC)