Music Friday (A Day Late)
Please consider subscribing and hanging out with me on occasion at The Declining Academic. It’s free! This is a space where I try to mix up the content quite a bit, and as always, I am open to ideas. The first post next week will continue the Prison Education series.
I just couldn’t post anything yesterday, as I spent a lot of time reading about Lahaina and what Hawaii is suffering right now.
In another small update, yesterday I finished what might be one of the most astonishing, unexpected novels I have ever read: Elena Knows, by Claudia Piñeiro, who is an Argentinian writer. It’s a short novel that turns the notion of a “crime novel” on its head and then delivers an absolute thunderbolt about an issue that we are desperately dealing with in contemporary America. I cannot recommend it enough. I gasped aloud and then said “Oh my god” at a pivotal moment, which caused one of my children to come and ask if I was okay. That’s what this book will do.
Ah, a delayed music Friday. So here is the canonical of canonical: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” set to music. For a twist, I used voices to present the poem as being spoken, as a chorus, by the mermaids described at the poem’s end. I will always love this poem. Of course, the poem is long, but maybe give it a chance—it starts with a very trance-like feel and then kicks in strong.
Have a great weekend everyone!
