Parodies and Qualities of Entertaining Art. Versace.

Post Written By: Chris Stein

     We haven't done much in class this week that could be "re-framed" but we are still reading Wuthering Heights and now we've added another book to the list plus an extra book for Reading Extravaganza. Wuthering Heights and the books on our AP Lit reading list vary greatly from the books on the Reading Extravaganza book list. For example, the books we read in class are typically considered to contain artistic use of language. In the same way, if we want to consider music art, it must contain artful use of either spoken language or artistic use of instruments and sound. We could say that Emily Brontë wrote a cleverly worded novel, and even though it may or may not be a slow read, it is still given merit because of it's artistic use of language. In a way, this is true of music. The song "Versace" by Migos has no artistic use of language and no outstanding instrumental background. Therefore, the song deserves no merit and as real music. 

     Illuminati. Versace Versace Versace. Versace Versace. You are now dumber for having watched this. The point is that music and literature alike must have some quality deserving of merit in order for them to succeed. People don't want to read a boring book and people don't to listen to boring music. We are entertained and challenged by artistic use of language and all the other qualities that make up our favorite book or our favorite song. Literature and music can have various qualities that make them entertaining, such as humor. Humor in literature is often subtle and expressed in the form of satire or a character's poor choices and unfortunate consequences. We find humor in a situation at the expense of the character. This technique is applied to music and music videos known as "spoofs". 

Wuthering Heights

Post Written By: Chris Stein

     In class this week, we've been reading Emily Brontë's 1874 novel Wuthering Heights and analyzing it section by section. The book itself has many parallels to music, but most obviously the theme of love and life struggle. For your convenience, I have included a family tree that includes the two major families in the book. You're Welcome

     In Wuthering Heights, Brontë portrays the struggle of two young children as life and "growing up" changes their feelings for one another. In the early stages of their childhood, Catherine and Heathcliff are the best of friends and stick together against the will of the abusive, patriarchal Mr. Earnshaw. As the two children mature, their friendship becomes an unspoken -or seemingly unspoken- love for each other. But when Edgar proposes to Catherine, Heathcliff is emotionally destroyed by her decision to accept and follow through with the marriage. Catherine admits to a servant that she loves Heathcliff but cannot marry him because of his low social status and lack of formal education, so she resorts to marrying a wealthy, well educated man she does not love (a perfect example of what Kanye would call "a woman so heartless").

 

     To get even, Heathcliff marries Isabella, who he has no feelings for whatsoever and now the whole world is being heartless. Kanye would approve. To take the connection further than just a single mediocre hip-hop song, many artists -particularly in the hip-hop/rap world- have recorded songs about love and breakup and life struggles. Songs such as this portray the struggle of the singer's childhood and how they were constantly disappointed and let down. Often times this is entirely false, they did not start at the bottom and now they are not here. Even outside of hip-hop, love and struggle plays a key role in the music and lyrics of many artists, for example Taylor Swift. Known as the queen of breakups, T. Swizzle has more than her fair share of experience in the relationship department and it certainly shows in her songs. Her song "Dear John" about her 2010 plaything John Mayer not so discretely tells how she felt about him in the lyrics "Don't you think I was too young to be messed with? The girl in the dress cried the whole way home. I should've known." Two years, and 4 boyfriends later, Swift comes out with a song on her album RED called I Knew You Were Trouble about One Direction's Harry Styles.

     Obviously, T Swizzle is one promiscuous tramp, but she's attractive and she can sing so we'll let her do whatever she wants. Unfortunately, this book isn't quite the same. Wuthering Heights is the epitome of all the unfortunate things that could happen in life. It takes themes from 4th grade relationships, Romeo and Juliet, the greedy nature of society and all Russian novels that begin with struggle, elaborate on the agony of the struggle and end in death, surely causing depression and lasting unhappiness.

Inquiry Into Literature

Post Written By: Chris Stein

     In class this week, we worked on our "Inquiry Into Literature" essay  in which we explained our view on what literature is. Personally, in my traditional thinking, I believe literature to be mostly limited to purpose written books and according to my thesis statement, something that "incorporates the artistic use of written language into a story, the portrayal of a message, or the presentation of an observation on life as well as a purpose greater than pure entertainment of the reader." Literature is a rather abstract term to describe, one that we typically don't simply because of its variability and complex uncertainty. To contrast this, music is a very generic term that applies to almost any vocal or instrumental sound purposefully created as art. Music and literature share many defining characteristics, chiefly in regards to artistic merit. But what counts as artistic and what doesn't? Some (including me) say screamo doesn't count as art or music. (My apologies to those of you who enjoy screamo. I guess I'm just not that intense of a person. Chill.) The same goes with literature. Some people (again, including myself) believe that Nicholas Sparks novels are fictional stories or books, but not literature. Personal bias and whether we "like" a certain genre or style can often be confused the denotation of literature or the denotation of music. Although, there are pieces from both forms in black and white that are clearly and universally recognized. For instance, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" is not literature while Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is literature. In music, one could say someone whistling a tune in the men's  restroom is not music. You wouldn't tell this person to turn down the music. You would simply tell them to stop because its just weird. On the other end of the spectrum, one would call Beethoven's Fifth Symphony music because thats what it clearly is. It has timeless artistic merit among other textbook classic musical qualities allow us to call it music.

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