Song of the Week: "Follow You, Follow Me" - Red House Painters
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Track:Follow You, Follow Me
I've never received a phone call where I'd been told that something awful has happened, some inconceivable loss. I don't typically ruminate on death, car accidents, losing my teeth, hair, or sexual identity. But sometimes I read a book or hear a song, and suddenly I am that person I thought I wasn't. I grow increasingly nervous, scared. I double check locks to be sure of myself.I am reading Don DeLillo's ??White Noise?? and throughout the novel there is always some haunting possibility of complete failure and absolute disaster. Something greater than death is lurking. The unknown. The uncertainty. DeLillo captures this idea of ??not knowing what is next?? perfectly. All his characters live normal, loving lives yet they all quietly fear something. To define what that ??something?? is would be an easy task but as they are confronted with the question of when that ??something?? will occur, they break down and lose almost all sense of identity. All of the characters pride themselves on what they know and what they can recite: specific dates, names, definitions, etc. They can gauge the past and measure it and chart it out and they can even predict broad ideas of the future. They are educated men and women. They know they will have good days and bad days and they will grow older and it will always end the same way, for all of them. They are reasonably comfortable with these facts, but the idea of not knowing for certain when anything specific will happen is what is most disconcerting for them. When will the disaster strike? When will my loved ones die? When will I lose my memory? Are you my angel? I still have a hundred pages to read but am currently entangled in their lives, their thoughts. Like I said I usually don't ruminate on such obscure notions, but sometimes when I'm in bed at night, "as the sparse traffic washes past," I read a book or listen to a song and am reminded of the "remote and steady murmur around [my] sleep, as of dead souls babbling at the edge of a dream."Enjoy the Red House Painters' version of the Genesis song, "Follow You, Follow Me."
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