Monday, May 23, 2005
The first paragraph of an essay I never finished . . .
This academic quarter I was planning to write essays along with my students in order both to give them one possible model on how to write papers and to jumpstart my own writing output, which has suffered greatly from writer's block in recent years. Well, it didn't quite work out that way as I had many distractions, such as buying a house and moving in, commenting on and grading the students' papers themselves, and having a one-year-old daughter who is a much larger priority in my life than work, even if I hope to build my writing more so that it becomes my life's work. I did, however, happen to write the first paragraph of a paper that I liked, and it's been a long time since I really liked something I wrote. So before it disappeared into the ether of my accumulating unfinished writing projects, I thought I would post it here. The paper was to have been about the movie Pleasantville, specifically the music in it. I was inspired to begin writing this essay because I had been so moved by the music in the movie. Maybe next quarter, I can get it together to write the entire essay, or maybe I'll have moved on to other interests. Either way, here it is:
“Nothing’s gonna change my world.” So goes the chorus of the song “Across the Universe” written by John Lennon but sung by Fiona Apple at the conclusion of Pleasantville, a 1998 film written and directed by Gary Ross and starring Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. Considering that the Beatles are often cited as part of the dramatic cultural changes that happened during the 1960s, along with the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, and feminism, such a lyric is rather odd. The song seems tinged with two contradictory ideas: first, a sense of melancholy at the seeming inability of the world to change in a substantial way (desperation with “the more things change, the more they stay the same” reality of the world); second, perhaps a more positive feeling of acceptance of the world (this goes along with the “waves of joy” and the “limitless undying love” in other parts of the song). Likewise, the use of the song at the end of the movie all about the transformation of a fictional town stuck in the 1950s into a more contemporary way of life seems strange. Throughout Pleasantville we’re reminded of the way music can serve as a force for cultural change.
An outline for the rest of the paper looks like this:
II. Paragraph Two: Music that the characters can themselves hear (“Interdiegetic”)
A. Juke box
1. “Take Five” performed by the Dave Brubeck quartet plays when residents of Pleasantville begin to question Bud/David about what is outside their town, a question that had never occurred to them before; “cool” drumming synchronizes with the significant pauses between the questions and the halting attempts at answers
2. Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” that plays when the juke box is plugged back in after the mob destroys the maltshop. At first a nervous young woman yells at them to stop the music, but Bud/David resists this. (“rave on” indeed!)
B. Radio
a. Etta James’s “At Last” plays as Bud/David and Margaret drive to Lovers’ Lane; the beauty of the performance matches the beauty of their surroundings—falling cherry blossoms
(This might end up being broken up into two or three separate paragraphs)
III. Paragraph Three: Period Music that the characters cannot hear (“Extradiegetic”)
A. “(I Want To Be Your) Teddy Bear” sung by Elvis after Bud/David has asked out Margaret and runs home with an infectious enthusiasm, jumping over neighbor’s fence
IV. Paragraph Four: Orchestral Music
1. the swelling heroic theme that plays when Bud/David gives Mr. Johnson the art book
Concluding Paragraph
In the final paragraph of my essay I was going to incorporate a quotation that I like: “Artworks provide new ways of structuring our experience. . . . Works of art provide . . . new coherences. From the experientialist point of view, art is, in general, a matter of imaginative rationality and a means of creating new realities.” From Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. I was going to say music does this too, as evidenced by the movie’s use of music.
“Nothing’s gonna change my world.” So goes the chorus of the song “Across the Universe” written by John Lennon but sung by Fiona Apple at the conclusion of Pleasantville, a 1998 film written and directed by Gary Ross and starring Tobey Maguire and Reese Witherspoon. Considering that the Beatles are often cited as part of the dramatic cultural changes that happened during the 1960s, along with the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, and feminism, such a lyric is rather odd. The song seems tinged with two contradictory ideas: first, a sense of melancholy at the seeming inability of the world to change in a substantial way (desperation with “the more things change, the more they stay the same” reality of the world); second, perhaps a more positive feeling of acceptance of the world (this goes along with the “waves of joy” and the “limitless undying love” in other parts of the song). Likewise, the use of the song at the end of the movie all about the transformation of a fictional town stuck in the 1950s into a more contemporary way of life seems strange. Throughout Pleasantville we’re reminded of the way music can serve as a force for cultural change.
An outline for the rest of the paper looks like this:
II. Paragraph Two: Music that the characters can themselves hear (“Interdiegetic”)
A. Juke box
1. “Take Five” performed by the Dave Brubeck quartet plays when residents of Pleasantville begin to question Bud/David about what is outside their town, a question that had never occurred to them before; “cool” drumming synchronizes with the significant pauses between the questions and the halting attempts at answers
2. Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” that plays when the juke box is plugged back in after the mob destroys the maltshop. At first a nervous young woman yells at them to stop the music, but Bud/David resists this. (“rave on” indeed!)
B. Radio
a. Etta James’s “At Last” plays as Bud/David and Margaret drive to Lovers’ Lane; the beauty of the performance matches the beauty of their surroundings—falling cherry blossoms
(This might end up being broken up into two or three separate paragraphs)
III. Paragraph Three: Period Music that the characters cannot hear (“Extradiegetic”)
A. “(I Want To Be Your) Teddy Bear” sung by Elvis after Bud/David has asked out Margaret and runs home with an infectious enthusiasm, jumping over neighbor’s fence
IV. Paragraph Four: Orchestral Music
1. the swelling heroic theme that plays when Bud/David gives Mr. Johnson the art book
Concluding Paragraph
In the final paragraph of my essay I was going to incorporate a quotation that I like: “Artworks provide new ways of structuring our experience. . . . Works of art provide . . . new coherences. From the experientialist point of view, art is, in general, a matter of imaginative rationality and a means of creating new realities.” From Metaphors We Live By, George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. I was going to say music does this too, as evidenced by the movie’s use of music.
