The only thing left in my Drafts folder
What you said about phases once, I can't get back… I said your comment about phases reminded me of a string of Springsteen albums, and I try to hold back on Springsteen analogies, I really do. (I'm so much better than I used to be. Believe me.) But this analogy doesn't come from me originally, so I figure that makes it more okay. Narrative journalist/hero Tom French is also a Boss fan and is the originator here (long story but he bought me a good hot dog once), and I've just kind of extended it. If you'll indulge me, maybe this will be a blog post someday…
The first album is starting to put your thoughts out there, even though most don't make any sense. The next album, your thoughts are words or phrases, and they begin to make some sense. You start to see how you're more than your words. The next album, you can put together that first brilliant picture of yourself, innocent and flying and powerful. The next album is the fall, the introduction of darkness (yes), which once introduced to a passionate person can pour into every corner. Your power and hope are still there, but the challenges rise equally.
The next album, as time passes and the darkness isn't so new, the picture is more even. The highs and lows are balanced, more nuanced, more lively in all directions. The next album is a pause. Shut off volume and look to see what's really there. Happy or angry, no matter — who are you when you think as you fall asleep at night? What do you have?
The next album is release, breathing, trading inward look for outward rush. The pattern then goes on. There are some wobbles as different elements of life arrive. But after having learned the lightness and the darkness in a certain stretch of life, you breathe through what comes.
… but the thing is… since that's all that was in the folder… the question is, which are you? You me or you you. I can't answer, but you can't ask.
I'm very tempted to submit a proposal to Glory Days, the Springsteen symposium coming this fall, with abstracts due in a week. My working concept: "Springsteen and the struggle with the distributed narrative."
The storyteller swings a broad social scope to capture scene properly, with observation serving as evidence of his existence, before needing to go inward for evidence as this world complicates, and upon turning outward again finds the world's tale is beyond scope and requires the inner tools applied to the crowd. Vinyl troubador vs. social explosion.
Thing is, I'm not sure I could write that paper academically. Between my headphones and my work, it would come from a personal theory.
May 5th, 2009 at 8:18 AM
[...] and crowd existing then, just in different proportions). Then it became more about how Bruce's life development mixed with change in storytelling challenges. Then it became how a storyteller living in the real world felt the content and connected/isolated [...]