Songs based on Literature

Iam sure that lots of you have sung along to lyrics, without really knowing what it is that you are singing about. Recently I was belting out Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights, when it dawned on me that the song was based on Emily Bronte’s wellknown novel. This got me thinking about other songs where the writer has drawn on classic literature for inspiration.

In 1978, aged 19, Kate Bush released her debut single ‘Wuthering Heights’. This musical master piece topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and she became the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a self-written song. In several of Kate Bush’s works she embodies elements of historical and literary references. Her debut single was based on Emily Bronte’s classic of English literature "Wuthering Heights" which was published in 1847. Emily Bronte took inspiration for her novel Wuthering Heights from Romanticism including the novels of Walter Scott, gothic fiction, and Byron.

by Willow Dowd

In the song Wuthering Heights, Kate Bush sings from the point of view of one of the main characters Catherine as she pleads to be let into Heathcliff’s, another main character’s, window. This can be heard in the lyrics ‘Let me in! I'm so cold!’ which is repeated throughout the song.

Kate Bush has a dramatic soprano vocal range which allows her to portray both the childish and erotic characteristics of Catherine. In addition to her broad vocal range, she portrays a ghostly sound by extending the words that she is singing to give it an eery feeling. Heathcliff and Catherine’s complex relationship in the book is mirrored by the many instrumental layers and sounds that you can hear in this song. This inspired piece of musical work by Kate Bush gives another view on the well-known classic which is Wuthering Heights.

There are so many pieces of music based on the well-known William Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. However, I have chosen to write about one song in particular which is a song by a band called Dire Straits, released in 1981 and written by frontman Mark Knopfler, their song Romeo and Juliet has been described as a classic by many. Unlike most song adaptions, Dire Straits decided to take a different view on this renowned play. The lyrics describe the experience of Romeo and Juliet, in which they hint at a situation where Juliet abandons Romeo after deciding she wants bigger and better things. Although many people believe this song was written purely with the play in mind it has been implied by Knopfler himself, that it was based on one of his own personal relationships with Holly Vincent the main singer in the short-lived band Holly and the Italians. Knopfler believes that Vincent was only using him to boost her career. Like so many plays and musical adaptions of Romeo and Juliet, this song portrays a feeling of sorrow and regret. This is created by the simple and repeated melody played by Mark Knopfler on a resonator guitar. At the end of the song we are left with the sad longing of Romeo wanting his Juliet back when the final lyric is repeated ‘how about it?’ This captures the woe that we feel at the end of Shakespeare’s play.

The next song I have chosen is one that is not as well-known but is a favourite of mine. The song is Samson by American singer-songwriter Regina Spektor, despite having never been officially released as a single, it has charted in several countries, and is often considered as one of Spektor's greatest pieces of work.

The song is based on the Bible story Samson and Delilah from Judges 16. In the story Samson is born with extraordinary physical strength given to him by God which is held in his hair. Samson becomes great in his own eyes and begins to pursue women outside of God's plan for his life. He falls in love with Delilah a beautiful Philistine woman. The rulers in Philistine come to Delilah and offer her money if she finds out what makes Samson so strong. Eventually she cuts of his hair and leaves Samson powerless. In this song Regina Spektor has such an emotional, soft tone which creates a feeling of sorrow. The song is written from the perspective of Delilah and the slow tempo represents the regret that Delilah feels after portraying Samson. The simplicity of her voice, accompanied by the piano creates a sense of loneliness and isolation that both Samson and Delilah’s characters are left feeling at the end of the story.

In conclusion, I believe that by basing a contemporary piece of music around classical literature, it adds a level of complexity which enhances our overall experience of the song. Although there are plenty more examples and I am sure you can think of some, these three songs represent this beautifully

Young-adult books... an acceptable addiction?

By Libby Driscoll

Young-adult fi ction writers and publishers are systematically preventing generations from becoming fully literate adults by favouring novels centred around gossip and drama over real culture and challenge.

I, and the majority of my friends who also study literature, have picked up many “cloth-bound classics” such as the works of Austen, Dickens, Christie and Conan Doyle, in recent years. As many people in my generation I was raised on the likes of Harry Potter and the works of authors such as David Walliams. I do not dispute their literary value for a pre-teen, as they are incredibly readable and appealing with simple plot points that are easy to follow; they are a good introduction to the world of literature. However, I remember endeavouring to read my fi rst “classic” book at about age 10 and really struggling to get past the fi rst page, something I have now learnt is a common experience amongst my peers.

After realising this, I went home and did some research. I understand the appeal of nostalgia and the occasional easy read but that didn’t explain to me why, according to an American survey by YouGov in 2013, 53% of women aged 35-54 have not only read all the Harry Potter books but would class themselves as a fan. This continued to the fi lms, with 56% of the audience for the last fi lm being over 25. Again, I understand the appeal to an extent but the style of the series is toxic to the literary interest of a developing reader. It has addictive pedestrian descriptive prose that is seldom found in any other books that are typically acceptable for adult reading. Verlaine once said that he could never write a novel as he would be forced to, at some point, write a sentence like “the count walked into the drawingroom” and the very concept of needing to write something so mundane ruined the allure of a potential

career writing novels for him. This is a fear that does not seem to aff ect Rowling as proven in page 324 of The Order of the Phoenix which shows six consecutive descriptions of how her characters talk, “…said Snape

maliciously”, “…said Harry furiously”, “”…he said glumly”, “…said Hermione severely”, “… said Ron

indignantly”, “… said Hermione loftily”.

This, alone, should be proof enough that modern young-adult fi ction is detrimental not only to attention span, but also to vocabulary when in comparison with books such as Little Women or Treasure Island which are aimed at a similar age range. Is more evidence needed to show the social acceptability of the retreat into infantilism that the voluntary immersion into contemporary young-adult fi ction represents?

On the other hand, reading, no matter what the material, has been shown to drastically improve mental health, particularly in adolescents. It can provide a form of escapism, fantasy books such as Harry Potter in particular. It can also educate on and normalise issues that many teenagers face, novels with focalisers their age can be relatable and can include representation of the 1 in 5 real teenagers who experience mental health issues (according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness). However, inaccurate portrayal of mental illness – especially in online fi ction - can lead to potential self-diagnosis which can have harmful eff ects on the life of the teenager. Self-diagnosis often results in a form of hypochondria and the individual in question may begin to display symptoms of a disorder they do not have; this can lead to a further spread of misinformation and divests attention from those diagnosed.

Through this apparent relatability, the reader may come to believe that the protagonist’s life is attainable and, indeed, desirable. This desirability is furthered by the common characteristics of the hero in many books such as Divergent and Twilight. They are typically reserved yet bold, plain yet beautiful, quirky yet well-liked, inoff ensive yet unique and to top it all off , always hold some distinctive attribute – be it a skill, a power, or circumstance. This juxtaposition enables the reader to easily project themselves onto the character, making their lives pale in comparison. Without the supernatural, a secret power, a dysfunctional family, a love triangle, or an opportunity to save the world, how can they possibly be fulfi lling their potential as they see in the characters that are so similar to them?

Contrastingly, seeing their potential despite their age has been shown to encourage many teenagers into activism in a way they may not have been without the infl uence of young-adult fi ction. This has been shown recently in the news through the number of teenagers backing (and, in fact, leading) protests surrounding the Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion movements. Without the characters in the aforementioned novels they may not have felt that they possessed the power to make such signifi cant changes in a world that can often seem to cater to the middle aged, middle class, middle minded of us, leaving the younger population powerless. Seeing characters such as Tris from Divergent or Katniss from the Hunger Games overcome such adversities may motivate younger people to own their opinions, their voice and such, their power.

That being said, the typical fast-paced, uninvolved prose is hypothesised to be one of the lead causes in the development of such short attention spans in young people today. In fact, a study by Microsoft Canada in 2015 showed that the human attention span is now (as of 2013) literally shorter than a goldfi sh, having fallen from twelve seconds in 2000 to eight seconds less than fi fteen years later, leaving us a whole second shorter than the often-mocked goldfi sh. Given that this statistic is seven years out of date, give yourself a pat on the back for making it so far through this article! In a survey in 2016 over 47% of readers rated their attention span during reading “fair” to “poor” and 80% of these readers claimed that this has prevented them from reading at least one classic book.

In conclusion, I have given you evidence on both sides of this argument but this is really a matter of personal opinion. Whether you’re a die-hard Potterhead or not, I hope you see the potential challenge and growth a classic novel can off er you; and instead of walking straight to the YA section next time you’re in a library or bookshop, will pause and read the blurb of a classic or two.