Why am I writing a post tonight when I really should be finishing up my terribly exciting essay on Dewey Decimal Subject Analysis, well, because today is the first day of December and I think now is the time to inform all who are interested that the gauntlet has been thrown down, the now celebrated end-of-the-year playlist challenge is upon us. The last two years have seen a focus on Literary playlists (Don Quixote and Wuthering Heights) however this year we are going for something a little more abstract: eternity. Inspired by the recent ruminations on eternity brought out by ‘The Fountain’, both Perc and myself have decided to go for the eternal treatment in playlist form, still I am hoping for quality over quantity. We have agreed to in some way incorporate elements of Borges’ writing on eternity, most notably his short story ‘The Aleph‘, however if anyone is interested in playing along in this challenge I assure you it is not mandatory to follow so closely to our geek fetishes. What is so great about this topic I think is how much there is to play with, the manipulation of songs and loops and narrative and tone, that I think this could be the very best end-of-the-year challenge yet. That said I have no idea what I am going to do, but that part can wait. For now, if anyone wants to share their own eternal playlist, the deadline is Jan 1st 2007. I look forward to your creativity.
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Here is the added element of stess to the equation – the table is open for negotiating details (i.e. the Don Quixote list had detail-modifiers such as no descriptive writing beyond 150 words per track selection, and only one illustration).
The Eternity list at the moment has no limitations in content, except for trying to tip the ration towards quality from quantity.
Do we want to limit the Borges element to just “El Aleph?” Or set a max to 2 stories of the playlister’s selection? Or limit it to 2 specific stories.
We have until new year’s, and my first proposal is to close the negotiations table for details two week’s preceding New Year’s day, midnight.
Yeah but you know I never keep to rigid limitations… the best I can say is I will incorporate some prose of Borges into the playlist, but that my rendering of the subject will be something organic, born of the relationship of songs that suit a sort of inner vision I have of the theme. I learned a lesson the first time I tried to do the ‘Notes From Underground’ Playlist in a literal chronological way and it stifled the emotional punch I wanted to convey.
That said, my revised ‘Notes from Underground’ playlist should be finishied this month… taking me a ridiculously long time to make but it is my baby since it is inspired from my favorite book of all time.
The short story I was thinking of is called ‘the immortals’, first story in Borges’ ‘The Aleph’. I just read the Library of Babel in a bookstore yesterday and was blown away by it… actually I noticed that his collection entitled ‘Labrynth’ is a good source for this playlist, a lot of the key eternity texts are in it… so maybe we would like to make this a playlist with limits to that collection?
If you want to limit to the eternity texts that can be found in Labyrinths, I’m game.
Uh, we should in fairness tell les readers that we postponed the deadline to the 31st… just in case anybody out there was wondering why the genius playlist has not yet come to fruition.
And that… maybe I’m not limiting my Borges texts to the ones we decided on. This will be a pretty broad, abstract list.
My list, in particular, will be plenty weird… and undeniably badass.
eternal playlist is aptly to take an eternity to finish… been without internet for three days now (accessing here from work)... On the positive front I am almost finished reading Borges’ Labrynths and have the quotations I plan to use… now for the music…