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Bach or Falkenbach
Feb. 15th, 2010 10:12 pmHow do the ancient vampires stand the modern music?
Can you imagine a Shakespearean times vampire rocking out to Lady Gaga? (Do "kids these days" still say rocking out?)
And yet, I can tell within a handful of years how old someone is by having them name 5 bands they really like.
When I meet people online, they usually ask what kind of music I like. It's really a useful question because it dates a person so you don't end up talking to jailbait accidentally, and it's useful because if someone is incoherent and grammatically slovenly when talking about themselves you know they're not going to be any better talking about you.
I, um. like Def Leppard and MatchboxTwenty. So I tell people: "I like rhyming lyrics done in trochaic tetrameter sung by men, preferably in a major key with minimal guitar influence." What does that tell you about me? It tells you I don't listen to modern music much (which is true, although I don't listen to any music much), that I am overly conscious of it, and that I am willing to alienate people who want to define me by a non-interest of mine. But I'm not a vampire. My continued existence does not depend upon my being able to blend.
Seriously. How would you stand it?
I keep thinking that vampires would be an awesome historical and societal resource. Of Promethean value.... bringers of light in the darkness. Think about the kinds of medicine and research and linguistics and agricultural knowledge that was stored in the Library at Alexandria. But I think we'd kill them now. Not for any sort of religious reason, though there are enough of those kinds of people too, but because society already ostracizes people who keep to themselves. And now we have a test for it... "what music do you like?"
Can you imagine a Shakespearean times vampire rocking out to Lady Gaga? (Do "kids these days" still say rocking out?)
And yet, I can tell within a handful of years how old someone is by having them name 5 bands they really like.
When I meet people online, they usually ask what kind of music I like. It's really a useful question because it dates a person so you don't end up talking to jailbait accidentally, and it's useful because if someone is incoherent and grammatically slovenly when talking about themselves you know they're not going to be any better talking about you.
I, um. like Def Leppard and MatchboxTwenty. So I tell people: "I like rhyming lyrics done in trochaic tetrameter sung by men, preferably in a major key with minimal guitar influence." What does that tell you about me? It tells you I don't listen to modern music much (which is true, although I don't listen to any music much), that I am overly conscious of it, and that I am willing to alienate people who want to define me by a non-interest of mine. But I'm not a vampire. My continued existence does not depend upon my being able to blend.
Seriously. How would you stand it?
I keep thinking that vampires would be an awesome historical and societal resource. Of Promethean value.... bringers of light in the darkness. Think about the kinds of medicine and research and linguistics and agricultural knowledge that was stored in the Library at Alexandria. But I think we'd kill them now. Not for any sort of religious reason, though there are enough of those kinds of people too, but because society already ostracizes people who keep to themselves. And now we have a test for it... "what music do you like?"
