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Subj: suzanne references.
Date: 96-05-03 13:00:03 EDT
From: mjn1@hopper.unh.edu (mikey john)
To: undertow@law.emory.edu

hi.

while randomly flipping through a book called 'the fermata' by nicholson baker, i stumbled across, yes, our very own suzanne. in chapter 13, a woman is listening to 'solitude standing' in her car...later on, the song resurfaces on a portable radio. there are a couple lyric quotes, i think, too. neat.

mike. :)

Subj: Re: suzanne references in Baker
Date: 96-05-03 17:02:37 EDT
From: Jeremy513@aol.com
To: mjn1@hopper.unh.edu
CC: undertow@law.emory.edu

Mike wrote:

>while randomly flipping through a book called 'the fermata' by
>nicholson baker, i stumbled across, yes, our very own suzanne.
>in chapter 13, a woman is listening to 'solitude standing' in her
>car...later on, the song resurfaces on a portable radio. there are
>a couple lyric quotes, i think, too. neat.

(Suzanne reference coming in this one... stay with me for a few sentences)... Although I haven't read 'The Fermata'-- what I read about it in advance didn't lure me in, shall we say--I'm otherwise a great admirer of Nicholson Baker's work ("Room Temperature" is absolutely wonderful, as is "U&I" in an odd sort of way). Anyway, when 'The Fermata' came out, he was interviewed for 'Entertainment Weekly.' This is the quote that closed the piece:

"I wrote 'Fermata' listening to Suzanne Vega, particularly her album 99.9Fo. It affected my mood in just the right way. I found a kind of maniacal intensity in her music that helped me as I typed. So if 'Fermata' is attacked, maybe I can say i'm not responsible because I was under the spell of Suzanne Vega."

This came in the article w/ no prelude, sort of out of the blue. Plus, you should know that Baker is very funny in a dry way, so he was really sort of more jokey there than it maybe sounds out of context. Anyway, at the time I thought this was a really cool reference, because it showed how one person I really admired really himself admired someone else I really admired. The synchronicity or whatever of it was fulfilling somehow.

Jeremy

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