Please send your replies to posts to VegaNet@AOL.COM

Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 16:03:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Wendy Marie Chapman
To: Undertow@law.emory.edu
Subject: Suzanne Vega and Carson McCullers

Okay, the new topic of Suzanne Vega firsts is "most excellent" some of the pieces written are very beautiful and it seems that everyone has been impacted greatly by Suzanne's music.

I would just like to get input on what people think of Suzanne Vega and Carson McCullers (author of The Memeber of the Wedding and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter--among others) Carson is my favorite American Writer and I really feel that Suzanne posesses some of the same elements in her writing that were familiar in Carson's writing.

I think a strong parallel between the two writers is certainly their characterizations. Carson always chose characters who were marginal. Usually young, adolescent females or as in "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe"--characters living on the fringes (a migit etc)--She wrote about what the world looked like through the eyes of these marginal characters, giving new perspective--giving voice to perhaps those who have had no voice.

Am I on a tangent or do people recognize that in Suzanne's characterizations? Certainly Luka--as a character--can be seen as marginal and a voice from the fringes (finally the world through an abuse child's eyes--finally that voice is heard). Also, "Calypso"--in literature is seen as a seductress and usually gets a bad rap. She is, perhaps representative of the dangers of feminine whiles (sp?)--a distraction for men of ambition. Suzanne portrays her very differently, and thank the goddess that I had done some intense Calypso listening before reading the Odyssey. I was able to look at Calypso with a more sympathetic eye. The wanting of woman--the need for connection with another human soul--the isolation!

Then, their is Casper Hauser--another marginal character--a previously unheard voice.

It is interesting to note that these characterizations are always in the first person narrative--making them personal--adding to their haunting quality but at the same time making the listener feel as if they are intimate with this marginal character--pulling the listener into this characters world and not letting the listener get away without some kind of--not sympathy--but understanding of this marginal life.

I hope there are other McCullers fans out their--I would expect the literary world to maybe be tuned in, but, I am an American Literature major and Carson appears in NO anthology of American Literature--and I have never read her for a class. You can bet, though, that my students will know and understand Carson McCullers when I enter the classroom. Unless my friends here on Undertow think I'm nuts about this, Suzanne may be brought into that as well--studies on marginal characters--etc. (Don't expect me to write my disertation on this--it would be interesting, but I'm already committed in another direction--but wouldn't my Undertow pals just love me if I wrote my disertation on Suzanne Vega's music?)

Wendy!

Blurp everybody !

I'm absolutely not new on this list, but in fact it is the first time that I contribute...
Just like Wendy Carson McCullers is my favorite American writer, but maybe it is because I don't know much about American littereture.
I always wanted to send a message to the list to talk about the link between CMC ans SV, but I didn't dare because each time I realised that I hadn't many precise facts to write on that subject.
This link has always been obvious to me, but I never could analyse it. I can't say it is because of the characters, the stories... Maybe it is, I don't know.
Maybe it is that these two artists are, I think, very close as human beings. Both girls/women, both musicians, both writers, and with a few important common characteristics. The type of girl who, as kid, can hardly be differentiated among a group of boys playing together, the kind of women that could not be on the cover of fashion magazines. In fact, not 100% girls...
In "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter", the fact that "every one is a woman and a man" semms to me clear through Mick (that is "almost" CMC), and of course obvious through Biff.
And there must be something true in it. And this probably why, as a boy/man, when I read any book from CMC and when I hear most of the SV's songs, I think something like "how could they guess ?!", "how are they doing this ?!"... In fact I feel very close to these books and songs. They are women, I'm a man, but we share a lot of things (mentally).
And this happens only with these two artists.
I love the music and the songs of Sinead O'Connor for exemple, but it doesn't touch me the same way as SV.
Maybe the reason for this is just that the "boy" proportion in these two persons (I wrote persons, and not artists...) is higher than in others, and maybe my "girl" part is also important (and it is probably the same for most of the real SV addicts).
A "practical" aspect of this parallel is the kind of writing (maybe I'm wrong because as a French I can not do a fine analyse on this subject). It seems to me that they both write a very simple way, with the minimum number of words, but always with the right words. They know ("knew" for CMC) how to express their feelings with the most efficient way.
So for me that these two aspects ("easy writing" and "mala/female ratio") are the most obvious links between Carson McCullers and Suzanne Vega, and these are also the reasons why their books and songs touch me so deeply.
Please, don't hesitate to go further/deeper... I think my point of view may be "disturbed" by the fact that I love their works and persons, which makes me slightly unable to provide a clear and logical analysis.

Mourad.

PS: sorry for my poor english

Hey Everyone,

In a message dated 95-10-13 08:35:49 EDT, you write:

>I always wanted to send a message to the list to talk about the link between
>CMC
>ans SV, but I didn't dare because each time I realised that I hadn't many
>precise facts to write on that subject.

I think that Suzanne did an evening of reading Carson McCullers stuff a couple of years ago... I don't know if that was a one-time thing... Maybe someone on this list who attended could provide more info...? Did anyone tape the event?

Am I correct?

Eric

Hi Everyone -

A couple of days ago I wrote,
"I think that Suzanne did an evening of reading Carson McCullers stuff a couple of years ago... I don't know if that was a one-time thing... Maybe someone on this list who attended could provide more info...? Did anyone tape the event?"

Here's Suzanne's reply:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------

"Yes, someone taped it -- I did, in 1988 and MTV did in 1992. It was a version of a one-act play I wrote when I was in college, based on the life and work of Carson McCullers. I did it as my senior thesis project -- dressed up as her, spoke in her Southern accent, smoked like her and later discussed her work with the audience. The original version had songs based on her short stories and was called "Nothing Human", based on a quote she liked -- "Nothing human is alien to me". It was about an hour long.

"I submitted it for a CAPS grant in the early 80's and it was rejected, but I have taken it out over the years and dusted it off -- performed it at benefits, readings and stuff like that. I have a couple of the readings on tape, and even some reviews from some of the shows (good ones). The last time I performed as her a few years ago, it was filmed by MTV -- they used a piece of it for something -- but I decided not to perform it any more as I felt the material was becoming too neurotic, or maybe I was becoming too neurotic -- at any rate I felt that I had outgrown it.

"For a time in my life she meant a great deal to me. I still like her writing. Funny how this connection isn't common knowledge but is in the air nonetheless."

Suzanne

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------------------------

I expect the next question you'll have is "So, how can I get a copy of the tape?" :)

More soon,
Eric