Fic Rec: Save the Records · 6:54pm Feb 1st, 2015
Soge gave "Save the Records: A Story to be Spoken in the Key of Eb" by TheBandBrony a great review, and I agree with it. This is a powerful... whatever it is.
It isn't a story. It's framed as a vignette, but it isn't really that either. It's a guy after a nuclear apocalypse talking about how important it is to save the records.
I was going to say he talks about why the records are important to him, but he doesn't. Oddly, there's nothing in there showing or recreating directly the effects of music, except by showing that whatever it is, musicians are really passionate about it. Or by drawing analogies to life, like this:
C7
... The middle seems to get the short end of the stick when talking about beginnings and ends, but without it the start and the finish would float around aimlessly, separated by a lack of context. The middle is where you get frightened or lulled to sleep or poisoned with radiation. The middle is where you get opened up. It’s where the music exposes your guts with a blast wave more powerful than any bomb. It’s what keeps you.
F7
It’s all about that middle. The beginning sets it up so it makes sense and the end finishes the job.
Bb7
We’re in the middle right now. We’re in the quiet before the crescendo, the sforzando diminuendo into the crescendo--but not quite there yet. The valley of sound has hit bedrock. There’s nowhere left to go but up. When we’re at our lowest, there’s nothing else to do but lift the sound. Lift it high and let it ring, carry it around and see what it’ll bring. It brings me tips and food, and on occasion ponies like you.
It's not about music. It shows music as one example of what's valuable in life, by convincing you that it could be the one thing someone wants to save most.
Even if you don't read the story, read the comment by RobCakeran53. That's a story. Turns out the guy can write. Who knew?
Rob's comment made my week. I wrote a story--but damn, did Rob write a story.
This reads a lot like a story from one of the Dangerous Visions anthologies.
And Rob's comment reminds me of an old science fiction short story, "The Good Old Days of Liquid Fuel." Only it's not science fiction and it happened in my lifetime.
Mai ou sont les neges d'antan? Which of course means "Where is...Anthony's..." um "...negligee?"
I think translation rather spoils it, actually.