From “Sommardöden” by Mons Kallentoft. Mom really likes crime novels and she forwarded this the other week. The girl who’s listening to my “bombasms” is murdered in this chapter. We don’t really get to know her, she’s simply a victim.
I was thinking about what kind of cultural reference I have become in a context like this. What does the author want to signal by letting a character listen to my music? When David Levithan mentioned me in one of his books it could be seen as simply providing the story with a soundtrack, or capturing a moment in time. Same thing goes for the piece above I believe. But in the previously mentioned Hey Dolly by Amanda Svensson I become almost like a mirror held up to the main characters. I provide the words for the self pitying, boring ex boyfriend, I become the object of affection for the crazy stalker friend. I seem to symbolize the normal, the stable, maybe even the boring, in an otherwise crumbling world.
Is it better to be the musical choice of the protagonist, rather than the antagonist ? The killer, the investigator, or the victim ? What did Huey Lewis think about Patrick Bateman’s love for his music ? Regardless of the authors intentions I am still reading in as much as I can between the lines. Of course Mons Kallentoft has a personal grudge against me ! And the only way to get it out is to create a character and brutally murder her while she’s listening to my songs.
—Jens Lekman, July 21, 2009
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