The Importance of Honesty

“Honesty is always the best policy.”

We’re told this from a young age by our parents, our family, sometimes even teachers but it’s important to analyse why honesty is deemed so important. Honesty is linked to such character traits as being honourable and genuine. This final word, genuine, is significant regarding the topic for today: that of honesty within the creative sphere. Today, I’ll be looking at a couple of artists I admire to make the case that the style of music that is presented makes the listener engage with their songs on a more personal level.

The idea for this blog post came from my appreciation of particular artists and realising why I seem to relate or find deeper meaning from their lyrics than other musicians. It’s a realisation I’ve made over the course of the last few years: that, if the writing of something feels more personal, more raw, visceral and intimate, I become engaged with it on a deeper level, as if it seemingly means more. Let’s look at my first example.

Fiona Apple released her first album, Tidal, at the age of eighteen. Not only being an incredibly talented pianist, she also has an excellent voice – her tone able to range from a quiet whisper to a roaring, pained scream. Her style, both when singing and playing, manages to straddle a line beautifully between being intricate and also somehow feeling naturalistic, as if the lyrics are simply coming to her as she plays. Whether the lyrics of the songs across her discography are about sex, love or the inner turmoil she potentially feels, there is one quality that is undeniable: the way the music sounds and is delivered seems personal. The brutal honesty with which she describes the loneliness, detachment or fear of the characters she creates and writes about draws the listener into the plight due to such raw emotion. This can also be seen in musicians, like Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The music and the lyrics combine to paint a personality that encapsulates the singer. Without knowing anything of Apple or Reznor’s difficulties in their life, you would assume that they have been through pain, suffered great loss and used the medium of music to “deal with” some of the pain.

Here’s the problem with that, however: it’s a dangerous assumption. Writers can get ideas from many different places and, if you listen to many songs that Reznor has written, there is a likelihood that they simply can’t all be personal – certainly not to the same degree. This is one of the beauties of creation and one of the things both Apple and Reznor do so well. Yes, you can read articles about them, research their work to see which songs particularly mean something to them but I would argue, from the listener’s perspective, it actually doesn’t matter.

The beauty of their work isn’t that it’s necessarily personal. It’s that it feels personal. It creates a bond with the listener because of the emotion being conveyed and the way it can relate to another person. To assume that everything a writer creates is personal is never a stance I’ve been comfortable with, but a bond can still be created between the singer and the audience regardless. By assuming that things are personal, I feel like the audience would essentially be limiting the potential interpretations of what’s been created and, if we are to assume, we are creating ideas in our minds about musicians that could simply be fictitious. Look back at the paragraph higher up when I state that Apple has created characters when she writes. This could, of course, be completely untrue and every single song could be about her own struggles, but I strongly feel that it isn’t the audience’s place to assume that. It is within our right to interpret but never to confirm by assumption.  It’s for the artist to confirm which they are well within their right to do.

Take, for example, the song ‘With Teeth’ by Nine Inch Nails. Great song with excellent lyrics about a toxic relationship. It must be about a woman, right? Wrong. It’s about Reznor’s battle with alcoholism that he struggled with before making the album. Now, of course, because Reznor has stated that is the idea and meaning behind the song, I can now categorically tell you one of the meanings of the song. However, if Reznor hadn’t admitted that, the listener could simply assume its meaning and, while I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the assumption, in it lies the beauty of the style. It creates a link between the listener and musician that doesn’t need to be literal or answered. The honesty that seems to be portrayed within the songs make us want to delve deeper into them, to work out all of their intricate meanings, but in focusing on the emotional only, we can embrace the beauty of the lyrics without putting words into our musician’s mouths. To do both is the challenge that the listener faces and really highlights the beauty and importance of interpretation.

The Importance of Character Studies

“I don’t like stories where nothing happens in them.”

This is a complaint you often get with works that are considered to be character studies, and I really want to analyse what this means. Everyone is entitled to their own particular tastes, their own passions, likes and dislikes, and I often find that some people seem to simply dislike character studies. While I personally find the view baffling, I really want to break down why this is and to provide a sufficient counterpoint, to essentially defend their significance in the storytelling landscape.

Firstly, let’s analyse what is meant when people say that “nothing happens.” What they essentially mean is that they find the plot tedious or boring or, to be frank, there simply isn’t much plot within the story’s framework. Character studies are, by their own nature, largely based around the innerworkings of the character – the character’s progression or degradation. Here’s the thing that I find strange, though: character is plot and plot is character. You simply cannot have one without the other – it doesn’t make sense. Characters drive the plot by the simple fact that they exist and plot is simply the character’s story. So, I find the complaint that “nothing happens” bizarre because, by the definition of there being a story and characters, there has to be a plot so things do, technically, have to happen.

Maybe I’m being a little facetious. Obviously, when people are critical in this way, they don’t really mean that nothing happens – they mean that nothing of interest happens for them. I can actually understand that viewpoint more largely because it comes down to a matter of taste. Personally, I’m not a huge David Lynch fan because I find his films oddly jarring; too strangely detached from how most stories are told to be considered compelling. They, undoubtedly, look great and I appreciate Lynch’s skill as a visual director, but often his stories leave me cold. Now, my complaint wouldn’t be that “nothing happens” – it would simply be that what was presented didn’t grip me. People who complain about character studies are clearly saying this, but why? In the same way that I find Lynch’s approach to storytelling a little isolating, why do some just not engage with character studies the way they would with other types of stories?

 

In order to really answer this, it’s firstly important to state that I think there will be some character studies that are liked by every single person. It simply isn’t possible for someone to hate every single one – I genuinely believe that. This is partly due to subject matter, tone, characterisation, plot; this can all affect people in different ways and create significance to one and indifference to another. However, I have a theory regarding why a lot of character studies are dismissed by some. They are internal stories. They can be as much about the psychology of the character as anything else, and some can find that ponderous. Some characters in these stories actually have little to no impact on the world around them because they aren’t central to it – the protagonist is at the centre, and the other characters are simply there to drive the protagonist’s journey. Take, for example, Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The other characters are, of course, significant, but they are largely there to serve Holden Caulfield’s journey. I think it’s an excellent book, but I’ve heard many complain that simply nothing happens.

It is laboured and lazy to say that, of course. When I critique something, as we all do, I never use that phrase because I don’t think it’s fair to the storyteller. There is always something going on; you just simply might not connect with it. Holden’s story is one that centres around him coming-of-age, attempting to find his place – the story drifts along with him, providing the same level of slow burn apathy and alienation that Holden himself feels for the world around him. Stories like this are important because they beautifully describe the internal changes that we can experience in our lives. Sure, these stories might not be as outwardly “thrilling” or “shocking” as others, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have a place. The reason The Catcher in the Rye functions so well is because it’s constantly focused on what it needs to be; a depiction of a character attempting to make their way in the world. Sure, I find action and horror stories, stories that maybe have more elements that are deemed to be “cool” in them, to still be entertaining, but character studies need to exist as a point of counter-programming. Hell, I’m aware that saying that isn’t even fair because, of course, you could have an action or horror story that is also a character study!

Stories are a form of escapism. That is simply how they operate and maybe, for some, these stories don’t take them to a place that feels far enough away from their own concerns and worries. However, I’d argue that character studies connect us to a story in a way that other, less character-centric stories don’t. There is always a plot to every story, but, with the way that the journey in these stories are quieter, more internal, they provide greater insight into the character. If they are done well, they don’t leave me cold, they make me care. They can reaffirm our own belief into the journey’s we’re taking or simply make us feel less alone. For me, there will always be a place for them. Maybe some people simply feel like they don’t need to identify with a story that can, at times, feel so inherently personal to the character centred around it.