Dear Everyone,
The musical reference in “Gabriel’s Inferno” that has generated the most discussion is the mention of Nine Inch Nails. Some readers enjoy Trent Reznor, (the creative force behind the band), and his music. Some readers don’t.
Within the context of the story, Professor Emerson explains that he listens to Nine Inch Nails only when he is in a particular mood. In contrast, Julia never listens to them because she associates a particular song with a bad experience. (Warning: Some people might find the song disturbing and/or offensive)
A character’s musical tastes can shed light on what he or she finds beautiful or meaningful. The music a character avoids can be similarly illuminating, by drawing attention to lyrics or ideas that he or she finds distasteful.
In my conversations with readers, I’ve encountered varying musical tastes (as one might expect). As I pointed out in these discussions, not all my references to Nine Inch Nails are negative. For example, there is a scene in which Gabriel confesses that he has spent a lot of time listening to Johnny Cash’s version of Hurt, which was composed by Trent Reznor. Julia admits that Hurt resonates with her, as well. There is also a scene in which Paul claims to like a song that Trent Reznor recorded with Tori Amos.
In the comments section, I invite your remarks on musical taste in general and on Nine Inch Nails specifically. (I only ask that you don’t post spoilers for the story!)
I enjoy interacting with readers. It’s been a great pleasure to meet many of you through email, Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.
All the best and thanks for reading,
SR
PS. If you’ve read “Gabriel’s Inferno,” would you consider writing a review on Goodreads or Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de?
I am honoured to have had all three of my novels appear on the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists. I was a Semifinalist for Best Author in the 2011 and 2012 Goodreads Choice Awards. {
Hi Mr. Reynard. Thank you for writing yet another excellent blogpost. While I enjoy some songs by NIN, Closer is not one of them. The lyrics are offensive to me. Hurt, however, is a beautiful, sad and somewhat depressing song that I can appreciate when I’m in a certain mood. I agree that music choices can tell you a lot about a person, or a person’s particular mood at the time. I find that for myself, I choose songs that have meaning to me, instead of following particular artists. My iPod is proof of that.
Thank you for sharing your insights and your thoughts as always.
TMoT
I don’t really like the song Closer but I couldn’t help but be fascinated when that song came out. I guess I shouldn’t have been naive but I just couldn’t believe someone not only wrote that song but was singing it so theatrically you had to believe he meant it!! eheh However, I am all for creative expression but that song should have been kept on the album for people to find, not out on the open market.
I don’t think it is prudish to say that either. It wasn’t even just the words, it was the emotion in the vocalist, the passion for the words he was singing. That was beyond animalistic and raw. I wonder if Mr. Rezner has ever discussed what he felt when he wrote that.
Anyways, thank you for sharing more insights Your Authorness. I bow to you.
I suspect that I’m in the minority, but I like the song. I do need to qualify this statement though because it took me a long time to get to this place, and it’s certainly not because of the lyrics. The raw emotions of the song were fitting inside some of the local dance clubs that I frequented around the time of the song’s release, but I have always associated pieces of music with the events of my life, and this one is no different. While working in Los Angeles in early 1995, there was a stretch of time when KROQ insisted on playing this song every morning between 6-7am, while I was getting ready for work, and every evening at about 7:05pm when I was leaving the office. I heard it repeatedly, and the memories from that time are always associated with that song (and a few others that KROQ played to death).
Over the years I’ve often found that it’s the musical elements of song that grabs me, rather than the lyrics of the song. The lyrics are almost always secondary for me, and quite often I sing mindlessly to them because I really don’t pay any attention to them. The melody behind ‘Closer’ is very intense, and strikes deep down inside of you. Reznor’s emotions just add to that. I’ve never really thought about whether this is the norm for most people, or whether most people identify with lyrics first and melody second. I’d be curious to see what others say.
There are few bands that I truly love (and these aren’t the mainstream bands that everyone else loves), and my iTunes is full of one or two songs from a lot of different artists. Sharing songs with people is always wonderful, and I do like listening to songs that others enjoy. Just to see if it’s up my alley. Keep sharing mon ami. Best wishes.
Mingo
P.S. Have you listened to the new City and Colour album? It strikes me that it might be right up your alley – especially since alexisonfire is now toast 🙂
Hi
I am new here. I’ve just bought an ebook copy of GI & the plan is to start it tonight. I’ve peeked in a few times here, but with the topic & the commments I thought I would throw my two cents in.
I completely agree with Mingo; generally the first thing that snags me with a piece of music is just that, the music. That’s why there is such a mix of genre’s on my iPod. Something will tug at my insides on a very primal level, which is why (I’m almost embarrassed to admit) I have a good few pieces of dance music on my iPod. Its what I call ‘doef doef’ music, & while generally its just noise to me, every so often that ‘doef doef’ resonates with something in me.
Lyrics are almost always secondary, for me, but when I do find a song that speaks to me on both levels, well… I can have it on repeat for days.
Nine Inch Nails is very much like that for me. A few of the songs I can live without completely, but many more just touch me on a musical level alone. Closer is one of them (I need to go look up the lyrics now). The incessant beat & rhythm of the song are primal & animalistic, & it seems to me that sometimes its good to embrace those feelings within ourselves. Sometimes.
A lot of NIN’s songs seem primal to me & that’s why I like them. More often than not Reznor’s lyrics are full of emotion too, palpable emotion, even if that emotion is anger, which it very often seems to be.
I am looking forward to the book & to popping in here more often.
I remember chuckling the first time I read the scene in GI where NIN was mentioned. Previous to GI, I came across stories where the authors mentioned that the same NIN song was an inspiration to their writing or it served to further the physical intimacy of the main proponents in the story. GI seemed to dare to be different.
Music is a universal language. And yet one particular piece can invoke different responses from several individuals. It becomes like… Scotch. You like it or you don’t like it, even if it can raise someone from the dead. (winks at the snarky narrator)
I like how J.S. Bach said it, “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul. If heed is not paid to this, it is not true music but a diabolical bawling and twanging.”
Other than prayer, I can think of no firmer link between heaven and earth than music. It’s God talking to us in emotional, sound letters. It can be transcendent. A slice of earthly music does nothing for me though. It makes me think “If there’s a soundtrack in hell…”. That’s ‘Closer” to me. But-I’ve hated a piece of music and a friend will say “but the bass run in the bridge is brilliant.” They saw through the stuff and found creativity where I didn’t. That’s a way for me to be continually more discerning about the nuances of God’s language to us. I still think “Closer” is, the background music in either the 6th or 8th ring of hell, but I can appreciate the bass run!
A lot of people hate “Closer” – and I can see why. Many people find it shocking. Certainly the “fuck you like an animal” lyric is the one most people focus on. I look at it a bit differently. That line is probably the least interesting to me. I see most of these lyrics as a cry for help. He’s “broke up on the inside” “got no soul” and wants to literally crawl out of his skin to get away from himself. His only joy seems to be in this one person who “gets him closer to God”. Sad.
Hi SR 😉 sorry I have not posted on more of your posts here but I read every one.
Music as connected to writing, I just love how you use it SR. The connection with any art and how it makes you feel resonates with me. These songs despite how you feel about them, are provocative and cause a physical reaction in me. I hurt with Hurt. And with Closer, I feel either the animalistic need to be closer and inside or I am repelled by the domination. I like them too, Mingo. I like art in whatever form that makes me feel, and sometimes like the professor I am in a different mood for different music, or art, or writing. The best art does make you feel be it good~bad, happy~sad, dirty~innocent, violent~sweet etc…
In Tori’s Past the Mission “I smell the roses…” love that song. She writes very thought provoking and powerful songs as well, “Me and a Gun” being one that gets to me the most as she recounts her own rape. Still, in it she has hope and a desire to live and get through it. “But I haven’t seen Barbados, So I must get out of this.” She has hope. I wonder if she has seen Barbados.
Johnny Cash’s version (which emotes more to me then the original) of “Hurt” makes me cry every time. The look and sound of him. I hope he didn’t feel this way when he passed on so soon after doing that song and video. The pain in his wife’s eyes as he sings. The pain in his eyes. The closing of the piano at the end, also a closing to his experience and his life. “I hurt myself today, To see if I still feel…” To be in such pain that you go numb. Can you still feel it? Match the pain inside with something real and physical?
The idea of depression, of being suicidal or abusive to yourself or others. Many have had a cliff moment. A girl who cuts or a guy who gets in fights and puts his fist through a wall. But everything is still there. Just like with the professor. He still feels the pain and remembers everything in his life. “What have I become” A monster? Broken. Raw. Hurt. Hopeless and alone. “Everyone I know, goes away In the end.” Loss. Fear that he will pass his pain on to a loved one. “I will let you down. I will make you hurt.”
But even in the end if he could do it again he would find a way to “keep” himself. Redemption. The song itself is a complete story.
Closer, again like the professor if I’m in the mood I do like this song. For some it is too violent. Animalistic. Domination. Devouring. Get inside. But it can also be Passionate. If consensual it could even be fun. Physical. Wicked. The song’s beat, like to a beating heart, my heart speeds up to match it. OF the different kinds of love that the professor speaks of we know where this one falls.
The connection of art to an event can be so real. The way our senses will respond when confronted with a visual or song. For Julia the past event in her life makes her unable to see this song as anything but horrible. IT takes her right back to that event and makes her ill. For the professor it resonated with a mood, but I don’t think he is ever in that kind of mood with Julia and he respects why she doesn’t like it.
However one feels about these songs, I would rather feel it than not. It helps me understand the pain. It helps me to deal with my own pain. A different song for a different mood. A song for a lover. “Our Song”. I pull out the “loving Elli” playlist when I want to think about the love I have for my husband and the life we have together. When I’m stressed I play “Too Much Pressure” by the Selecter and stand up and skank and dance the stress away. Feeling a little lust, ya Ok, F@#$ me like an animal. And sometimes I just want to sing and have no words at all, just feel it, so I pull out my favorites By The Cocteau Twins where Liz sings like an angel with few audible, clear words and I can make it up as I go along.
I think that is all I had to say on this. 😉
SR, thanks again for writing and making us feel.
Iris~Elli
Past the Mission- Tori Amos & Trent Reznor
http://youtu.be/_qJLaLft2Vc
Me and a Gun- Tori Amos
http://youtu.be/8xjlWFjX1Yw
Hurt- Johnny Cash
http://youtu.be/SmVAWKfJ4Go
NIN – CLOSER – The Full Length , Album version Extended video remix
http://youtu.be/_uJ5VKmx6F8
NIN Hurt
http://youtu.be/AvJKVKglIRs
Too Much Pressure- The Selecter
http://youtu.be/ETTKzcIQTjU
Cocteau Twins-Blue Bell Knoll- Caroline’s Fingers
http://youtu.be/Qh83z5vIP0w
Thanks everyone for your comments and musical suggestions. There are so many interesting points here I don’t know where to begin, except to thank you. It’s going to take some time for me to mull these ideas over.
All the best and thanks for reading,
SR
I always seem to be a little late to the game here…
A really good book (and GI certainly meets the criteria) puts me into a character’s life so thoroughly that I experience what’s going on in her heart and her head. I feel that way about Julia as well as Gabriel, and it’s a key reason why I’ll read the story again and again.
I guess we all see a little of ourselves in the characters we become attached to, so I feel particularly strongly about how “Closer” affects Julia. I understand what it does to her because I’d react the same way in her circumstances. Though I don’t like the song, I do think it’s used effectively in the book. It helps illustrate an important and disturbing time in Julia’s life. I agree with previous posters who said that “Closer” describes a person in pain, but I don’t think anyone has the right to hurt someone else because of their own anguish. (To Gabriel’s credit, he is concerned about this very possibility in his relationship with Julia.) “Closer” describes someone who’s pushing a lot of physical boundaries to try and relieve his suffering. I have a really visceral reaction to that because it fails to see the worth of the other person, and it’s about dominance with no regard for the other person. (I have similar feelings about the Rolling Stones’ “Under My Thumb.” I can’t even stand to listen to it.)
To me, it isn’t about making love versus fucking. In a good relationship, there’s room for both. (Key words: “good relationship.” Not sure that’s part of the song.) Honestly, there are times when you want one more than the other, and I don’t believe fucking and loving passion are mutually exclusive. I think “Closer” is about a different kind of fucking, however. It veers off into degradation, which saps your ability to appreciate the divinity of sex. And while it may be a way of getting the singer/protagonist closer to God, I wonder how his partner feels. It’s hard for me to *not* put myself in the other person’s shoes here, and that’s a place I’d never want to be. I can understand why Julia was so upset by it. I think sex and love are as inextricably linked for her as they are for me, and that makes it additionally difficult for either of us to view it all objectively. Not everyone looks at it that way, and I hope that I don’t sound judgmental here because I genuinely don’t mean to be. I know it’s all very personal.
I believe sex is the most profound communion possible between two people, so that’s probably why it’s easy for me to associate it with spirituality. Admittedly, though, I don’t know enough religious or philosophical theory to explain the nature of the relationship among sex, orgasms, and God. I’d agree that sex is a great gift, but perhaps its true extraordinary nature is how it expands our capacity for joy in the physical sense as well as the emotional. In any case, it certainly is heavenly.
I realize that this reply is well over a year from when this post was originally published, but I am a newcomer to the genre of romance novels and the Gabriel series is a new (and favourite) discovery of mine. I’ve been exploring the site, came across this older post, and couldn’t resist adding my comments.
What Elli Iris says above strikes me as very true: “The connection of art to an event can be so real. The way our senses will respond when confronted with a visual or song. For Julia the past event in her life makes her unable to see this song as anything but horrible”…”For the professor it resonated with a mood”
When I reached the part in Gabriel’s inferno where there is the first mention of NIN, I smiled. Then as the book goes on to describe Julia’s memories of the song “Closer” I chuckled, put down the book, and called my husband. Why? NIN is his favourite group of all time and we have a long running inside joke about this song.
I relate to the Professor in that this song resonates with a mood, as Elli Iris mentions. If I look past the profanity of the chorus, I hear a song with a deeper meaning that doesn’t necessarily have to be connected with something negative simply because of a few choice words. My connection with the song is a humourous one that brings a little smirk to my face every time I hear it.
SR, thank you for including this song in your book!
Thanks for your thoughts 🙂 Fun to see this alert pop back up in my e-mail.
Since this time I have built a Youtube Loving Julia Playlist if you wanna check it out. And A tumblr post with the list of songs from SR’s music section here and my youtube…
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL253B24E06C666F44&feature=mh_lolz
http://iriselli.tumblr.com/post/29881405600/music-in-gabriels-inferno-and-gabriels
http://pinterest.com/pin/253257179016452931/
Iris~Elli
Well I think that NIN is something like “you love it or you hate it” Personaly I love the “Closer” part, because the lyric is about to find some kind of help with the sex, it could be hard, soft… whatever, the matter is to “become somebody else” Some people uses drugs, alcohol… “him” uses sex. The song is pretty clear:
“help me
I broke apart my insides
help me
I’ve got no soul to sell
help me
the only thing that works for me
help me get away from myself”
At the end it says “you are the reason I stay alive”
I know, this is NOT poetry, neither a Dante’s piece, but I think that if Gabriel’s Inferno have to be descripted with one song, “Closer” is right.
By the way, sometimes people can’t difference from personal tastes and the characters tastes, and that puts you into a set possition about the matter. For example, what about “Laying in the hands of God”? sure most people love it, but I guess is by the thing that it represents. It’s a lovely song, for a lovely moment. At the same way, I think that Closer is the right thing for the story line.
PS: Mr. Reynard I must confess that I fell in love with your whole work.
Best wishes!
NIN is definitely not for everyone, but I’ve always thoroughly enjoyed the industrial sound, and theirs particularly. Trent Reznor is adept at hiding poignant lyrics within the heaviness of his instrumentation, so much so, that in my early years of listening to his music, I would find myself hit by the almost mournful approach to some of his songs. One of my favorites is ‘We’re In This Together’ which is actually a fantastic love ballad, lyrically, but it’s wrapped up inside the awkwardness of the industrial rock. I think that may be a song the Professor would relate to 🙂
am very much a fan of NIN and Trent Reznor and it is because of the song Closer. I understand those that find the song offensive, but I look at it as I do many Romance or Erotic Romance novels; it’s either for you or it isn’t.
I find that music (which for me is the combination of the lyrics, music, and the vocals) is very much like a novel, but typically with only three to four minutes to express it. Like a novel, there are many books I ‘like’ and consider a good read, but if you ask me about them months later, I may or may not remember the title and the details. Songs are the same way, there are many we may hear so often that we may like and sing along with, but not moved enough to buy it or again, remember much about it later on.
A memorable song like Closer for me has to have interesting/moving lyrics, but then music to draw me in, and vocals to make me feel it and all of that in only a matter of minutes. Closer to me is an erotic song that has a lot of passion. It’s either for some people or it isn’t, but to have an opinion and remember it reflects the impact of the song and the artist.
I like this song.
The first time I heard it was thanks to you. And I loved it.
I’ll say it : I think the music is amazing and makes you enter a way to feel sexy and dangerous , at least for me .
Regarding the book, I think playing because it’s there . I think that at times Gabriel is talking in the song. Is this how it feels before Julia redeem himself .
As to why Closer, scandalized So much to say about it . First, I think the only thing that can scare in that song is ” i want to fuck you like an animal” . That’s it. And I think it ruins the song.
The letter seems fantastic , I think that a man is singing to a goddess , the goddess. And the only way that the goddess can save the mortal is handing his body. (no grab like an animal, no) . The man asks almost shouting , because he wants to save her and for her.
I think the save request through it , it’s almost like a pagan ritual .
And again : ” i want to fuck you like an animal” is not going in that song. But the rest is mysterious and wonderful.
Thank you very much for giving the opportunity to the debate and read about many ways to think .
Greetings .
I love the song. Of course, I had heard the song long before I read your book so I don’t associate it with the book only. I love the way the song makes you feel when you’re listening to it. And I’ll admit there are times when I’d love nothing more than for my husband to fuck me like an animal. In a loving relationship I see nothing wrong with that if both people are on the same page. I enjoy fucking just as much as I enjoy making love. I think too many people get caught up in what society tells them is ok to want or like.