sufjan and me

I’m still thinking a lot about the Age of Adz.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I have this tendency to stumble across a particular author or artist or figure and then develop a fixation (obsession?) with the person and their work: Debussy, Thomas More, Kierkegaard, T.S. Eliot, Jim Croce…. (Side note– I wonder why there are no women on that list.)

Anyway, I’ve read a number of reflections about the album and interviews with Sufjan. You probably don’t care, but just in case….

interview with some insight into his faith:
http://thequietus.com/articles/05085-the-age-of-adz-sufjan-stevens-interview

detailed and thoughtful analysis of the grand finale, “Impossible Soul”:
http://www.enchantmentunderthesea.org/2011/01/13/number-3-sufjan-stevens-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%9Cimpossible-soul%E2%80%9D/

album considered with regard to ambition:
http://www.cokemachineglow.com/record_review/5723/sufjanstevens-ageofadz-2010
art as a medium through which he tries to come to terms with himself:
http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4141197-%E2%80%9Ci-feel-much-more-optimistic-right-now-%E2%80%9D-dis-meets-sufjan-stevens

In that last interview, there’s one particular question and answer that struck me.

DiS: The album is predominantly written in the first person, with you addressing yourself at certain points – perhaps most explicitly on ‘Vesuvius’ – which explores some pretty dark themes, but also comes off like a bit of a pep talk…

SS: There’s a kind of solipsistic, insular dialogue going on in some of these songs. It’s a little bit self-centred; a little bit disparaging, but also meant to encourage myself out of a state of mind, a despairing state of mind. I don’t necessarily think that that makes for great art, but I think that it was important for me to showcase this kind of process, of confrontation with my own, resentful disorders. My emotions.

———-

When I think about these people I fixate on, I think it must be because in them and in their work, I see certain elements of myself. Maybe that’s selfish. Maybe it speaks to the human desire to be connected with others, to whatever extent that is possible. Certainly that is what I want– to affirm continuity between myself and the other people who inhabit this world, to find tangible expressions of a common humanity that is shared by us all. As much as our society totes individuality, it seems to me that the individuals I know are mostly concerned with trying to overcome it, for the sake of connection and community and unity.

And now we’re back to Sufjan’s ”Impossible Soul”:

DiS: ‘Impossible Soul’, for example, traverses all these different places – from calm to questioning to triumphant… before reverting to… a really quite beautiful close. It sounds a bit like a plea for unity, as well as an admission that we can’t expect everything to go well all the time. Does that sound right…?

SS: It’s like a Woody Allen film, you know, where there’s the slapstick on the surface that everyone can appreciate, but then, deeper, there’s all these original details. Maybe at the heart of a good Woody Allen film there’s some kind of universal tragedy of humanity that he’s speaking about; a much bigger thing. ‘Impossible Soul’ is really about a very primitive object. I want to get with a girl, and there’s all these obstacles, and shortcomings, and miscommunication… and this is a basic fundamental of life, between two human beings.

But then very quickly – through an expository detour – it becomes something else. It’s all about personal happiness, or the state of mankind, or the cosmos – the cosmos is drawn into it. And then it becomes about… what is at the heart of our inability to really connect? Is it fear, or is it self-consciousness? And then it becomes a kind of therapeutic discourse that becomes the centrepiece of the song. But it’s no longer about, just like, “girl, I want to get with you.” It’s more like… what’s wrong with civilisation (laughs).