{"id":2282,"date":"2019-12-09T21:59:40","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T21:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/?p=2282"},"modified":"2019-12-11T21:19:16","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T21:19:16","slug":"finding-your-existentialist-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/2019\/12\/09\/finding-your-existentialist-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Your Existentialist Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Rhea Kapur (V)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Existentialism has dominated my last few weeks. What does that mean, exactly? What even is <\/em>existentialism? That question in and of itself, my friends, presents its own existential crisis\u2013\u2013and that should tell you something about just how much it has been on my mind lately. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, existentialism is the pursuit of what \u201cfurther set of categories\u2026 [are] necessary to grasp human existence.\u201d Let that sink in. Deep, I know. And, of course, we teenagers should all be familiar with the \u201cexistential crisis,\u201d a term that is now so ingrained in American culture that it is considered colloquial, dare I say the content of memes. Just to be clear, though, an existential crisis is a moment where we question the meaning of life\u2013\u2013or, conversely, contemplate how life has no meaning. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love to explore different aspects of the Slavic cultures and Russian language. Russian literature offers nothing if not some of the best reading, and many great Russian writers were existentialists. A couple of weeks ago, I was reading Uncle Vanya<\/em>, one of Anton Chekhov\u2019s plays. There\u2019s a line in there that immediately stopped me in my tracks. Helena remarks, \u201cWhat a fine day! Not too hot.\u201d And Voitski (Vanya) responds, \u201cA fine day to hang oneself.\u201d If that\u2019s not existentialist, I don\u2019t know what is. Yes, Vanya perhaps takes it too far, but the sentiment is there. In my Russian Literature HIRT, we\u2019re reading Anna Karenina<\/em>, a great novel by Leo Tolstoy, and a friend of mine recently gave a presentation on Tolstoy\u2019s spiritual crisis. You guessed it: by the end of his life, he was a die-hard existentialist. And, in my American Literature <\/em>course right now, we\u2019re reading \u201cBartleby the Scrivener\u201d\u2013\u2013perhaps one of the strangest short stories of all time\u2013\u2013which presents a perfect case study in absurdism, existentialism, and even nihilism.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, all of this inspired a Spotify playlist, which I have lovingly entitled \u201csediment of existentialism.\u201d In curating this playlist, I had to think about what has had me feeling so existentialist (the literature, obviously, and maybe the crushing amount of work). How could I elicit those same feelings again at a random 2:00 AM, when I really need them? 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came up with two answers. One is slow, melancholy music: \u201cApocalypse,\u201d \u201cNothing\u2019s Gonna Hurt You Baby,\u201d \u201cAffection,\u201d and \u201cK.\u201d These are slow-burning gems from the band Cigarettes After Sex, perfect for those late nights after you return from a memorable night out, or even while you type out one last essay before our upcoming break. Lana Del Ray, with her unique voice and powerful lyrics, has some stars too: \u201cLove,\u201d \u201cBrooklyn Baby,\u201d \u201cOff to the Races,\u201d and \u201cBorn to Die\u201d (that title has me convinced that she, too, is an existentialist) are some of my favorites. All of these songs showcase raspy, unique, and contemplative voices, and they really get my existentialist gears turning, transporting me to entirely new worlds. 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other mini-genre in my existentialist music consists of songs that I\u2019ve associated with a memory. Now, hang with me, folks, we\u2019re getting deep here. What are those sentimental songs for me? \u201cSupermarket Flowers\u201d by Ed Sheeran is one that immediately comes to mind. I know I may have denounced pop in my last column, and Ed Sheeran would definitely qualify as a pop artist, but this song is exceptional; it\u2019s poignant, and above all it\u2019s beautifully sung. Sheeran wrote it to cope with losing his grandmother, and that loss is simultaneously raw and crystal clear in his voice. As someone who recently lost mine, I can really connect to it. Listening, I remember my dadi<\/em>, yes, but I also think about death, the meaning of death, and where we go afterwards. Where is the \u201chome\u201d that Sheeran refers to? What quantifies \u201ca life that\u2019s been loved\u201d and lived, as Sheeran sings? How can we measure that? 
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have lighter songs, too: the last songs of the night that I\u2019ve danced to (\u201cI Lived\u201d by OneRepublic), a Beatles piece a faraway friend of mine used to play me on his guitar (\u201cBlackbird\u201d), or the favorite song of a sister I never had (\u201cThe Monster\u201d by Rihanna). All of these songs\u2013\u2013the happy, sad, and in-between\u2013\u2013make me contemplate life and its meaning. You could say they elicit those existential crises. 
My advice for creating your own existentialist playlist? Find those songs that matter to you \u2013 the ones that make you reason, reflect, and reminisce. Find those melancholy songs to which you wallow, or the upbeat songs to which you sing along at the top of your lungs, shaking out your hair and smiling ear to ear (\u201cStory of my Life\u201d by One Direction, anyone?). If you need inspiration, give \u201csediment of existentialism\u201d a listen. Maybe while reading Dostoevsky (another Russian existentialist\u2013\u2013sigh<\/em>) over break, as I will be. You never know what kinds of existential moments you might find yourself in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rhea Kapur (V) Existentialism has dominated my last few weeks. What does that mean, exactly? What even is existentialism? That question in and of itself, my friends, presents its own existential crisis\u2013\u2013and that should tell you something about just how much it has been on my mind lately. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, existentialism is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":2368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,23],"tags":[18,24],"class_list":["post-2282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","category-music","tag-columns","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2282"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2282\/revisions\/2369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/students.pingry.org\/record\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}