You can listen to the playlist on Spotify or scroll to the end.
In the first edition of 10 songs, I wrote that this newsletter has been largely inspired by Bryan Waterman’s Research Paper Radio (RPR). The show ran on Sundays ‘9pm to late’ GST on Howler Radio, NYU Abu Dhabi’s largely student-run online radio. Bryan may have then been an Associate Professor of Literature, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Development, and Director of the Core Curriculum, but RPR Host (and Twitter Mutual) is how I primarily knew him. For many Sunday nights throughout my years of college I opened Howler, often with my friend Soaad, and started typing in the barely-functioning chat feature.
I was introduced to a lot of music I like through Bryan, of course, whether on RPR or one of various social media channels. But more importantly than any particular song or artist or mixtape the inspiration I referenced in February 2022 was Bryan’s approach to and love for music - regardless of genre - more broadly; the curious, intentional, expansive, ever-growing, and communal nature of it. It was representative of a broader relationship with arts, with literature, with ‘disciplines’ altogether. To not just acknowledge the blurry lines in between but to blur them yourself, to push them back and forth. Or sometimes, to keep them in place but peak beyond, or hop over, because there is insight and curiosity and beauty on the other side, too.
In undergrad, I was a Computer Science major, though that label did not sufficiently or accurately represent my ‘academic’ interests. I am now a Politics PhD student, though that label, still, of course, does not fully encompass what I do or am interested in. Now that Bryan is back from NYUAD to NYU, last semester I was a TA for his Core Curriculum class ‘Contagion’, and thus also a recipient of inquiries about why a CS turned Politics student is teaching pandemic literature.
Contagion had been taught for many years before the pandemic, but had developed a new layer of relatability post-2020 (more on that in Bryan’s NYUAD 2022 commencement speech). Through a syllabus of texts spanning different geographies, time periods, and diseases, we used contagion literature (and TV) to delve into themes applicable within and outside the discussion of pandemics, including the utility, limitation, and misrepresentation of metaphors, what is revealed about our societies, and ourselves, in times of crisis, and the virality of not just diseases but of language, culture, and (mis)information.
TAing that class was my favorite job I’ve ever had, though the list is admittedly not very long. To seek to thoughtfully, critically, and carefully engage with fiction alongside the students every week had a huge impact on my life after nearly two years of primarily reading social science, as much as I appreciate doing the latter. I learned a lot from the lectures, from the texts, from the students, and from my own analysis and introspection. There are a few different directions I could take in writing newsletters / making playlists that stem out of that experience. This one, however, is more general.
For the past few months, when I’ve heard a song that reminded me of the class in one way or another, I would add it to the playlist ‘contagion’. The relationships to that playlist name are very different, and the cohesiveness might only really makes sense to me.
Some of these songs, though not actually about contagion, use language or metaphors related to plagues or diseases (e.g., Peace Like a River, Pictures of Me, Clusterhug). Others just remind me of themes, characters, or feelings explored in the different works we read or watched in class. Party reminds me of Candace from Severance by Ling Ma. We Are Real reminds of the consumerist culture critiqued in the book. In an interview, Silver Jews’ David Berman said: “You can be fooled by how quiet and folky and gentle it is, but the lyrics are actually extremely angry. It’s kind of about […] feeling like the world is trying to make you into a consumer when you know you’re a human.”
Fake Empire, dreadful and hopeful in spite of itself, can be interpreted as going through the everyday motions, and focusing on the little joys, to get through broader sociopolitical weight. We spoke a lot about routine and intentionality across texts. Half-awake, in a fake empire. Other songs on here for broader thematic reasons are Science vs. Romance and Guiding Light, the latter of which is off Marquee Moon, the album Bryan wrote a 33⅓ book about.
Two of the songs are on the playlist because they were mentioned in the works we studied. Sweet Caroline was in Welcome to Our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe, and Excursions was in one of my all-time favorite scenes of any movie or TV show, from Station Eleven. In the wise words of A Tribe Called Quest, we gotta make moves.
Here are 10 songs that are, perhaps fittingly, not really about contagion.
And happy birthday, Bryan.
10 songs
(Spotify)
Excursions - A Tribe Called Quest
Peace Like a River - Paul Simon
Sweet Caroline - Neil Diamond
Guiding Light - Television
Clusterhug - I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME
Science vs. Romance - Rilo Kiley
Pictures of Me - Elliott Smith
Party - Daughter
We Are Real - Silver Jews
Fake Empire - The National