Written by Brenda Nicholas

The fiction world is no stranger to mixed media art forms. The graphic novel comes to mind, as does electronic publications, and the newly toyed with interactive short story. Vancouver writer Kevin Chong, however, argues that most novels about rock music fall drastically short of a Springsteen glory day. He says “Writing a rock novel is like setting your story in a hothouse of solipsism. Then there’s the problem of describing music — no matter how many adjectives you throw at a fictional song, they only demonstrate their inadequacy.”

Do we believe him? Is it true that there is something about describing sound, specifically, musical sound that exists above and beyond the reach of a laptop keystroke? He argues that rock ’n’ roll novels such as Salman Rushie’s The Gound Beneath Her Feet; Don DeLillo’s Great Jones Street, and Jonathan Lethem’s You Don’t Love Me Yet fail to blend high and low-brow art in any—pardon the pun—groundbreaking way. Since I’ve only read one of these three books, and I’m very much not a musician, I’m not going to claim to be an authority on the rock ‘n’ roll novel, but I must disagree with his dis on Rushdie. I thought that is exactly what Rushdie accomplished with his novel—the blending of high and low-brow art.

What’s interesting about Chong’s position is that he starts his essay citing the famed Frank Zappa quote about rock journalism, that it is full of  “people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read.” Does this mean Chong terms rock music as low-brow and the novel as high-brow? If so, what is it about rock music that is so infinitely beyond the writer’s grasp?

As always, we are here to listen to what you have to say. Please, feel free to shed some light (or darkness) on this topic, readers.