R-6

We thought it might be interesting to share a playlist we created for the first trilogy we wrote, especially since we are nearing the end of it in our monthly chapter posts. The trilogy follows Lorcán Maeve as he becomes immersed (and, at times, nears drowning) in a plot to overthrow a tyrant. I started writing in middle school in earnest, and Lorcán's story originally belonged to a Rowan Elric (who makes an appearance in this trilogy) who was involved in a war of Deaths. Somewhere along Rowan's story, I realised I had been forcing Rowan to tell me more of a story that he was unready to tell. Years later, I found a soft-spoken Lorcán at my window, ready and willing to tell his story. Rowan had been a harbinger for the tale, he told me, before he himself was prepared to share his own.

Towards the conclusion of Lorcán's story, I felt the compulsion to craft a playlist dedicated to the themes of his tale, to follow the thread of his journey with music. The playlist shares the title of the trilogy: Insurrection.

Asleep On A Train // Radical Face

This instrumental by Radical Face opens the playlist in the way of chapter 0 in Of Wind & Sea. The song itself opens with the sounds of a train ride, and a soft, wandering piano, in the same way the opening prelude follows Lorcán's wandering through memories towards the beginning of chapter 1. The breeziness of the accordion has always invoked the opening of a passenger window on the train, and the soft wafting in of sea air. I've always envisioned a child sleeping on the train, dreaming as their parent tenderly and absentmindedly strokes their hair, watching the world go by as their child dreams.

Time in a Bottle // Jim Croce

Perhaps the most well-known song on the playlist, Jim Croce's song invokes the magnitude of the tether Lorcán has to memory, to the people he meets on his journey, most specifically – though he likely wouldn't admit it – to the young woman whose death inspired him to persist, to push himself forwards, onwards, always. Of Lorcánisms, this song stands for the notion that galvanises "Onwards, then." the most. It is his refrain to himself throughout the series.

Here Comes the Flood // Peter Gabriel

There are quite a few layers to this song's inclusion on the playlist. The song itself has always invoked in me the image of a people stuck on a flooding island, with no place to properly escape; the image of people knowing they will lose their homes; the idea of people having to choose between living to remember those places they have been, and becoming memories themselves. Such is a prevalent theme throughout the trilogy. Too, is the idea that we might see the flood coming, and while we cannot prevent the onslaught, we might mitigate the damage and losses. And having to choose between objects – homes, belongings – and the living. And, in some cases, between ourselves living and those around us. Choices we all hope we never have to make. Do we choose our homes or our selves?

The other layers, you'll have to find by reading the series. Too many spoilers otherwise.

The 400 // Stars

This song brings me the image of two people being reunited who have been separated for days, months, years, and the last time they met hadn't gone so well. They both love each other dearly, almost too much to bear, and they have known each other for what feels like their whole lives – the most important parts, anyway. And though the world around them has changed, though the places they have lived have varied, the tether binding these two together has not. This is a song of soft yearning, of uncertainty and hope. For the trilogy, this song represents a few relationships simultaneously, though its shade on each coupling brings different hues. Orion and Artemis are one. Lorcán and Slade are another. Rhiannon and her parents. Lorcán and Claire. Others, still.

Kind // Eisley

There is perhaps one person who understands everything I have to say with this song being on the playlist. Without them, I likely would never write; the Collective would not exist; you would not be receiving these posts on Sundays. They and I decided years ago this would be our song for each other.

For all but that wonderful, incredible, magnificent person, for whom an entire chamber of my heart beats, I will elucidate a little further. This is a song of fond remembrance, a song reminding the person to whom the song is sung that it is important to share their load, that they shouldn't hold themselves as Atlas, that they have people who love them and support them and will be there in whatever capacity they might need.

(Those who know me best know that I have always preferred kindness to niceness, that kindness comes with an authenticity and transparency that niceness never could. The nice lie; the kind give honesty. And while niceness can be a tool of survival, kindness is how we thrive, individually and collectively.)

For the trilogy, this song represents what Lorcán hopes to be for others; it also represents what he needs the most himself. And the last line of the refrain is his hopes for those who perish along the way.

Prospekt's March / Poppyfields // Coldplay

The very first time I heard this song, I felt as if I were staggering after a kind of cataclysm, a survivor of something which took the lives of many around me. A storm, a war. And that my fellow survivors were unsure why we were alive, as I, that we realised we had to move on from this, for we had survived, we were alive, and thus had to live. And though we survived together, we were alone to deal with our grief, with our pain, with the magnitude of our lives, and the weight of those who lost theirs. This is a song for Orion as much as it is for Lorcán – especially throughout Of Magick & Sky.

Lakehouse // Of Monsters and Men

Returning to the theme of dreaming, of the worlds we visit while asleep, this song invokes the pleasantness of home, of having a place we belong, of a place we find comfort and warmth from physical and metaphorical rain. This is the feeling of home, of family, of shared memory, of love. Though its initial presence might be found in the first novel, in the zeroth chapter, this song can be found in the scenes of Orion and his siblings, enjoying each other's company; this song can be found where Lorcán and Claire are laughing with each other, and Shannon, too; this song can be found with Rhiannon and Ellesnara and all their friends at the Shaes' house. This song can be found when Lorcán recalls with fondness those moments, those memories of warmth and mirth.

If you listen closely enough, you can hear a warped version of this song in Of Blaze & Cinder, at its close, and the opening notes of the song as it stands towards – well... I can't tell you that other place, as it would spoil the story...

O Children // Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds

Sometimes we hide from ourselves the magnitude of the horrors we are to face. Sometimes we hide from others the magnitude of the horrors we are facing. This song encapsulates both feelings to me. Lorcán does a lot of both. Sometimes, he even hides even from you, the audience. This is something he and his initial tutor have in common.

Running to Stand Still // U2

I have known this song since I was a small child, as the album from which it comes has been part of my sonic atmosphere for the entirety of this lifetime. This song was always one of my favourites, from the band and from the album. It brings me the image of people trying their hardest to escape, running from their lives, the world, everything around them, pumping their legs as best as they can – only to be brought to an immediate and terrible halt. When I first went through an art history course, I used this song to remember Edvard Munch's The Scream; this song was the story leading up to the moment captured in the painting.

For the trilogy, it wasn't so much about the scream at the end, but the stillness. The realisation that we cannot escape the world, that we might withdraw from it, that we might hide from it, but the world remains, and we will inevitably have to deal with it.

Another interpretation, too, is the pursuit of the peace that comes with stillness. We run now so that we might someday stand still.

Letters From The Sky // Civil Twilight

There are many relationships Lorcán has throughout the series for whom this song fits. As with an overarching theme of the Insurrection trilogy, and many of the songs on this playlist, this invokes a strong sense of bittersweetness, of both warmth and chill, of presence and absence. The song is sung from the standpoint of someone who has been left behind by those freed before them, by someone who knows that they will inevitably attain the same freedom, that their ensnarement is temporary, that they will rejoin those absent. The singer wants to spread the word of the promise to them, that all those imprisoned or otherwise occupied shall know freedom. This song carries hope, despite the dire circumstances; that hope, however, is weighed down by the present. There are so many allusions to "one day," to a future time, to looking forward to something – meaning that the present is where freedom is lacking, meaning that the singer must continue to fight their despair, must continue to work towards their freedom.

Instrumental // Future of Forestry

(I thought for a moment that it would be funnier to just leave this blank, but... I couldn't do it...)

The penultimate song on the playlist, this song carries with it the sounds and visage of a street one is walking down. Life goes on around the tune. If the opening track on this playlist is Lorcán on a train, this is the song where he has stepped off the train and is walking to his final destination. People often refer to their last stop as their destination when travelling, but it never is the last stop which is their true destination, is it?

Eclipse // Pink Floyd

This song is kind of the rolling credits of the playlist, of the trilogy; the balance brought by two opposing ideals, and walking between them, the idea that this balance is necessary and encapsulates everything in a cosmic sense. There is the saying that one's ability to hold two disparate ideas in one's mind simultaneously is an indication of a well-developed mind. That is the primary implication of this song on the playlist for this trilogy.

That last line, though... the idea that everything beneath the sun resonates in harmony... and yet the moon might eclipse it... you may draw your conclusions about the implications of Lorcán's story (and its conclusion) there.