Should fiction mention song names and iPods?
In my novel, the protagonist is depressed. In the story which is in my mind...
The autumn leaves were falling as I was sitting alone and Gary Jules' "Mad World" was ringing in my iPod.
The setting is in 2013 and it was normal then to listen to MP3s and iPods.
But I've read that it's lazy writing to express the state of mind or event by just mentioning third part scene. I mean I can also elaborately mention her state of mind by showing all the other things that are happening.
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It tells us nothing
The phrase Gary Jules 'Mad Mad World' has no emotional resonance with me whatsoever. It is not shorthand for "a specific emotional state".
Popular music is not a universal experience. It can signal to your "tribe": people who are the same age, gender, financial tier, and probably race – the same demographic targeted by that particular marketing campaign. An example is in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a funny scene where characters argue about Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit as if it is monumentally important because they are high, and it's a druggy song.
I had to consult the other mood cues in the sentence: "falling autumn leaves" and "sitting alone" – both of these are mundane, regular occurrences that everyone experiences regardless of their mood – assuming they have seasonal trees, chairs, and occasional privacy.
Ironically the leaves were the only mood cue that I understood (that and the context of the question), ironic because it seems the least personal. Not everyone feels melancholia at a quiet moment, if you have a small child this might sound like a dream vacation.
Working backwards, I had to figure out that sitting alone and emo-music are all reflecting an emotional state, but it took me extra work to get there – I think that's the opposite effect of what you're hoping a culture reference will convey.
To be honest, radio-friendly pop songs are also mundane regular occurrences that everyone experiences, regardless of mood (often in spite of mood). It is like an over-used cliché. Even when people get your reference it doesn't convey anything personal or unique, so it's not doing the work. It must have been experienced randomly by (hundreds of) millions of people since the autumn of 2013.
I think it's dead weight. It's not conveying depression. I don't really think it works as a time-place cue either since it's not connected to any particular era or news cycle that would help me pinpoint the reference (ie: hippies arguing about drug-music from the '60s).
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/46239. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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But I've read that it's lazy writing to express the state of mind or event by just mentioning third part scene. I mean I can also elaborately mention her state of mind by showing all the other things that are happening.
That's absolutely true, as a lot of other answerers have pointed out. Referencing a famous song like Mad World is not enough to portray depression, after all. Imagine someone reading your story on a crowded bus, or in a public park filled with the voices of playing chidrens, or waiting at the dentist office ... Even knowing the song by heart, it would be difficult to recall the music (and those precise feelings) in one's heart in such a situation.
What you can do is using the song as a launching pad.
I can also elaborately mention her state of mind by showing all the other things that are happening.
Absolutely, do this. It's not being "elaborate", it's doing a good job. Instead of relying on a famous song to describe those feelings, paint a picture of your character being in a dark mood as autumn leaves fall down. You can even describe the music itself:
The autumn leaves were falling as I was sitting alone and Gary Jules' "Mad World" was ringing in my iPod. His low, resigned voice filled my ears; words speaked with a melancholic pace as the notes followed. I turned up the volume, to the point that it almost ached, insulating myself from everything else. I was alone.
I you want a reference, Murakami often describes a lot of music in his novels (mostly because he worked for years in a jazz pub, so he must be pretty knowledgeable). Whenever he talks about a piece, he speaks about the notes, the tones, the emotions it provokes, and his characters reaction. The final result is that you don't actually need to know the music he's talking about to see what effect it has on the story, or what kind of atmosphere it builds.
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There's nothing wrong with mentioning specific songs or tech in this way.
And while it's not lazy writing to use songs as a tool for conveying a character's mood it is to rely on them solely. Expecting the reader to take them listening to a particular song as meaning they are sad just isn't going to work (unless you've already somehow established that as being their go-to "I'm sad" listen!). Humans can have both semantic and episodic musical memory and the contents of both will vary from person to person.
Semantically the Gary Jules cover of Mad World for me is things like who played the piano (Michael Andrews), what film it was recorded for (Donnie Darko), when it was released (2003) and so on. It's facts not emotion. For the emotional aspects you have to go to the episodic memory - and for me those are happy memories (I enjoyed the movie, I saw it at a happy period in my life etc.)
So if you're looking for a reader (in this case me) to realize your character is sad and to empathize with them you're out of luck.
And if I'm honest there really isn't much else in the snippet to point me that way either:
The Autumn leaves were falling
Tells me the time of year - it doesn't really convey much about mood though. You can use weather to help establish mood but rarely in isolation. Autumn leaves are not in themselves inherently sad - they are a popular tourist attraction in parts of the United States!
as I was sitting alone
Tells me the POV character is alone. Unless there's preceding information that this likely to be something that they either do when depressed or is something that would cause them to be depressed it indicates nothing more or less than that they are alone in this scene.
Your comment on another answer:
Actually, I have already made it clear to the reader that she is under depression and in just next paragraph I had added emo-lines from the song.
Confirms that we are firmly in "lazy writing" territory here. At a wild guess I'm going to say those quoted lines include either:
Their tears are filling up their glasses
or
The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had
or both. You aren't using your words to show me how the character feels - you're using someone else's. If the intent is to show that the character is a person who takes "emo" lines to heart as if they are y'know..really deep, then that's a different thing and I don't think that's what you are aiming for.
You've got scenic elements in the snippet that could be used to provide a lens on the character's mood and state of mind - you just need to take those opportunities:
I was sitting by myself, watching the autumn leaves fall. The piano notes of Gary Jules' Mad World playing on my iPod giving each slowly tumbling leaf a melancholy sound track which suited my mood. I was alone.
There's the same key elements of your original but they are tied together - and to the character's state of mind to set the scene. You can tell that the character is feeling melancholy by how they perceive their surroundings.
Also note that the attributes of the song that are necessary for the effect are described. That way it may be beneficial for the reader to have heard the song but it's not required. In the original wording if the reader is unfamiliar with the song, or potentially even worse if they are merely familiar with the original version of the song,(which is an upbeat synth-pop track!) you risk conveying no emotional cues or even opposite emotional cues to what you intend.
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Lots of novels go into detail about music, movies, TV shows, and other art and culture relevant during the setting of the book. Also technology.
In some cases the cultural details are important to the setting. High Fidelity is all about the music; failing to mention it would have ruined the book. In other cases, giving those details evokes a particular era. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has so many details about the main character's use of computers that it dated itself before it was even published.
Writing a book that is grounded in a particular time and place is not a bad thing. You just have to decide if it's what you want.
Listing songs won't be enough to engage the reader though. You can do a few as mere mentions as background, but remember most readers won't be familiar with it. For example, I know the song Mad Mad World quite well but couldn't tell you which version is Gary Jules'. But others won't know the song at all.
So weave the songs and the tech into the story. Not too much or you risk boring the reader or slowing down your narrative. And not all the time. Just enough so the reader gets a feel for it. Have your character manipulate the iPod. How does s/he skip a song or choose a particular one? What's the process of picking a playlist and downloading it to the device? What's a line from a song that the character loves or hates or perseverates on? How does the beat or feel of the songs s/he prefers affect her/him?
Get in your character's head and enter her/his world. Make your reader do the same. That's not lazy writing; that's what you're aiming for.
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