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April 30, 2019
Saskia Vogel's Playlist for Her Novel "Permission"
In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.
Previous contributors include Jesmyn Ward, Lauren Groff, Bret Easton Ellis, Celeste Ng, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others.
Saskia Vogel's novel Permission is a nuanced and provocative debut.
Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:
"[A] daring and thoughtful study of love, loss, and pain."
In her own words, here is Saskia Vogel's Book Notes music playlist for her debut novel Permission:
When I started thinking about my novel Permission, I searched for songs with a vibe that I thought the book might have. This quickly turned into me listening to an inordinate amount of Lana del Rey. The mood of her music would get me into my book and make me feel like I was writing into a community of texts that shared a similar vision. On a bad day, her music, like so many movies and books on my shelves, would make me wonder why I was writing when these already existed… a despairing sort of feeling, that ultimately, made me dig deeper into what I was writing and why.
I don’t listen to music when I write, but I have always had a rotation of music to get me in the mood to write—music that becomes so familiar it ends up having a trance-like (also Pavlovian?) effect. It started when I was at university and would play Björk’s Vespertine followed by Vincent Gallo’s Recordings of Music for Film. I think there was some Alanis Morissette and Ani Difranco involved, always the same songs. It has been a long time since I made a mix tape. It was my go-to move when I had a crush on someone and I wanted them to crush on me back. I hope this playlist charms you. Permission is a book about intimacy and finding out how you want to give and receive love. I’ve put these songs together, thinking chiefly about my main character Echo and the journey from innocence to experience.
1. Big Star “Thirteen”
This is one of the sweetest songs I know, and a band introduced to me by one of my crushes a long time ago. I’m imagining Echo and Ana, before the novel begins, as best friends who realize that they might be more than friends, that this might be love.
2. Elvis Costello and the Attractions “I Want You”
Frustrated desire is a big theme of this book, both for Echo and Piggy, Orly’s houseboy. In the moment, frustration and yearning can be all-consuming, but for Echo and Piggy, it becomes a catalyst for their journeys. (My favorite version of this song is a live one with Elvis and Fiona Apple. I’ve only ever found it on YouTube.)
3. Lavender Diamond “You Broke My Heart”
This one of my favorite songs about breaking up, and from a band I used to see around Echo Park, where I lived at a time in my life when a lot of the questions I’m exploring in Permission were taking shape. The repetition really drives home the particular timbre of a first-time broken heart. When you loved fully and could only imagine that love lasting forever. Echo could have had this on repeat after things went south with Ana. The song breaks through to the other side, where another adventure begins. For Echo, that adventure was leaving her childhood home behind and moving to Hollywood.
4. Pulp “Underwear”
This is for the part of the narrative where Echo is out of her depths and in an environment where people have a lot of ulterior motives. The song is dirty and disturbing (its #metoo echoes), but also aching. I think about it in terms of Echo not being able to navigate Hollywood and not exactly knowing what she wants, but being on the pursuit of something—validation, fame, a secure place in the world—nonetheless.
5. Felix the Housecat feat. Miss Kittin “Madame Hollywood”
“Everybody wants to be Hollywood” the song begins. Echo is this everybody: the fantasy of power, influence, and bland ubiquity, of being catapulted out of this earthly world into the sky.
6. fka Twigs “Two Weeks”
Though the story of this song can’t be mapped onto Permission, the feeling of this song, and Twigs’ LP2 in general, was one that I thought about a lot when writing Echo and Orly’s relationship. What does it feel like when you encounter a person who will let you be yourself and with whom can you get what you need and want? When Echo finally meets Orly, it’s a turning point, moving Echo closer to knowing herself.
7. Goldfrapp “Strict Machine”
Breaking into the BDSM part of the playlist. I imagine this song might be on heavy rotation in Orly’s sanctuary when Echo is there with her. Maybe it’s Piggy’s song, too.
8. Prince & The New Power Generation “Cream”
This one’s for Piggy. Its referenced in the chapter where he finally meets Orly and realizes that he is worthy of what he desires. A simple, but radical, idea that Echo also struggles to accept. By the way, there is a shadow playlist you could compile, using songs, like “Cream,” that are hinted at in the book.
9. Joanna Brouk “First Meeting”
The writer Natasha Young (Static Flux, Metatron 2018) posted about the twentieth-century California-based New Age composer Joanna Brouk on her Instagram. When I listened to Brouk’s compilation album Hearing Music, there were so many moments that reminded of what is sometimes called “subspace”: the meditative trance-like headspace some people enter when they engage in BDSM play. This is music for Echo’s transcendental and transformative moments with Orly.
10. Massive Attack “Protection”
Permission also looks at family: where and with whom you choose to make a home. There is an elective affinity between Echo, Orly and Piggy, and the three of them—even though they might be at odds at times—choose to care for each other. This song is about feeling safe and loved, the power of offering someone this kind of space, the importance of community.
11. Melissa Ferrick “Drive”
Because Orly and Echo should have a song that’s full of heat and all about women loving women.
12. Madonna “Like a Virgin”
This is a song for the morning after an ecstatic night. Since I was a little kid, Madonna has been one of my spirit guides. She modeled the power of staying true to your vision and of transformation. I like how the song subverts the idea of virginity, moving the idea away from its damaging patriarchal definition. In a way, the arc of this song is also the arc of Echo’s and Piggy’s respective journeys.
13. R.E.M. “Nightswimming”
I listened to this song a lot at the very beginning when I was dreaming about the story that would become Permission. For a while I thought “Nightswimming” might even be my title. This is your outro, the feeling of magic and possibility that I’d like to leave you with.
Saskia Vogel and Permission links:
Guardian review
Irish Times review
Kirkus review
Observer review
Publishers Weekly review
3 Quarks Daily interview with the author
The Mancunian interview with the author
also at Largehearted Boy:
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