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July 6, 2021
J. Bradley's Playlist for His Novel "Teenage Wasteland"
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, Roxane Gay, and many others.
J. Bradley's novel Teenage Wasteland is a dystopian absurdist fable that is lyrical, poignant, and incredibly entertaining.
In his words, here is J. Bradley's Book Notes music playlist for his novel Teenage Wasteland:
Teenage Wasteland: An American Love Story is a love story from the perspective of two teenagers in a post-Trumpian America that doesn’t feel so far away. This novel began on my Instagram feed where I wrote 500 words a day for 100 days. Writing this novel was my coping mechanism for dealing with a miscarriage that happened in December 2016 with my ex-wife, along with the election of Trump. Here are 8 songs that are the essential DNA of this novel.
“Sleepwalkin’” - Better Oblivion Community Center
My marriage began falling apart around the time I began writing Teenage Wasteland (early 2017) after we had a miscarriage and we begain drifting further and further away from each other. The core idea of this novel was to tell a story of a romance between two teenagers, from their perspectives. There’s also this underlying theme of both protagonists sleepwalking their way through life to survive the world they live in. Writing this novel was my way of sleepwalking as well.
What I like about this song so much is the conversation between Oberst and Bridgers that happens. It reminds me of the conversations that the protagonists were and weren’t having throughout the novel.
“Dylan Thomas” - Better Oblivion Community Center
I am probably committing some sort of playlist sin here by including two songs from the same band and the same album but this song just speaks to one of the constant themes of Wasteland: “I'm getting greedy with this private hell / I'll go it alone, but that's just as well”. Being a teenager is a private hell. Being married can be a private hell if you let it become one.
“Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” - The Smiths
I thought of my own sad boy romantic wants and whims back in high school when I started writing this novel and let that guide my nameless male protagonist. When you’re in a crisis, nostalgia is a comfort, and writing Teenage Wasteland allowed me to live in that nostalgia when nothing else really made sense in my life.
(I know Morrissey is a complete asshole, but this song is perfect, and it’s such a shame that he’s turned out to be such an asshole. Forgive me for including this song, but I had to for this playlist).
“Hands Down” - Dashboard Confessional (MTV Unplugged)
I’m a romantic and I’m unashamed of being a romantic. The outro of this song is a feeling that we’ve all had and sometimes chasing when we’ve lost it.
“Hands down this is the best day I can ever remember,
I'll always remember the sound of the stereo,
the dim of the soft lights,
the scent of your hair that you twirled in your fingers
and the time on the clock when we realized it's so late
and this walk that we shared together.
The streets were wet
and the gate was locked so I jumped it,
and I let you in.
And you stood at your door with your hands on my waist
and you kissed me like you meant it.
And I knew that you meant it,
that you meant it,
that you meant it,
and I knew,
that you meant it,
that you meant it.”
It’s that perfect beginning of a relationship, or what you hope is going to be a perfect beginning. The relationship between these two protagonists in Teenage Wasteland has such a moment, a moment I wanted to have again in my own marriage, but didn’t know how to say it.
“The Next Time You Say ‘Forever’” - Neko Case
Every relationship has breaking points and how those breaking points are handled show whether your relationship survives. In the height of young, naive romance and in wedding vows, we make these promises that things last forever and there are moments where you’re not sure forever is worth saving. Since Teenage Wasteland is a love story, there are several of those breaking points. Marriages have them too but that’s not OK to mention in our toxic romance culture. We’re so focused on the happily ever after, we never talk about what happens next when things get hard.
“Just Dumb Enough To Try” - Father John Misty
When you’re with someone for a long time and you’ve reached a breaking point, there’s this desire to try again. It reminds me of the sunk cost fallacy, where you have so much invested in something, you stick with it, even though walking away is better for both people in a relationship. I kept that sunk cost fallacy in mind with these two protagonists because that’s what love can be if you’re not careful. It’s my favorite Father John Misty song because it is so direct and honest about love at its lowest moment.
“Coney Island” - Taylor Swift
This is one of my all time favorite break up songs. The conversation about why the two speakers in this song are breaking up is honest, each trying to figure out what they did wrong for these two lovers to part. I think of the lines “The question pounds my head / What's a lifetime of achievement / If I pushed you to the edge?” when it comes to my own failed marriage, what I did wrong, We don’t have the right conversations about a relationship sometimes until they’re too late. We’re sorry for not making for that person our centerfold.
“Home” - LCD Soundsystem (live at Madison Square Garden)
The ending of the Teenage Wasteland feels like this song so much. There’s all this awfulness that happens and it’s important to acknowledge it but it’s also important to know when to let it go, when to move on.
J. Bradley is a writer based out of Orlando, FL. He is the author of the graphic poetry collection, THE BONES OF US (YesYes Books, 2014), with art by Adam Scott Mazer. His chapbook, Neil, won Five [Quarterly] 's 2015 e-Chapbook Contest for Fiction. He is a MFA in Creative Writing candidate at Lindenwood University. J. Bradley runs the Central Florida-based reading series/chapbook publisher There Will Be Words and lives at iheartfailure.net.
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