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September 13, 2021
K.E. Flann's Playlist for Her Book "How to Survive a Human Attack"
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.
Kathy Flann's book How to Survive a Human Attack is as funny as it is inventive.
In her own words, here is K.E. Flann's Book Notes music playlist for her book How to Survive a Human Attack:
Did you know that human attacks account for a staggering 100% of premature deaths for werewolves, swamp monsters, cyborgs, witches, nuclear mutants, and other movie monsters? While humans have never been especially easy to dominate or eat, they are now more savvy, more ruthless, and more abundant than ever in the past 200,000 years. But if you are capable of despair, don’t! Help is available in the form of a new illustrated survival guide, How to Survive a Human Attack, with chapters tailored to specific preternatural beings.
While anyone can feel down in the dumps sometimes, especially if one lives down in the dumps, studies indicate that melancholy correlates to sulking, not to world domination. As you read, molt, or ooze, it’s crucial to keep your spirits up and possibly your demons, too. What better way to shore up survival-grade optimism than to sing into a hairbrush and bop along to a playlist also tailored specifically to you?
The book has three sections. Section 1 -- What is a Human? -- provides a general introduction with useful information about anatomy, habitats, and migrations. Section 3 features appendices for further reading about humans, including Appendix 1: A Compendium of Human Repellents. The book’s sandwich structure, with humans as the bread, is reflected in the playlist, which kicks off with Rob Zombie’s “More Human Than a Human” and ends with three chilling songs about humans’ general creepiness -- “Killing Moon” by Echo & the Bunny Men, “Human Behavior” by Bjork, and “Red Right Hand,” by Nick Cave.
The bulk of the book, Section 2 of How to Survive a Human Attack, features species-specific chapters for mummies, zombies, swarms/flocks, vampires, and everyone in between. The playlist featured here offers songs to cater to every preternatural being in the guide.
Exercise: Below you’ll find the chapter titles for Section 2. Can you match the chapters to the correlating songs on the playlist that follows?
Frequently Asked Questions About Snacking and Mortality: A Zombie’s Guide to Filling the Emptiness and Moving Forward
Swamp Monster Makeovers: Fabulous Species-Defying Transformations to Win Friends and Confuse People
First-Time Haunter’s Guide for Ghosts, Spirits, Poltergeists, Specters, and Wraiths: How to Evict Squatters, Stay on Top of Mansion Disrepair, and Avoid Going to the Light
Self-Training 101 for Werewolves: Sit, Don’t Speak, Stay Alive
Decode Angry Feelings Using C++: A Workbook for Androids and Cyborgs
Home Safety For Mummies: Welcome to the Third Eye Tomb Security System
The 6(66) Habits of Highly Effective Witches: Powerful Lessons in Survival Management
“What’s Happening to My Body?”: Radioactive Mutants and the Safety of the Nuclear Family
USA! USA!: Exceptionally Large Beings and the Unanticipated Stress of Acknowledgement (Large Print Edition)
The Benefits of Collaborative Consumption: A New Employee Handbook for Swarms, Flocks, Schools, Droves, Broods, Colonies, Murders, and Hordes
Sheltering and Aging in Place: Tech Made Easy for Vampires
Monster Mix Playlist
More Human than a Human- Rob Zombie
Surfin Dead -The Cramps
Creature from the Black Leather Lagoon- Dracula and His Band the Draculas
Baby, You’re a Haunted House -Gerard Way
Werewolf -Michael Hurley
Wolf Like Me -TV on the Radio
Robot Rock- Daft Punk
Robot Man - Connie Francis
City in Dust - Siouxsie & the Banshees
Witchcraft in the Air -Betty Laverne
Abracadabra - Steve Miller Band
Maximum Radiation Level - Man or Astro Man?
King Kong -The Kinks
Attack of the Giant Ants -Blondie
Dracula’s Wedding- OutKast
Killing Moon - Echo & the Bunnymen
Human Behavior -Bjork
Red right hand- Nick Cave
Renowned preternaturalist, K.E. Flann, holds PhD’s in disciplines that include Covert Forestry, Urban Disorganization, Robust Outdoor Pursuits, Human Husbandry & Management, and Inter-dimensional Cooperation.
At the Ministry of Preternatural Resources, Flann serves as Cranial Impact Assessment Officer, drawing upon years of experience with paved areas, including Food Lion and the gas station, to ensure safe passage for visitors to the human world. During a distinguished career, Flann designed activities now accepted as best practice for introducing preternatural beings to their surroundings – these include human petting zoos, chasing demonstrations, and audio tours with rentable headsets.
The beautiful Preternature Center is where Flann declines to answer questions from school children, the general population, or workers servicing the snack machines. With the exception of occasional guided public hikes to botanical landfills, during which visitors can collect parking fees, Flann maintains a general disconnect from human society. This lack of commitment provides the trustworthy voice on which supernatural, mutant, and AI beings have come to rely for objective guidance.
Inspired by Roman thinker, Juvenal, who famously said, “It is difficult not to write satire,” Flann eschews difficulty by penning work for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, The Weekly Humorist, Points in Case, Frazzled, Greener Pastures, Monkeybicycle, and other publications.
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