Leonard Cohen: The flame

Forlaget Canongate, 2018

Jeg stod i Kongens Have d. 17. august 2013. Aftenen var dunkel sommerblå, der var tusindvis af mennesker omkring mig, og aldrig har jeg nogensinde før mærket så kærlig og forenende en stemning. Alle, der stod der, havde fokus på det samme, og fra det samlingspunkt strømmede der så meget ro og livsglæde, at det smittede os alle; og det samlingspunkt var Leonard Cohen.

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Du tror sikkert, jeg overdriver nu, og at ordene bare flyder fra mine fingre uden at trække betydning med sig, men sådan er det ikke. Jeg mener virkelig, at den stemning var helt unik, og jeg er sikker på, at andre, der var der den aften, vil være enige. Det var magisk. Det var stort. Det var uforglemmeligt.

Og det var lidt et tilfælde…

… at jeg overhovedet var der. Nogle måneder forinden havde jeg set en reklame for koncerten. Jeg genkendte navnet, mest fra min barndom, hvor jeg kan huske en helt speciel dag.

Min far havde fået et nyt stereoanlæg og en nymodens opfindelse kaldet en “CD.” En lille reflekterende plade, der indeholdt musik. Det var fantastisk! Og nu ville han spille et nummer for mig, som han elskede. Det nye stereoanlæg fyldte vores lille stue med den mest utrolige og ekstremt stemningsfyldte sang, som overvældede lille syvårige mig, og jeg glemte den aldrig siden, dens særhed og kraftfulde greb.

 

 

Jeg så altså reklamen for koncerten, og da min far havde fødselsdag kort efter, foreslog jeg mine søstre, at vi lagde sammen og købte ham en koncertbillet. De var lidt modvillige, da min far altid kun ønsker sig gavekort til Moby Disc i fødselsdags- og julegave, og de var bange for, at han ville blive surmulet, hvis vi gav ham noget andet (læs mere om det fænomen her.)

Men jeg satte foden ned og gennemtvang idéen, og så var det ellers bare at vente. Min far blev ganske vist utilfreds, da han måtte vente på sin gave i stedet for det sædvanlige gavekort, men han var alligevel spændt.

Selve dagen var en større opgave. Mine tvillinger var på det tidspunkt kun to år gamle, så dem måtte jeg få passet ved min mor, mens jeg samtidig stjal far, der endnu ikke vidste, hvad gaven gik ud på. Vi bad ham tage pænt, men lunt, tøj på og være klar klokken det og det, hvor vi ville aflevere tvillingerne og tage ham med.

I bilen begyndte han straks at brokke sig (se link ovenover ang. surmule). Han håbede så sandelig ikke, at det var en tur i byen, et drukgilde, anden social aktivitet eller Leonard Cohen, for han havde set i avisen, at han spillede i aften, og manden kunne jo overhovedet ikke synge mere! Der sank mit hjerte… Havde jeg taget fejl? Var det den helt forkerte gave? Og var det rigtigt, at Cohen ikke kunne mere?

Men gjort var gjort. Vi ankom til Odense og måtte indrømme, at det var Cohens koncert, der var gaven. Vi måtte jo bare få det bedste ud af det. Og det gjorde vi så…

Allerede inden koncerten blev stemningen rosenrød og lækker. Aftenen lagde sig blødt om os, folk var glade, spændte. De klappede ham på scenen, hujede, smilede. Og så gik det i gang.

Min far overgav sig helt. Han lo, han græd, han jublede. For det var det, Cohen kunne. Og manden kunne synge. Det var så overvældende. Jeg overgav mig også totalt. Fra at kende et par sange, mest som minder fra barndommen, blev jeg superfan, og jeg svor lige der, at jeg ville skrive speciale om hans tekster, om virkningen af kunst, hvordan det kan transformere et menneske. Og det gjorde jeg.

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Og det blev den eneste koncert, jeg så med ham, da han jo valgte at rejse herfra denne dimension i 2016.

Men jeg har hans ord nu og hans sange. Og der går sjældent en dag, uden at jeg hører eller læser hans værker. Senest har jeg i nytårsgave fået bogen The Flame.

Og her er så den reelle anmeldelse af The Flame.

And ditched on a beach

Where the sea hates to go

With a child in my arms

And a chill in my soul

And my heart the shape

of a begging bowl

Lige meget hvad, så start med at læse Adam Cohens forord. Det er ikke tynget sort af sorg, men af en respekt og en hyldest så stærk; hans ord gør hans far så megen ære. Det er smukt.

Selve værket er en samling af digte, sangtekster og noter fra hele Cohens liv inddelt i tre sektioner. Han arbejdede så hurtigt, han kunne, for at gøre samlingen færdig og efterlod klare instruktioner i det tilfælde, at han ikke skulle nå det. Historien uanset, så er teksterne fuldgyldige Cohen-værker. Han arbejder med følelser på så dybt et niveau, at alt er levende i dem. Hans evne til at trække verden ind i en sætning er uforlignelig. Det menneskelige, det guddommelige, higen, søgen, brænden og død er eviggyldige emner, og han fanger dem ind, efterlader deres aftryk på sine sider og slipper dem atter fri.

I’ve been looking

out the window

at the people

passing by

I don’t ask myself

a question

I don’t even

wonder why

All the stores are

filled with songs

All the streets are

paved with gold

When it comes to

telling secrets

I don’t tell them

till they’re old

Der er nogle menneske, nogle kunstnere, der har en helt speciel magi. I sit forord skriver Adam, at Leonard talte om at brænde, at brænde i sin kunst, for sin kunst. Der er slet ingen tvivl  om, at det var, hvad Leonard gjorde, og det er derfor, han havde så speciel en følelse i sin sang og i sine digte, at han formåede at skabe den stemning ved koncerten, og at hans verden, når du træder ind i kunsten, føles så magisk.

Dengang til koncerten talte jeg om flydende poesi i luften. Det var vist ganske rammende.

Hvis du elsker Leonard Cohen bare en hundrededel så meget, som jeg gør, så und dig selv The Flame.

 

What I talk about when I talk about literature.

Do you remember what it was like when you were a kid and an adult would read aloud to you? Do you remember how it felt as if you were in a completely different world, each word spoken, each word you heard, formed an image, not in front of you, but around you; you were immersed in the story, you lived in another world.

To me it was torture whenever the adult stopped reading. “Enough for now.” It was never enough. Luckily, I fairly quickly could read on my own. Hiding beneath the covers with a flashlight when the adults had said: Go to sleep now. No more reading. But I needed just another chapter, and another. Never enough.

It really hasn’t changed much. Well, except no one tells me to go to sleep now. I’m aware of the consequences on my own, though, watching the clock ticking forward, knowing another day is approaching hastily, but I need just another chapter.

That feeling – that’s what I talk about when I talk about literature: the being immersed in another world, being swallowed whole, losing consciousness in the “real” world and living for a moment, a few hours, in another.

In my master thesis I wrote about how objects of art, paintings, books, sculptures, interact with the consciousness of people and how this meeting between art and consciousness has the power to change a person. Using the theories of Mikel Dufrenne and Jacques Rancière I showed how Leonard Cohen’s songs, for example, can change the (political) world.

The story of the song is echoed in the simple music, the simple set-up, which points the audience’s attention to the images. This combination of the song and the attention of the audience create the aesthetic object that leads to affect. A broken world unfolds and feelings of fear, anger, distrust, and inevitability reveal themselves. The audience retreats from the meeting with the song and its expression, and these feelings remain with a possibility to change how the audience perceives the world. The song points to these wrongs in the world. It points to how the world is driven by greed and lust, and how it is difficult to keep one’s balance in such a chaos.

The song takes on the shape of an appeal to people. The speaker of the song is trying to choose between life and death, he sees a broken world, people driven by lust and greed, and how these people pass this on to their children along with myths of enmity and need for fight. By way of the images, Cohen shows how human beings are small compared to the universe, yet they have the power to change their world. And this is exactly what the song can do by way of affect and dissensus. The audience is left with the feelings of these horrors happening in the world, and they retract to their world to look upon it with a different perspective.

In the song “Anthem,” we come upon a slightly different tactic in Cohen’s art. As usual, he depicts how the world is broken and at war, but instead of opposing this obvious wrong, he shows how this cyclic state will never change. This is a part of the human conditioning, there will always be conflicts, there will always be fights and hurt in the world. As opposed to “Democracy” and “Stories of the Street,” the song “Anthem” offers a solution. The solution lies in love, in turning towards love, which, as Cohen predicts, every human heart will do eventually. However, they might not do this voluntarily, but as refugees. In my analysis of “Anthem,” I show how this line is very important. It creates a rupture, which according to Rancière is essential to create affect and dissensus.

The song “Anthem” is a perfect example of how Cohen uses the concept of love to create affect. It shows how love, used both as a positive and as a negative, is an emotion that moves everybody. The song also presents Cohen’s idea on the highest form of spiritual love as a goal and an ending point for everything. This is where you transcend the world and the human condition.

In the song, Cohen both embraces and pushes away the world. He cannot be a part of it anymore but at the same time, he says the “killers in high places” will hear from him. Although he knows it will never change, he will not let it happen without speaking up about it.

The song shows how art can make a different. It shows how it creates affect in the audience and possibly changes how they perceive the world. The song becomes political due to the rupture, according to Rancière. The rupture creates affect and moves the audience. When the audience is moved, they might see how the police order keeps certain things invisible and how they are excluded from governing and power.

By showing the many forms of love both in “Anthem” and other songs, Cohen points to what is normally invisible to those excluded. He points to the lack of equality and freedom, to how people are victims of poverty, crime, violence, etc. He also points to the idea of spiritual love as a solution, not to save the world, but to transcend the human condition.

“Anthem” as well as the other songs is heavy with imagery and the intense poetic language that is characteristic for Cohen. It is clearly crafted to create affect, to play on emotions, build up a world in the imagination of the reader/listener and leave them changed. There is great intensity in the images and words, they come together as images rather than language, and they show possible worlds, as Dufrenne says. Whereas “Democracy” and “Stories of the Street” seem to leave the audience in a bleak state, “Anthem” offers a hope. The imperfections of the world, the flaws of human kind become their hope. Through the failures, light enters the mind, and this is where you can overcome the world.

“And that’s how I want to end it. The summer’s almost gone. The winter’s tuning up. Yeah, the summer’s gone, but a lot goes on forever”[1]

From language to imagination, from affect to dissensus, and from dissensus to a possible change of perception, poetry turns to politics. With the theories of Mikel Dufrenne and Jacques Rancière, I have analyzed Cohen’s songs to show how the carefully crafted poetry by way of the audience’s imagination can influence how we look upon the organization of the sensible: who are allowed to speak, what is visible and what is not, and how can we change how the sensible is distributed in our world by way of true politics.

 

And this is what I talk about when I talk about literature. The power of the written word, the power of the worlds created in our imagination, the emotion that can be transferred from a book to a reader, the intensity of a few lines of a poem, the way you can read something, look up and feel like another person. This is power. This is perfection!

From Narnia to Harry Potter to Tolkien to Ib Michael to Tolstoy to Umberto to Satanic Verses and Kite Runners. I have wandered through the World of Books, the Universe of Stories, not from one end to the other, but around and around, one corner to the other, changing, learning. We learn when we read, it’s not just about the entertainment, it’s about how we for a moment in time can be someone else, can feel differently, can see through another person’s eyes. Be it good or bad, smart or dumb, big or small, reading brings perspective, perspective makes you a better person, as does empathy, which is another great by-product of reading.

Don’t just sit there. Go read a book.

 

 

Leonard Cohen

I am hopelessly in love with Leonard Cohen.

I admit it, no hesitation. He is everything, he has everything, he is perfection. No less.

I must have been seven or eight years old when my dad told me to come and listen to a song. He did this often. My dad loves music more than life. I am bottle-fed on music; Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath. It’s in my blood.

However, this wasn’t Deep or Led. This was Cohen. My dad cranked the volume, and there it was:

I remember this moment, years and years later. It came back to me when I (re)discovered Leonard Cohen for myself. Older, and wiser, perhaps, I was now a broader experience, somehow. Deeper, still as magical. Now I appreciated the lyrics as much as the sound.

And here they take their sweet repast
While house and grounds dissolve
And one by one the guests are cast
Beyond the garden wall

Sound and words come together into perfection, transcending all what ought to be humanly possible. This is Leonard Cohen.

And then he announced a concert in Denmark, 2013. And it was possibly the greatest concert, I have ever attended. And in the middle of the show, I turned to my beloved spouse and announced: I am writing my master thesis about his lyrics.

And I did. 108 pages about the aesthetic experience of Leonard Cohen’s lyrics. It was beautiful, and it was painful. I spent half a year diving deep into his words, swimming through poems, lyrics and novels, going deeper, resting on this line or that, turning it over and over and back again.

I get chills when I listen to his music, when his liquid poetry takes over and stops time for a moment.

The light came through the window,
Straight from the sun above,
And so inside my little room
There plunged the rays of Love.

In streams of light I clearly saw
The dust you seldom see,
Out of which the Nameless makes
A Name for one like me.

..

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

..

Ah I don’t believe you’d like it,
You wouldn’t like it here.
There ain’t no entertainment
and the judgements are severe.
The Maestro says it’s Mozart
but it sounds like bubble gum
when you’re waiting
for the miracle, for the miracle to come.

..

Trying to decide which to showcase, I realize it would be every song he ever wrote, every poem, every line, if I were to do him justice. So I’ll make do with these quotes. You can read up on it yourself for the rest of them.

I only wanted to tell you that I really, really adore Leonard Cohen.