What It Means To Sell Your CD Collection

Bullet With Butterfly Wings

Bullet With Butterfly Wings (1996).

Before Facebook, Twitter, and instant messenger, there was The Smashing Pumpkins and Billy Corgan’s distinctive brand of shareable angst. The mark of a Really Good Band is its ability to remain relevant to listeners 5, 10, 20 years after inception, and The Smashing Pumpkins did this for me with albums like Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness. Now I’m selling everything and feel vaguely ho-hum about it. What does it mean to sell a collection of things you once found invaluable?

You’re divorcing the part of yourself that lived in the music. The Smashing Pumpkins of the early to mid-90′s was predominantly a teenage orientated band, and songs like “Zero” and “Disarm” resonated with kids that dragged around a bag of circumstances from which they seemingly couldn’t escape.  But you do escape, and often without the music. I mostly liked the album art, which evoked an Alice In Wonderland aesthetic and contributed to Corgan’s theme of “misspent youth“:

Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness art

Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness (1995).

Apathy is worse than hate. Every summer I found myself wondering why there’s a corner of my room that remained perpetually dust-covered. Sometimes I flipped through the collection to examine the cover art, but the music itself remained untouched. If a CD collection is losing its intended function, pass it on to someone that can restore its purpose. 

Pisces Iscariot

Pisces Iscariot (1994).

Life happens. The band was not out to comfort, or even to shake your hand, but it did make listeners who felt alone less alone. You were a part of some community that existed only in the radiowaves, and you got to be all esoteric and viciously protective about it, like you were guarding a moonlit prowling haven for a three-legged unicorn that only you (and your schizoid best friend with a sideways glare that rivals Daria Morgendorffer’s) should know about. But after wave upon wave of New Things, the band that was once the center of your universe is now lodged in a gobstopper that orbits Everything Else.

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness art

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1995).

A collage of Victorian otherness from Wisconsin artist John Craig’s cranium, and the distinctive eardrum-grating growls of an Illinois boy who saw the other side: this was life for a while. I can conclude this by talking about how the love of a band that cushioned your adolescence is still alive and well into your 20′s, or how no longer having said band in your life would be akin to being trapped in Pleasantville without the movie magic or comedic interludes, but that would be a lie. And kind of the point.

A playlist to write to

I made a playlist for when it’s raining and dreadful and you’re indoors, composing your magnum opus with an ink-dipped finger and a mug of cheap wine while your 13-year-old ferret-looking dog howls listlessly beneath your mismatched socked feet.

Enjoy!

Three Writing Tips From Harry Potter

Bedroom window

Ye ole childhood bedroom.

I visited my parents recently, and came across the battered Harry Potter books from my formative years. Why was I compelled to devour the boxset as soon as I set foot into my old bedroom in 2013? “Great characters, great plot, realistic outcomes and a gripping premise that never lost its edge,” you tell me. I agree with you, voice in my head. Other authors have also extolled the series’ magic, most notably Nathan Bransford’s Five Writing Tips From Reading J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, but I’m going to put the formula to the test.

The Test: flip to a random page in a random Harry Potter book, and determine why it makes me want to finish the rest of the book.

Tip 1: Foreshadow The Crap Out Of Everything

Harry Potter Philosopher's Stone Page

Page 77, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

J.K. Rowling is a master of the Chekhov’s gun device. She introduces seemingly innocuous objects or characters in the form of mirrors, scars, and in this case, a trading card with information on Nicolas Flamel that will become important later down the story, whether it’s a few chapters away or, in Grindelwald’s case, a few books away. After a few more of these smoking guns, readers will be hooked on speculating the meaning behind every sideways glance or clump of dust. Now that kind of mystery is addicting.

Tip 2: Incredibly Strong Characterization

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Page 112, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets.

There are numerous essays that ruminate over J.K. Rowling’s portrayal of race and “otherness”, and the attached political and socio-economical implications. Then there is the characterization of one’s personality, and nearly all characters in Harry Potter, minor or major, retain a core set of attributes that make them instantly recognizable. And in some cases, instantly relatable. Harry Potter’s awkward teenage romances? Check. Ron Weasley’s constant bemoaning of ridiculously long homework assignments? Check. Hermoine’s rigid moral compass that incites her to make hats and scarves for house elves in protest? If you watch the news, check.

Tip 3: The Conflict Never Stops, And I’m Not Sure I Want It To

Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix

Page 261, Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix.

Poor Harry. If he’s not getting hexed by Death Eaters, he’s getting insulted at school by his enemies’ teenage counterparts. In the summer months, he fights with the Dursleys, and at the Weasleys’, there’s too much chaos from moving bodies and Molly’s dramatics to properly exhale. Harry Potter is never in a place where everything is alright. I repeat: Harry Potter is never in a place where everything is alright. If he is, then he doesn’t linger there for too long. This non-stop conflict sets readers on a seesaw of emotions as they live vicariously through a boy who doesn’t know what’s going on or what he’s doing most of the time. Now that makes a story worth reading (and rereading, and rereading…).

Other stuff found in ye ole childhood bedroom:

Babushka doll

Babushka dolls are a metaphor for The Truly Great Plot: heavily concealed and colourful, with dead eyes and exaggerated lashes.

Millie Ho Character Sketch

Here’s a sketch that was inspired by the Harry Potter series, from back when I sketched with pencil like a normal person.

Hope this post was helpful for your writing endeavours. Let me know if you have additional tips!