Music can be a conduit for potent emotional storytelling
I've always felt a strong connection with stories told through music, especially by artists exploring the nebula of genres between and around rock and metal. I stumbled onto the German band Mono Inc. a few years ago and quickly grew to appreciate their gothic/folk style and the types of themes they explore through music.
Although I think essays could be written about many of their songs, I wanted to write about 'The Book of Fire' because I think its message is broadly relevant and emotionally impactful. I'm also reading a very thematically relevant book right now, The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence, which approaches the same ideas from a different angle.
Book of Fire - Generated with AI
The story of the song is fairly simple: the sum of human knowledge and history, including our hard-won understanding of magic and healing, is held in 'The Book of Fire' and lost in a bare moment when the book is burned. It is clearly an experience of great loss, yet the song is fairly upbeat in a way that perhaps questions the possibility of hope and catharsis by beginning anew.
"Wise men and shamans They all added lines They all added drawings and spells Warlocks and witches Sages and signs There's more between heaven and hell Now everything is wasted The fables and the truth It's all reduced to rubble Beyond excuse All our race had ever learned Ever learned about life A legend told, dateless old Lost within one night All the magic, dead and gone The wisdom we desire There was thunder and light It was raining all night But it burned with the book of fire"
The baseline reading of this song is powerful in its own right. The lyrics evoke countless lives dedicated to science and discovery, in hopes of improving the human condition and striving to give future generations a better world. It also speaks to me of fantasy tales which end with the death of magic in the world.
Witchcraft, hunts and trials are a major theme of the album, also titled The Book of Fire. The music video above leans into this interpretation, where perhaps witches take sole representation of our relationship with both magic and the living, natural world around us.
This song resonates with me now more than ever because of the relentless assault we are seeing on science, education and critical studies of history. I know that Trump isn't the first president to threaten to dismantle the Department of Education, but right now it doesn't look like there's anything stopping him from burning America's book of fire. The pyre is clearly already lit, and The Handmaid's Tale feels like it's two to three years away at most.
Burning - Generated with AI
"Distemper and healing Science and herbs Collection of knowledge and charm Sketches and karma Potions and rites Instructions to fortune or harm Now everything is wasted The guidance and the hints And we're deaf, dumb and blind Ever since There was thunder and light It was raining all night But it burned with the book of fire We cannot turn back the time We have to live with this disgrace and blame It's been all written down for us So we don't have to do the same mistakes again Now everything is wasted Too late to make a change Our history and future Went up in flames" Lyrics by Martin Engler, Simon Zlotos
The alternate reading, of hope and catharsis, is certainly still bittersweet. Like a forest growing stronger after a destructive blaze, it simply encompasses the hope that the next cycle will escape the mistakes which became ingrained in the doctrine of the previous society.
But that seems tough, even with a push in the right direction. To return to Margaret Atwood, her book Oryx and Crake explores the idea of a 'fresh start' with a group of genetically modified humans inheriting the Earth after their creator does his best to wipe humanity off the map. Yet it quickly becomes evident, in that story and many others, that starting fresh isn't as hopeful as it might sound. Doomed to repeat and whatnot.
Official cover of "The Book That Wouldn't Burn" by Mark Lawrence
Grimdark fantasy author Mark Lawrence's newest trilogy takes place in and around an infinite library, with multiple species warring for millennia for control of the knowledge held within. A key element to this world is that society is constantly being 'set back to the stone age' because of violence and the misuse of knowledge.
There's also a faction in power who use the library mostly to find books that happen to agree with their racist, isolationist, militaristic dictates – but they'll also forge books when needed, since in an infinite library any book is plausible.
I loved this book both for what Lawrence has to say about current and past politics, and for the many clear inspirations he is nodding to throughout. I'll definitely be covering this book in a sequel to my Narnia/Magicians post, since he also writes in the Wood Between Worlds.
Flickers of Firelight
So, support education, authors, libraries, musicians – pretty much anything except for the profit seekers who would burn it all down for a dollar. Consider reading some Mark Lawrence and Margaret Atwood or listening to more Mono Inc. – or Epica, who my next 'Lyrical' post will almost certainly be about.
Thanks for reading!
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