What follows is a playlist that I have chosen as an autobiographical representation of my own life. It is not a list of my favorite songs, nor is an attempt to appear cultured in various genres of music. Quite simply, it is a chronicle of the key songs that I have listened to as I’ve gotten older. Each song I have chosen carries special meaning to me. In some cases, the song itself has had an effect on my life, in most, however, it is the memories associated with the song that make it so important. The earliest songs I remember from my childhood are on top. As you go further down in the list you approach modern day. I have chosen not to include more than one song from each artist. As memory is quite unreliable, the timeline of these songs is of course inaccurate, but I have organized them from oldest to newest (to me) to the best of my ability.

I chose to create a playlist because I feel that it is the best way I can give you a feel for who I am without writing a more substantial piece of Autobiography. My music taste has changed with me over time, and it’s that progression that I am most interested in conveying to you. One thing to note about this playlist is that I pay closer attention to the lyrics than the beat in most cases, which is true for some of you and not others. That being said, a few of these songs have very few, if any, lyrics.  I have chosen to keep the list short for the sake of anyone wishing to listen to all of it. Seeing as you likely will have neither the time nor the inclination to do that, however, I would recommend listening to the first and the last, and perhaps even that you pick one of the others at random. I would love to know how many of these you had heard of before now, as well as if any surprised you!

 

(song- Artist)

Silver Thunderbird- Marc Cohn

Faithfully- Journey

2112- Rush

Headstrong- Trapt

Her Diamonds- Rob Thomas

A Horse With No Name- America

In Color- Jamey Johnson

Times- Tenth Avenue North

Keep Your Eyes Open- Needtobreathe

How He Loves Us- John Mark McMillian

Animus Vox- Glitch Mob

Your Hand in Mine- Explosions in the Sky

The Men That Drive Me Places- Ben Rector

Notes:

• Only after writing this have I realized that both the first and last songs have to do with automobiles.
• Ben rector and Needtobreathe are currently my two favorite artists.
• Explosions in the Sky makes excellent music to study to.

In 1928, sociologists Dorothy Swaine and William Isaac Thomas formulated a theory later named the Thomas Theorem (Wikipedia). The Thomas Theorem states that “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Wiki). What the Thomas theorem means is that regardless of the truth to a situation, it is the perceived truth that will determine how the outcome is interpreted and even the outcome itself. The Thomas Theorem is closely linked with the self-fulfilling prophecy, a term created by Robert Merton which can be defined as “a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true” (Biggs).

In Dany Laferriere’s The World is Moving Around Me, he depicts the events during and surrounding the 2010 earthquake that devastated his home country of Haiti. He explains that in writing his memoir he hopes not only to depict the earthquake accurately, but to depict Haiti accurately, something he argues the outside world has failed to do through international media.

“And now here comes a new label that is going to bury us completely: Haiti is a cursed country. Some Haitians, at the end of their rope, are even starting to believe it. […] The only place to fight that label is where it germinated: in Western opinion.” (Laferriere 76)

It’s in this idea of media representation where the Thomas Theorem and the self-fulfilling prophecy become relevant to life narrative. Applying the self-fulfilling prophecy in this case may look something like this: the media says Haiti is cursed, Haitians believe it, they then act in a way that further supports the idea that it is cursed. Now whilst a “curse” may be a difficult thing for any scholar or scientist to identify, the phrase could just as easily be something like “Haiti is more prone to devastating events than other countries”, which is considerably more identifiable as “Devastating events” (some, that is) can be caused by humans and thus can be subject to the self-fulfilling prophecy.

Laferriere is identifying in this passage and in this book something that sociologists may see as a real problem: how the hegemonic way of looking at Haiti could actually in a way be causing Haiti some of its troubles. That being said, it clearly was not this dominant viewpoint that caused the 2010 earthquake. But, it is this dominant viewpoint that causes international onlookers to attribute a tragedy that could have easily occurred in another part of the world to the idea that Haiti is “cursed”. And, if the Thomas Theorem and Laferriere are to be believed, then it could be this hegemonic text that is contributing to the issues that have plagued Haiti for some time.

Having this sociological knowledge assists the literary scholar in that it highlights the very real need for counter-hegemonic text in life narrative and the equally real effects of failing to have diversity in how something, such as a country, disability, or race, is described in text.  How the international community views Haiti is of course beyond the realm of formal life narrative, taking its biggest influence from the media (which can often be its own form of life narrative). However, in The World is Moving Around Me, Dany Laferriere uses his writing to try and fight the dominant and negative view that the world has developed surrounding his home country of Haiti.

 

 

References:

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/prophecies.shtml (definition of Self-fulfilling Prophecy) (Biggs)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_theorem    (definition of the Thomas Theorem) (wiki)

Laferriere, Dany. The World Is Moving around Me: A Memoir of the Haiti Earthquake. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp, 2013. Print