inspired by an episode of Dark

[firecat]

What if people walked around in real life with their theme music playing, the way it works in TV, movies, and (especially) operas?

Comments

[sabotabby]

That's why I wear headphones all the time. So that I can pretend that this is happening.

Actually, the other day I was teaching and I guess another teacher was showing a film, and there was this SWELLING EPIC MUSIC and I got confused, but the kids were hearing it to, and then I was like, "the thing I'm teaching you about actually isn't this DRAMATIC but let's just go with it."

[firecat]

Ha!

[cjsmith]

Ooo, that would be nifty. If nothing else, the volume of everyone’s respective theme songs (and who gets theme songs at all) would be a huge indicator of who is important and who is just an extra.

[firecat]

What? Some people don't get one at all? (*haz a sad*)

[cjsmith]

Just thinking that in movies most people don’t.

[firecat]

True, but surely most people play leads in their own movies.

[cjsmith]

Agreed. I like the idea of many simultaneous movies all going on at once. The symphony might be a bit much to follow all at the same time of course! :)

[firecat]

Yes I think it would!

[ironed_orchid]

Maybe the volume is personal, like you here the one's that are important to the story you are in, and the people who are your extras are hearing something you can't?

[cjsmith]

Oooo, I like that! Different movies are happening simultaneously everywhere.

[hitchhiker]

i always think about alexei panshin's line about how "each of us is his own hero, existing in a world of spear carriers"

[cjsmith]

Not familiar with that one. (I’m too short...)

[hitchhiker]

"A spear carrier is somebody who stands in the hall when Caesar passes, comes to attention and thumps his spear. A spear carrier is the anonymous character cut down by the hero as he advances to save the menaced heroine. A spear carrier is a character put in a story to be used like a piece of disposable tissue. In a story, spear carriers never suddenly assert themselves by throwing their spears aside and saying, “I resign. I don’t want to be used.“ They are there to be used, either for atmosphere or as minor obstacles in the path of the hero. The trouble is that each of us is his own hero, existing in a world of spear carriers. We take no joy in being used and discarded. I was finding then, that wet, chilly, unhappy night, that I took no joy in seeing other people used and discarded.”"

[firecat]

Love this quote!

[cjsmith]

Wow, I think I respect whoever that is. That’s impressive.

[silveradept]

That entirely depends on whether I like my theme or not. And how loudly it interacts with other people's themes.

And now I wonder how dating works when you can both hear what it would be like if your themes merged.

[firecat]

Yes, some people, when they meet, might get an entirely new shared theme.

[silveradept]

That probably is taken as a sign of needing to listen more closely to everything and see if the theme is good or terrible.

[firecat]

definitely! and if the kind of theme music that comes up in the show Dark happens when you meet someone, you would know to run away screaming. (Very creepy show.)

[snippy]

I would never leave the house. I wear noise-cancelling headphones as it is.

[firecat]

I think a version of this is why I don't like crowds and parties.

[ckd]

Jody Lynn Nye wrote a story about Theme Music Man, whose power was to generate other peoples' theme music.

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?72979

[cjsmith]

Oooooo. Thank you for sharing that!

[firecat]

Ooh!

[ironed_orchid]

I pretty much have music in my head at all times, but no one else can hear, and it's about 50% earworms (which I guess could count as theme songs).

[firecat]

It's a DARNED GOOD THING that our earworms aren't always playing out loud while we walk around in real life.