Unraveling Obsession: Inside the Haunting World of The March Xness Anthology
I find that music, like other joys in life — love, luck, and laughter come readily to mind — seems to invite analyses in direct proportion to the very limitations inherent in doing so; that is to say, the more you try to explain intellectually, the less you appreciate or understand emotionally. A song’s appeal (or lack thereof) is essentially a mystery, working its magic (or poison) deeply within the shadows of the soul and often in the bewildering guise of mixed metaphors and multiple meanings: A song can be a burning spear thrust through your heart that helps you live; a song can be a worm crawling in your ear that turns into a butterfly or a badger, or a nightmarish hybrid of both. The key to the mystery seems to be context: where you were and what was going on in your life when The Song took hold of you. As Kathleen Rooney explains this approach in her essay on Terry Jacks’ “Seasons in the Sun” found in March Badness:
