Oh students be joyful! The Spring 2009 term of a Contemporary Lit course at the University of South Alabama is going to set a shining example in the study of mixed media artistry. According to bandleader Chris Eaton, and the USA website, Rock Plaza Central's "sci-fi robotic horse opera" Are We Not Horses (an Exclaim! Year In Review pick for 2007) has been selected as part of an examination of the trend of "cross-pollination" in contemporary literature between indie music and fiction.
Are We Not Horses will be paired with Eaton's The Inactivist, the first of his two published novels. Other musical/literary combos under scrutiny include Jonathan Lethem's award-winning Motherless Brooklyn (rumoured to be in film production limbo, with Edward Norton attached to star), with his first foray into recorded music, I'm Not Jim's You Are All My People, as well as Willy Vlautin's Northline with Richmond Fontaine's Post to Wire. The course aims to "consider not only the issues faced when moving between media, but also whether cataclysmic changes in both the publishing and music industries might, in some fashion, have given rise to this phenomenon."
This marks the third university lit course, including two programs at McGill in Montreal, to designate Chris Eaton's The Inactivist as required reading. Eaton has also written a "cover version" of the Thomas Hardy book A Pair Of Blue Eyes, called The Grammar Architect.
Rock Plaza Central are rumoured to have a new LP in the works for a potential 2009 release date.
Rock Plaza Central "Anthem for the Already Defeated"
Are We Not Horses will be paired with Eaton's The Inactivist, the first of his two published novels. Other musical/literary combos under scrutiny include Jonathan Lethem's award-winning Motherless Brooklyn (rumoured to be in film production limbo, with Edward Norton attached to star), with his first foray into recorded music, I'm Not Jim's You Are All My People, as well as Willy Vlautin's Northline with Richmond Fontaine's Post to Wire. The course aims to "consider not only the issues faced when moving between media, but also whether cataclysmic changes in both the publishing and music industries might, in some fashion, have given rise to this phenomenon."
This marks the third university lit course, including two programs at McGill in Montreal, to designate Chris Eaton's The Inactivist as required reading. Eaton has also written a "cover version" of the Thomas Hardy book A Pair Of Blue Eyes, called The Grammar Architect.
Rock Plaza Central are rumoured to have a new LP in the works for a potential 2009 release date.
Rock Plaza Central "Anthem for the Already Defeated"
