Heavy Metal & Awkward Prose

My good pal, Julie Gomoll, recently introduced me to a cover version of Simon and Garfunkel’s classic, The Sound of Silence  (video below).  This unexpectedly  beautiful interpretation by heavy metal band, Disturbed, took my breath away.  I’m  not a huge  fan of metal, but this haunting version was worthy of multiple listens, which triggered  a memory  I’ve kept  stored in a cardboard box since 1983.

My 9th grade English teacher, Mr. Khouri, was a cool cat whose unique superpower was his  ability to make poetry interesting to a room full of  angsty teenagers   ”no small feat. He treated  us like adults and  earned our respect by  speaking to us in language we could understand; sometimes that language was music.

Since a  thoughtful  investigation into  the deeper meanings  behind  Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher seemed inappropriate, we went back  in time to find a song resembling  poetry. To a bunch of 15-year-olds, anything further back than 1980 was as distant  as William Blake, so Mr. K had plenty of options. He decided  The Sound of Silence  was a worthy challenge and  asked us to interpret it. (If you’re into trite  student essays, scroll down for a real treat.) Thanks to my mom’s excellent record collection,* I was already familiar with the  song but hadn’t really considered  its meaning.

This morning I dug up that assignment  and was surprised to find  a prophetic, if overly dramatic and awkwardly written, paper.  Embarrassing melodrama and repetitive content aside, the thing that sticks out most is how weirdly current it seems. It  could have been written by a technology-savvy kid today (hopefully one with a more extensive vocabulary and fewer clichés).

Keep in mind, I wrote this before  cell phones and  Facebook. Tweeting was bird-speak,  and  the  library card catalog was years away from being replaced by Google.** When we weren’t in school, our parents had no idea where we were or what we were doing, unless we checked in by payphone   ”a hazardous  act  akin to French kissing the outbreak monkey.

My question is this:  What technology was I referring to in my paper? Touchtone phones? VHS recorders? The Space Shuttle…? And  if Teen Weenie’s  interpretation of The Sound of Silence is accurate, what technology were  Paul and Art  referring to in 1964? Color TV? Cassette players? Valium…? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe I’ll ask my mom.

Next time on Weenie Writes: Ilene reflects  on her  essay about  George Orwell’s dystopian novel,  1984.  (No, I’m not kidding. I still have that one  too, and it’s just as bad… maybe worse.)

*For any youngsters who may be reading this, a record is like a very large, round  iPod that spins on a DJ’s turntable, only without the DJ or ecstasy-laced lollipops.

**Again, for the Millennials:  A  library card catalog is basically the Internet in drawers.

The Sound of Silence, by Disturbed:

Embarrassing 9th grade essay: