This is my favorite piece you have written. You illuminate perhaps THE iconic song of our time, and expand on it and fill it and elevate it, focusing on one of the richest words in our language, HALLELUJAH, a word that transcends religion, and even God, yet is as spiritual and soulfull a word as there is. Wow!
It's interesting, there's another song that I think ranks up there with Cohen's: Handel's Messiah, of the same name. How odd that both songs capture the same duende, the same soul-lifting, ineffeble quality, that lifts you out of yourself, into the ethersphere, whether you are religious or not. How does that happen? What is it about the miraculous word?
I actually think part of it is something you hit on weeks ago: delight. Hallelujah takes your eyes off yourself and is the most human expression of delighting in something else, something that delights you, something that elevates you.
Happy birthday to All the Comfort Sin Can Provide! Like all your books, I find pleasure in rereading it. It yields new riches each time. And thanks for introducing me to the concept of duende.
This is my favorite piece you have written. You illuminate perhaps THE iconic song of our time, and expand on it and fill it and elevate it, focusing on one of the richest words in our language, HALLELUJAH, a word that transcends religion, and even God, yet is as spiritual and soulfull a word as there is. Wow!
It's interesting, there's another song that I think ranks up there with Cohen's: Handel's Messiah, of the same name. How odd that both songs capture the same duende, the same soul-lifting, ineffeble quality, that lifts you out of yourself, into the ethersphere, whether you are religious or not. How does that happen? What is it about the miraculous word?
I actually think part of it is something you hit on weeks ago: delight. Hallelujah takes your eyes off yourself and is the most human expression of delighting in something else, something that delights you, something that elevates you.
Happy birthday to All the Comfort Sin Can Provide! Like all your books, I find pleasure in rereading it. It yields new riches each time. And thanks for introducing me to the concept of duende.