Victorianitas

I only believe in an interventionist God when it comes to iTunes. Maybe the world won't rearrange itself for me, maybe all prayers will come down to Turgenev's summary "Great God, grant that two and two not make four," but the soundtrack to my life will be chosen with a divine sense of poetry. When I got an apologetic e-mail from a friend I'd fallen out with some years ago, iTunes's shuffle function played the Magnetic Fields' 'I Don't Believe You.' Reading posts on the Foucault blogwars of last year, iTunes played me Cher singing 'Oh, No, Not My Baby'. And walking down the corridor out of the building with my final, final, corrected and revised thesis in my arms, somewhat pissed off with my department and very disillusioned with academia, my iPod played the Ramones song 'Poison Heart' on full volume: "Well, I just wanna walk right out of this world..."

It's not the last time I left that building (hell, I have to be in on Friday to teach). But oh, how I wish it was. It was perfect.

[And on the subject of music, to she who knows who she is: a full mix CD of angry/sad/angrysad songs is available on request. I can also do a sideline in Mindlessly Chirpy Music, if that'd help. I have Aqua on here, and no shame at all.]