I was listening to some industrial music just now, and the thought occurred to me: are there novels that feature that cold/aggressive forward gait or tone? I'm wracking my brain trying to think if anything I've read has that same attitude. I don't necessarily mean novels pertaining to the industrial revolution period. Rather, I mean having a written tone (possibly even cadence) more or less equal to that genre of music. Anything come to mind, or do you think it just doesn't translate well?
I like this question, but I'm not coming up with anything off the top of my head. The one that came to mind first was Upton Sinclair's, The Jungle, but I don't think that necessarily fits. I'll think about it. Peruse the shelves and come back.
Tough comparison. Maybe you'd find something in the realm of poetry? Industrial music is kind of stripped tonally--literally at the mixing stage, I think--with lots of otherwise lush sounds sharpened and blended down. Honestly, I think that would reas horribly after 5K words, let alone 90K. But... non-standard comparison.
I tend to associate industrial music not with the industrial revolution but more the time in which it emerged and later- urban decay, rust belts, mass surveillance, neoliberalism/ austerity, the defeats and mutations of 60's leftism. Important literary precursors would include Sade, Blake, Lautreamont, Rimbaud, the surrealists, Burroughs. Modern occult themes are also a major component for many of the key industrial acts- Crowley, Austin Osman Spare. The practice of chaos magick kind of emerged around the same time and with some key figures in both scenes. Some industrial fits with the cyberpunk genre, e.g. Frontline Assembly's album Tactical Neural Implant seems like a perfect companion to William Gibson's Neuromancer. Scifi is generally in the background for a lot of them. Grant Morrison's comic book series The Invisibles has a very industrial sensibility to my mind though that can mean a lot of different things.
Good points, all of you. I have a hard time isolating the countercultural influences of punk vs industrial. Slightly different emergent eras, I know, but that all just blurs together for me. I'll check those books out, though. Spoiler: This is what inspired the thread. Maybe I've got the wrong genre in the first place?
Punk’s experimental spirit was definitely a key factor in the emergence of industrial (and goth and a ton of other things). Maybe one could argue it’s all punk. The idea that there is an orthodox punk sound seems very un-punk to me and I think has more to do with record labels wanting to pigeonhole their markets. Yeah you’re unlocking many memories for me there. I was a teen at the time but I believe David Bowie toured with NIN for his Outside album and a bit of the industrial sensibility rubbed off. NIN was huge then- I remember seeing a NIN laser show at the Franklin Institute planetarium in Philly. Thats a science museum aimed at kids. Can you imagine anyone doing that now ? The 90’s were a lawless time. I actually had a dream recently that Taylor Swift came out with a cover of Ministry’s Thieves. In the dream I was rather over critical of it but if that actually happened I would be insanely impressed. Anyway here’s the opening credits to Season 2 of the 80’s War of the Worlds show, which has a very industrial sensibility (again, whatever that means). Probably my favorite opening credit sequence ever.
