From the Rejection Letter File:A Book about Sufjan Stevens' Illinois

I received a very gracious rejection email today from the editors of the 33 1/3 Series from Continuum Press. This is a great series of small books, each focused on one significant album. While I am obviously disappointed in not being selected, I still highly recommend this series. You can find more information at 33third.blogspot.com.

Below is the proposal that I submitted. Enjoy the book that could’ve been (or I suppose, could be. If anyone is interested in this project, please let me know).



Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

Standing near 8213 Summerdale, Chicago, the address of the now-demolished house where 26 bodies were found in crawl spaces, I will press play on the CD player to let Sufjan Stevens’ “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” be heard out loud mixed with the sounds of the city. What would it mean to stand there listening to Stevens’ tenderly sorrowful song about Gacy the Killer Clown in the very neighborhood where the mass murderer lived his mild-mannered outward appearance?

Traveling to 10 locations that are settings for the songs of Illinois, I will use a CD player to let the music be a live soundtrack, because the music may take on new levels of resonance by being heard on location. My 33⅓ book about Illinois will explore the songs on three levels: place, metaphor, and theology. The album works like an Illinois travelogue. Yet, those places are metaphors that the poet Stevens wields against the heart. Underneath the metaphors lie a theological question: how does the Gospel of Jesus Christ relate to us who share in the metaphor’s universal theme?


Stevens has received plenty of attention as an indie darling making lo-fi, orchestrated banjo music as part of his series of albums for all 50 states. Reviews mention that Stevens sings about God in music that sounds like Nick Drake, Iron & Wine, and Elliot Smith. This 33⅓ book would take a deeper look at these aspects while also working at the level where people compare Stevens to Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor created a world of place, metaphor, and theology; Stevens has done the same. By traveling with Illinois to be played out loud on location, the project will follow the narrative qualities of Stevens’ literary art.

Place: Songs for Historical Markers
The songs of Illinois rise out of the places connected to the people and moments in the history of the Land of Lincoln from Superman to Casimir Pulaski Day to the Columbian Exposition to Andrew Jackson. To see more fully how the sense of place works with these songs, I want to take the music to those places. I want to see how the music of “Come On! Feel the Illinoise!” causes the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to reappear around the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, one of the remaining buildings from the event. “Chicago” is about leaving the Midwest and moving to New York, so I want to listen to the song next to the Skyway Toll Bridge—which whisks you east away from Chicago.

Discovering the sense of place in “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” will come from hearing the song at a location of Gacy’s home. Does the neighborhood today betray any of the sorrow of the tragedy? Does the song help a listener imagine Gacy the Clown going to work while his dastardly secret remained at home?

Metaphor: I Am Illinois
Traveling with Sufjan Stevens as historical society docent, the stops along the way will unlock the metaphors found within the lyrics. These songs are not limited to being historical markers on the road to Peoria. The poetry evokes universal themes from the geographical spaces. For instance, the Superman statue in Metropolis, Illinois, will stand tall as a metaphor of the hope for a savior in Stevens’ song “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts.”

Stevens lends that metaphorical level to Gacy’s story—a famous story that is an avenue to seeing a universal theme of dark secrets. In the concluding lyric, Stevens sings, “And in my best behavior/I am really just like him.” Not many artists would choose to tell Gacy’s story with empathy, but in doing so, Stevens has made Gacy less like a monster and more like a broken man.

Listening to that empathetic treatment on location may further unleash the power of the metaphor. We tell and retell certain stories not because they are wholly different from our own lives, but rather because we see something of ourselves there. Could it be that someone from the neighborhood looked at Gacy with compassion and understanding as Stevens’ song does? Could it be that the song is a metaphor for our own struggle to reach out to those who are so abhorrent to us?

Mile after Miracle Mile: Theology in Illinois
Stevens has never denied his Christian faith, but he shies away from letting that define who he is as a musician. With a careful eye towards the implications for a general audience, part of this reflection on Illinois will involve searching out the theological core. Certainly you can admire Illinois without sharing Stevens’ belief in Jesus Christ, but the exegesis of Illinois must take his theology seriously.

While the concluding lyric from “Gacy” mentioned above speaks to the metaphorical level of the song, it also works on the theological level as if a confession of sins in a Christian worship service where a believer does not point at others but instead sees in the sin inside. The very process of seeing Gacy with compassion is a theological move based on Jesus saying, “Love your enemies.” Stevens challenges the listener to see the biblical teaching that God sees all sins as equal and all people as sinful.

Outline
Each chapter could include a photo of the CD player on location.
I. Introduction: At Stillman Valley for “The Black Hawk War”
II. At the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry for “Come On! Feel the Illinoise! (Part I: ‘The World's Columbian Exposition’)”
III. At 8213 Summerdale, Chicago, for “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”
IV. In Jacksonville for “Jacksonville”
V. In Decatur for “Decatur, or , Round of Applause for Your Step Mother”
VI. On the Chicago Skyway Tollway for “Chicago”
VII. Outside Mercy Medical on Pulaski Road for “Casimir Pulaski Day”
VIII. At the Super Museum, Metropolis, for “The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts”
IX. At site of the Grand Opera House, Peoria, for “Prairie Fire That Wanders About”
X. Conclusion: At the Chicago Fire Museum for “The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders”