The tragedy, as a plotline for plays, novels, short stories, poetry, etc., can be a brilliant expression, evocative of some of the most intense emotions man can experience. When I hear (or write) the word “tragedy”, I immediately think of Shakespeare, and other authors I was supposed to study in high school.
But Shakespeare lived hundreds of years ago. Surely there are modern authors writing tragedies as intense as Romeo and Juliet, or whatever your favorite Shakespearean tragedy is. I don't study modern literature; I don't have the attention span to it. However, I'd like to talk about a tragedy which can be experienced in six minutes and fifty seconds, with no reading involved.
It's called “Dance with the Devil”. It's a song by the rapper Immortal Technique. “Dance with the Devil” tells the story of a young man, and his ambitions to thrive in the manner which he was raised to respect. Immortal Technique, while he lacks the subtlety and finesse which so many of us know and love in Shakespeare, is (in my opinion) an equally brilliant writer.
This is going to be a relatively short post; I don't know enough about traditional tragedies to wax introspective on the style of writing, and I don't want to give away everything in the song. Basically, I just want to introduce it to anyone who reads this blog but hasn't yet heard the track.
I must warn you, it's an incredibly obscene song – both the word choice and the content would make most of my relatives over the age of 30 extremely uncomfortable – but if you don't mind obscenity, and you want to hear some fucked up shit that will make your mind spin, check it out:
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