Music and literature often circle the same ideas. Artists in different mediums explore similar themes—memory, alienation, dreams, identity—sometimes without ever meeting.
The Shared Obsessions series looks at unexpected connections between writers and musicians. A novelist and a band might share a fascination with surreal imagery. A songwriter and a poet might approach the same emotional landscape from different angles.
These essays place works from music and literature side by side to see how their ideas echo across mediums. The goal isn’t to prove direct influence but to explore the creative parallels that emerge when artists wrestle with similar questions.
Sometimes the results feel surprisingly natural, as if two distant voices were part of the same conversation all along.
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Leonard Cohen and Anna Akhmatova: Love and Loss
Capitalism and Collapse: George Saunders & Father John Misty
Modern Life Is Making Us Weird: Don DeLillo, Talking Heads, and Consumer Surrealism
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Artificial Paradise: Aldous Huxley & Tame Impala
Some obsessions never fade, they just find new mediums. For Aldous Huxley, it was the search for enlightenment through words, philosophy, and psychedelics. For Kevin Parker of Tame… Continue Reading
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Leonard Cohen and Anna Akhmatova: Love and Loss
Some artists spend their lives chasing joy. Leonard Cohen and Anna Akhmatova were not those artists. Both wrote about love with startling directness, but for them, love always… Continue Reading