Lewis' Image, "Indian Summer," and How We Deal with Loss

For this particular post, I decided to combine two of our topics with my own extracurricular work: C.S. Lewis' image for his Narnia series, DJ Jai Wolf's song "Indian Summer," and how we as humans deal with loss.

So, first, Lewis' "image." As a former English Writing major, I heavily empathize with Lewis' idea of the image. When I was a child, I would imagine and write stories constantly, gathering a lot of my inspiration from the other art around me, typically movies and books. Before I got any words down on paper, I would have a solid image in my mind of the general plot, the tone of the story, the setting and some of the characters. I would never write a word before considering these elements.


That brings me the song. Recently, I have discovered and fallen in love with "Indian Summer" by Jai Wolf. The song is mostly synthesizer and drum machine with Hindi lyrics electronically altered up several octaves. The lyrics repeat over and over throughout the whole saying, and translate to, in English, "let us take the moon and stay there." The words express love and the desire for adventure, but I believe that the music itself can better express another feeling: that of loss and grief, and the other emotions that inevitably accompany it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPzCzaBhF7s Here's a link to the song, which doesn't have a music video yet. While there are few words, I find the song to be quite moving.

This leads me to my extracurricular work. Since I first listened to "Indian Summer," I have had the same images stuck in my head every time: a young woman experiencing emotional pain and serious grief. She has lost someone dear to her; either her mother, or significant other, or just someone else that she loves. She's dealing with grief that she doesn't understand, and from this grief anger bubbles forth. In her anger she tears through her empty house, throwing picture frames, sweeping items off of tables, destroying what had once belonged to both her and the loved one she lost. Eventually, thought, she would find someone to confide in, someone that feels the same way. As I am a film major, I would like to some day combine these images into a music video.

When feeling grief this strong, anger is to be expected. Anger at the fact that we feel as if we are being personally attacked by the loss, anger at the fact that someone was taken from us, and anger that the loss is occurring period. However, we should know that we aren't alone in our anger, or in our grief, or in our depression. It isn't easy, but reaching out can help alleviate the feelings of grief, as well as those of isolation and loneliness.

I want to make this music video with a message in mind: Anger in grief is okay. And finding someone else who feels the same way will help the feelings immensely.