The Singles Club uses pop culture to make high art

I had read that Phonogram vol 2 The Singles Club was the right place to actually start the series, the best of the three volumes. 

Well, I read the first volume first anyway. And quite enjoyed it. I found the complaints that you have to be familiar with the indie music scene for it to make any sense to be heavily exaggerated. You just have to understand fandom in general. 

Then I picked up The Singles Club. And couldn’t put it down lol

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The Singles Club describes the same night at a club seven different times. Wikipedia claims it’s based on a real event but I couldn’t find any other reference to that. More than that, there isn’t any dramatic moment in this evening. It’s eight different people having a night out.

I also want to note that this isn’t a Rashomon story, at least as I understand the term. None of the stories contradict each other. They are just different points of view.

(Rashomon is a movie that has really stuck with me. I know Kurosawa didn’t invent the concept but, man, he created such a definitive example. The dead husband testifying through a medium was so wild to me. And I also appreciate that every single person, even the woodcutter, turns out to be lying)

But that formula wouldn’t be enough to make for a good read. No, the reason the Singles Club is good is because the art and the writing come together to give memorable, believable, flawed, sympathetic characters. 

And the characters are everything. All of the action is internal. There isn’t a dramatic plot structure. Instead, we watch pretty much every character end a touch wiser than they started. 

And then they stick the landing with Kid-With-Knife. Who isn’t a serial killer and whose name I _think_ is a reference to the band Knife. A band I have only heard of through Phonogram. He’s a big, loveable goof. He was the Chas Chandler to David’s John Constantine in the first volume. And he’s convinced David to teach him about Phonomancy.

And KWK works so well as an endnote because he is such a contrast to every other character. He may be a loveable idiot but he knows who he is and he is comfortable in his own skin. His reaction to phonomancy instructions being listen to the music until it fills you is ‘Hell, everybody does that’

Truth to tell, as an old duffer, I related to Rue Britannia better. However, as a work of art, the Singles Club is better. The journey seems to go nowhere but takes you so far.