Mirah - "Sweepstakes Prize"



Mirah talked to The Morning News in October of 2004:

Since you often sing of consummate love, chivalric struggle, and wayfaring loneliness, I fancy you as a fan of medieval lit. Or maybe just a sucker for a fairy tale? I guess what I’m asking is, what do you like to read?

Well, when I appeared on the Nickelodeon game show Double Dare in 1987 and Marc Summers asked me what kinds of books I liked to read I answered “fantasy books.” My favorite books when I was little were The Hobbit, Watership Down, A Wrinkle in Time, The Chronicles of Narnia—those sorts. I never considered myself a follower of science fiction, but I was always a fan of mythical beasts, strange lands, general pageantry, weird happenings, and fancy outfits. Hence my 12-year-old term “fantasy books” (now that sounds kind of dirty). I liked books that traveled and that taught me something and I liked to relax into my active imagination and to foster what would later blossom into full-blown adult hopeless romanticism syndrome. Books that I’ve loved as an adult tend to be more educational and less fictional.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever read any medieval literature. Maybe I should. I think my tendency towards high-drama imagery in my lyrics comes more from other music that I listen to or being in amazing-looking places or caught in thunderstorms than from what book I might be reading.