Raw Emotion in a Rare Find
From High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby:
I climb up on a chair and start pulling the singles boxes down. There are seven or eight in all, and, though I try not to look at what’s in them as I put them on the floor, I catch a glimpse of the first one in the last box: it’s a James Brown single on King, thirty years old, and I begin to prickle with anticipation.
When I start going through them properly, I can see straightaway that it’s the haul I’ve always dreamed of finding, ever since I began collecting records. There are fan-club-only Beatles singles, and the first half-dozen Who singles, and Elvis originals from the early sixties, and loads of rare blues and soul singles, and… there’s a copy of “God Save the Queen” by the Sex Pistols on A&M! I have never seen one of these! I have never even seen anyone who’s seen one! And oh no oh no oh God— “You Left the Water Running” by Otis Redding, released seven years after his death, withdrawn immediately by his widow because she didn’t…
The structure of this passage Nick Hornby wrote in High Fidelity is as good as the record find he gifts his primary character, Rob.
There’s a rise and— well I guess there isn’t a fall here yet… It’s just tingling sensation and a huge surge of feeling and then nearly a climax…
I didn’t add that ellipsis at the end of the passage, by the way.
What you see is pure joy in Rob’s narrative voice and in his hands, which Hornby details through many specific words and careful phrases.
Standalone Words
The word “prickle” perfectly sums up the situation the first paragraph describes.
Although there’s a lot to like about the sort of countdown effect of seeing seven or eight boxes of singles, staging the one-by-one process of setting boxes on the floor and picking out their elements individually, you have to wait until the James Brown single to interrupt the flow and then jump-start Rob’s internal physical oscillation.
He reaches the prickle, and you begin to wonder about how that feeling manifests in his fingertips as he holds the record, something worn by decades but still able to elicit emotion from the memories it projects.
The fuzziness or light pointy-numbing sensation that is a prickle moves from his hands into his eyes with “straightaway.” Rob sees the entire record collection as more than just a tower of vinyl discs stacked alongside one James Brown gem. It’s everything he’s ever wanted.
Actually, it’s everything he’s ever wanted until it isn’t, suggested in “withdrawn” at the close of this pass. That rush of emotion might not be everything this gem encounter appears to be. You’ll have to read the rest of the novel to find out.
Phrases
Hornby also adds some essential, choice phrases within Rob’s initial exploration of the vinyl. Hornby’s touches like “catch a glimpse” and the additional “prickle with anticipation” let you see through Rob’s eyes as he starts through the collection. Rob moves quickly from whole to specifics — examining the Brown single — moving beyond that phrasing and taking himself and you into wondering what else could possibly fill these mysterious boxes.
I resonate with how Rob starts “going through them properly.” He automatically begins his own orderly process that my own personality wants to follow. There should be an order to things. Unfortunately, it hardly lasts a few seconds before his find of “and… there’s a copy of ‘God Save the Queen’ by the Sex Pistols on A&M!” The single seems to make Rob pause, maybe even drop the record because of its rarity, and think that this collection couldn’t get better until the immediate following moment — the best part of this scene:
“And oh no oh no oh God— ‘You Left the Water Running’…”
Which in the novel is written like “…oh no oh God—‘You Left…’,” but I write my singular em dashes without a space when I’m trying to denote a pause (like you can see above), and I write my paired em dashes with a space between them (like you can see above above). But the novel doesn’t give a second em dash.
So is Rob’s near-orgasm here a clause or an interruption or somehow both?
I think I split the difference. In any case, it’s exciting for many reasons, perhaps the least of which I’ve distilled here as a mention of grammar and oh the places it can take you.
Matching Words/Phrases to the Character’s Life
The effect of Hornby’s careful word and phrasing choices here build a scene that matches Rob’s progression of thought and emotion.
Rob never expected to find such a haul of records. “I have never even seen anyone who’s seen one!” he says about the Sex Pistols single. This is the rare collection of all rare collections, and Hornby puts it into your hands as the reader as much as he puts it into Rob’s hands.
Hornby lets you inhabit Rob’s experience throughout his quick progression of sights and emotions. Moreover, he lets you feel the core of the character: the idea that musical taste is the soul of a person. As immature as his philosophy of life might be, it’s real for him, and though Hornby fills his novel with these sorts of experience-meets-soul types of moments, it doesn’t get better than this one that’s altogether funny, ridiculous, condensed, and moving in a space that shows it could fit neatly onto a 45.