I really do hope that you, in picking up a copy or clicking on a link to this week’s issue of the Ram, weren’t actively seeking to question your place in reality. But if you’re into that sort of thing, allow me to indulge you.
Among existential philosophy’s greatest minds — René Descartes, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jonah Ring, FCRH ’26 — is Justin Vernon, the frontman for the indie folk band Bon Iver; and among a discography of acclaimed works, the group’s 2011 album, “Bon Iver, Bon Iver,” feels especially profound and timeless.
While the album is sonically and lyrically innovative, its greatest achievement is its reconception of our existence as humans. Such a reconception feels like an impossible feat for a 10-track sophomore album, but within 39 minutes of runtime, Vernon manages to paint a harrowing yet beautiful image of our place in the universe.
Vernon’s work centers around a terrifying realization: he, like every one of us, is insignificant. “Our lives feel like these epochs, but really we are dust in the wind,” said Vernon of the song “Holocene.”
Beginning with a minimalistic guitar melody and Vernon’s emotionally-charged falsetto, “Holocene” feels like a track out of Bon Iver’s debut record, “For Emma, Forever Ago.” That album, unlike this one, is centered around Vernon’s inability to trudge forward amidst the pain of a breakup. The first verse feels like more of the same: “Someway, baby, it’s part of me, apart from me,” wallows Vernon. As the verse proceeds, Vernon admits to using alcohol as a means of coping, while blaming himself for his loss.
As Vernon sulks, he pauses, realizing something: “At once, I knew, I was not magnificent.”
Suddenly, the melody is accompanied by the toll of a bell, buoyed by the steady rhythm of a shaker, and underscored by a bassline that strikes the soul with its punctuality.
Vernon surveys his surroundings. Yes, he’s not magnificent, but his reality is. “Jagged vacance, thick with ice… I could see for miles, miles, miles,” he sings, detailing the expanse of the world’s beauty, a sentiment reflected in the imagery evoked by the instrumental.
With this track, Vernon is changing the way we perceive our insignificance. The dread that accompanies our powerlessness and smallness can be reconfigured as a tool: we spend our entire lives as balls of emotion. We get overwhelmed by loss and failure — we consider these things, often, to be insurmountably great losses. While we ought to value our lives and the people in them, the ability to step back as Vernon does can make for a great coping mechanism.
As the song climaxes, horns, strings, snares and flutes envelop Vernon’s voice in a glorious cacophony, perfectly encapsulating the overwhelming grandeur of our reality in contrast to ourselves.
Observe our reality: we are one of eight billion humans, one of 100 million species and one of a trillion galaxies. We convince ourselves that our lives are these all-consuming and all-important stories, within which each chapter carries the weight of the world; but even the most significant of losses is an invisible speck in the anthology of our universe.
Taking that step back and realizing your insignificance is daunting, no doubt. While living in such a headspace in perpetuity would be a dreary existence, we should learn to harness our existential dread. In times of despair or emptiness, look outside and consider the vastness and beauty of our world. Consider the minuteness of the moment you live in — in 20 years it will be nothing more than a brush stroke on the painting of your life.
That may be a sad truth, but it can be equally as beautiful.
Of course, my life is not perfect, and it may not be magnificent, either; but when I walk to class with “Holocene” playing, I, like Vernon, can see for miles, miles, miles. In doing so, I realize that my life’s true magnificence is derived from its place within our broader reality.
We may not be magnificent on our own, but the impossibility of our reality is magnificent enough to make me eternally grateful for the life I live, in all of its beauty, pain and nights spent listening to unhealthy amounts of Bon Iver.
