My Jandek Plague Journal: 3/25/20 "Worthless Recluse"

"Go, and be alone, and stop crying/Well it's not any fun/And I look at myself being busy/And I know I'm putting something off/What is it?" The titular track from the Representative's third and, so far, final a cappella album. What is the work I'm not yet doing? What am I putting off? Despite people going into self-isolation, the myth of productivity, the cult of the job endures. "What will you accomplish on your coronacation? How will you best use this time that's been gifted to you?" The song also says, "Back in my brain, is the cold northern cities" and they're in mine too. All the people I miss back in Philadelphia, all the people I haven't checked in with or sent a message to. And I realize again that I'm not going back home, that my story is one of constant exodus. Leaving brings with it finality and the Representative's voice speaks to the same feeling. Whether for good or ill, choices have been made and their consequences will have to be lived with. Such things are clear to the Worthless Recluse, to the self-exiled, but what about those who remain? -3/25/20. "Worthless Recluse" from Worthless Recluse (lyrics) (one week later)