This initially appeared as a guest blog on the blog Mission To Read, on September 29th.

While I know that some authors prefer silence when they write, I need music, and I create playlists for each book to help invoke in the mood. For my Tens List, I thought I’d list ten of the songs that featured prominently in my head while I was writing VARIANT.

The Rabbit Will Run, by Iron and Wine

While there are some very literal lines here that relate to the Variant (like “I’ll jump over the wall and I’ll wait for you there” or “we’ve all found a reason for hiding a gun, we’ve helped out a few if we’ve hurt anyone. So be it, I’ve done what I’ve done.”) But I like this song more for the inevitability of it: a rabbit will run, because that’s a rabbit’s nature and you’re not going to stop it (which, I think, is representative of Benson). I also love the line “good dogs together go wild,” implying the mob mentality—that even if a dog is good, if you get it in a pack, it’ll do some pretty bad things. And that’s the whole crux of the school: if you cram otherwise-good people together in bad circumstances, there’s going to be trouble.

Going On, by Gnarls Barkley

This is perhaps the most literal of the songs that influenced me. “You can stand right there if you want, but I’m going on, and I’m prepared to go it alone.” And I also love the sentiment “Anyone who needs what they want and doesn’t want what they need, I want nothing to do with.” I think that sums up Benson’s attitude really clearly: he’s not content with simply trying to make the best of a bad situation.

A Change is Gonna Come, by Sam Cooke

This one might seem a little out of place, because it the oldest of the bunch, and it sounds the oldest—a sound that doesn’t seem to really fit with the rest of this music, or the tone of the book. The song was a huge part of the civil rights movement, so I hesitate to put it on this list, because I don’t want to trivialize the point of the song. But on a superficial level, it reflects a lot of the hopeful/hopeless sentiments in the book. “Oh there are times that I thought I couldn’t last for long, But now I think I’m able to carry on. It’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will.”

Family Business, by The Fugees

On a completely opposite note is Family Business, a song about gangs, drugs and poverty. This song influenced me a lot while I was contemplating gang life, both in the school and Benson’s street life before he ever got to the school. “Just walkin’ the streets death can take you away. It’s never guaranteed that you see the next day.” (Warning: language.)

Mad World, by Gary Jules

This was more of a mood song than a literal one. It expresses utter hopelessness, where not only is it sad that “the dreams in which he’s dying are the best he’s ever had”, but it’s actually funny. “Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow. No tomorrow, no tomorrow.”

The Bourne Movies Soundtracks, by John Powell

I don’t have much to say about these other than that they’re awesome. I have the soundtracks to all three movies, and I listen to them while I write to evoke a kind of eerie, fast-paced intensity.

Trouble, by Coldplay

This is also more about mood than anything literal. He talks about being caught in the middle of a spider web, so he’s obviously in a terrible, dire situation, but the entire song sounds like an apology—that he’s done something to someone else that means more to him than his own danger “I never meant to cause you trouble, I never meant to do you harm.”

Sympathy for the Devil, by The Rolling Stones

This song is interesting historically—it sparked a lot of outrage at the time it was released, changing the face of The Rolling Stones from just one of those terrible rock and roll bands to Satan worshippers who are trying to destroy our children. The song is written from the perspective of the devil, and he describes all of the things he’s been involved in: “I was ‘round when Jesus Christ had his moments of doubt and pain”, “Killed the czar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain”, “I rode a tank, held a General’s rank, when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank”. But the thing that I find interesting, and why it influenced VARIANT is because of one line: “I shouted out ‘Who killed the Kennedys?’ When after all, it was you and me.” When asked about the song’s meaning Keith Richards famously said “Everybody’s Lucifer.” In other words, they’re saying we should have sympathy for the devil, because we all have the capacity to do terrible things. And that unleashed inhumanity is a big part VARIANT.

Grey Street, by Dave Matthews Band

Man, the further I get into the list, the more I realize how much hopelessness played a part in VARIANT. I hope if doesn’t read as hopeless as this music makes it sound. Grey Street isn’t so much about a person thrust into a terrible situation, but about a person who is trapped in the hopelessness of normal life. “There’s an emptiness inside her, and she’d do anything to fill it in, but all the colors mix together to grey, and it breaks her heart.”

Saint Judas, by Natalie Merchant

And, because I apparently can’t pick a single upbeat song, we’ll end with Saint Judas by Natalie Merchant, a song about the racial lynchings in the southern United States. But the part that really influenced VARIANT was the self-righteousness of the killings. “Saddle up your horses and wear your Sunday best, Sing your sacred harp, you’ll be holier than the rest as you shout your praises to the man who kissed the Lord, to the back-stabbing brother who betrayed all of this world.” In my mind, this is really The Society’s role—they’re doing horrible things, but they think themselves to be completely pious and correct.

I went and saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 on Friday. I loved it. I loved it despite the 3D (which generally gives me a headache). I loved it despite the dummy a few seats down who would laugh during quiet, dramatic moments. I loved it despite the nibbling chipmunk behind me who gnawed loudly on her popcorn (HEY PEOPLE: You put a kernel in your mouth, close your mouth, and chew. An individual piece of popcorn does not require three bites with your front teeth.)

Popcorn and inappropriate laughter and 3D aside, it was a great movie–a great end to a great series. However, I have a big complaint, both with the books and the movies: I hate how Ginny is not treated as an equal.

Ginny has proven herself to be courageous, skilled, smart and a good asset in a fight. And yet when the time comes for Harry and his friends to do stuff, she’s always in the background.

As I’ve discussed this with fellow Potter fans, I’ve heard a few explanations/rationalizations. I don’t think any of them hold water.

Some fans point out that Harry pulled a Spider-man and told Ginny that they can’t be together because she’d be in danger. There’s two problems with that: first, she’s already in danger—especially when crap hits the fan at Hogwarts—so he’s not really shielding her from much. Second, he told the same thing to other people throughout the series—heck, he told the same thing to Ginny more than once!—and it’s never stopped anyone from disregarding his advice and helping him anyway. It’s like Rowling was purposely keeping Ginny out of the way…

Which is exactly what other people cite: that adding Ginny would change the dynamic of the books. It’s always been Harry, Hermione and Ron, and adding a fourth would…not make it just Harry, Hermione and Ron anymore. This is true, but it’s a really, really stupid excuse. The structure should fit your story; you shouldn’t shoehorn the story to fit your structure. As soon as Rowling made Ginny awesome and brave—and HARRY’S GIRLFRIEND—then the dynamic of The Three must change.

Because there’s a very real problem here. Ignoring Ginny and leaving her out of things (when the Spider-man/Mary Jane excuse is so obviously a plot device, not a plausible character-driven reason) turns Harry into a jerk. Why does Harry ignore Ginny during important moments? Is it a lack of trust? Is is a lack of interest? Is it a lack of caring? At the risk of crass hyperbole, Ginny becomes a booty call.

Seriously. That’s what she is to Harry. He doesn’t view her as a skilled companion compared Ron and Hermione, or else he would let her help out. He doesn’t see her as trusted advisor, or else he would consult with her as much as he consults with his other two friends. We can’t say that Harry is too busy to spend time with her, because he spends lots of time with Ron and Hermione. And we can’t say that Harry’s lack of communication with her is because he can’t confide in anybody—because he does confide in people. He confides in Ron and Hermione.

Harry trusts and likes and cares more about his platonic friends than about his girlfriend. And that bugs the heck out of me, because that’s not a healthy relationship AT ALL. It relegates Awesome Ginny to Generic Romantic Interest. She’s someone who he can kiss and pine about (though he doesn’t pine much) but he has no respect for her otherwise.

And Ginny is awesome, and she deserves better.

Of course, I’m not saying that Harry Potter is actually a jerk and that Ginny is actually a booty call, because I know that’s not how Rowling intended them. What I am saying is that Ginny’s exclusion from The Three is plainly a plot device designed to maintain the consistent Ron/Harry/Hermione dynamic, and when we extrapolate the implausibilities of that plot device to their rational conclusion, there’s no choice but to see Harry and Ginny’s relationship as shallow and lousy. And that bugs me.

(P.S.—and SPOILER: Implausibilities aside, I want to add that I was extremely annoyed with the final shot of the movie. It’s the epilogue, showing Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny all grown up. The camera watches the four of them as the Hogwarts Express prepares to leave, and then it zooms in slightly and cuts Ginny out of the shot. Now, I realize that Ginny is a somewhat late addition to the party and that we have a sentimentality for the other three. But MAN—couldn’t they have found a better way to honor The Three that doesn’t seem like it’s purposely excluding Ginny? Remember: this is the woman who—aside from all the other things that makes her awesome—is the person our hero has ostensibly been committed and devoted to for 19 years. And then the director says “One of these things is not like the others” and cuts her out of the frame. I don’t get it.)