Tangerine discussion

Throughout the book Tangerine, Paul is struggling to remember an event from his past. It often centers on how he became legally blind. In any case, at a memorial service for Mike Costello, the school band plays a song simply called “Try to Remember.” Perhaps it is as simple as remembering their late classmate. There is a poem read shortly after called “To an Athlete Dying Young.” Simply unimaginative, generic sounding titles? Maybe. Real songs and poems? Perhaps. Yet the titles are both situationally relevant and perhaps relevant to Paul’s own experiences. He is trying to remember. He also at one point described his Dream of playing soccer as “dead.” In my readings, I’ve usually found few specific references to songs, books, and other identifiable texts. Perhaps I have not looked closely enough. In some ways, that is probably a good thing. When the pop culture references are too specific, the book can quickly become dated.