[phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Notice: in file /includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead ¤ milky moon ¤ • View topic - Weird and Probably Unintended Readings of Joanna's Songs
I was talking to an anarcho-capitalist about minimum wage and it struck me that he was a bit like Monkey from Monkey and Bear and Bear was the worker:
"Now, you know that we must unlearn this allegiance to a life of service, and no longer answer to that heartless hay-monger, nor be his accomplice (that charlatan, with artless hustling!) but Ursala, we've got to eat something! and earn our keep while still within the borders of the land that menace girded (all double-bolted and tight-fisted!) until we reach the open country, a-steeped in milk and honey!
Will you keep your fancy clothes on for me? Can you bear a little longer to wear that leash? My love, I swear by the air I breathe: sooner or later you'll bare your teeth!"
Y'know, keep debasing yourself for a pittance and eventually we'll get to this imaginary paradise. I guess it's not wholly unintended, since I think it's meant to be a song about power structures within relationships, and that could be the relationship between the capitalist and working classes, too.
Have you ever interpreted her songs in a way she probably never realised they could be interpreted?
I feel like, I remember hearing her emphasize that her favourite part was watching how her lyrics were interpreted, especially when they were read in ways she had never seen.
I believe in the nerdy power of this board - someone can track down that quote!
Monkey definitely sounds like some sort of radical. :p
There's that one part in Only Skin, "But always up the mountainside you're clambering Groping blindly, hungry for anything: Picking through your pocket linings - well, what is this? Scrap of sassafras, eh sisyphus?" Combined with all the "hairless and blind" nonsense and the fishes, and I just can't get an image of Gollum out of my mind. I CAN'T HELP IT
And he used to make me pray, wearing a mask like a death's head. When he put me there in the back seat, and he said, "Jesus save me, Jesus save me."
Ha. That was actually my initial interpretation for Monkey & Bear! Or at least the first thing I picked up on. Obviously it's got so much more to it, it has several themes, I think... But I do think that's one of them.
This also may be one that is actually intended, but in Only Skin when she sings, "Why would you say I was the last one?" it reminds me of The Last Unicorn -- of course, a favorite of Joanna's.
Since studying A Streetcar Named Desire in English at school this year, whenever I listen to Ys I imagine that it's being sung by Blanche. Emily reminds me of Blanche and Stella's relationship (plus there's the mention of the Pleiades, which are also mentioned in A Streetcar Named Desire), Monkey and Bear is sort of Blanche/Stanley-ish, and Cosmia has all the mentions of moths which relates to Blanche because of her obsession with light and darkness. Plus there's the bit in Sawdust and Diamonds that goes, "Oh, oh, desire".
This always happens when I read a play or a book for the first time, I always end up associating it with songs I like. I remember wondering if The Man Of A Thousand Faces by Regina Spektor was about the character Lady Macbeth :S (because of the line "Scrub 'til your fingers are bleeding, and I am crying for things that I tell others to do without crying,").
I attempted to do a Harry Potter reading of "Good Intentions Paving Company" just because of the line "for the time being all is well" or something and I can't remember, but I don't think it worked out that well.
I don't think this is so weird, but it's probably unintended, unless Joanna has ever mentioned Marilynne Robinson. I just read the novel Housekeeping, which is really beautiful, and there was a part of it that really reminded me of Emily. A huge aspect of the novel is about the relationship between sisters Ruth and Lucille. Lucille wants to break away from the strange, transient Ruth, to be a more normal person. Just before Lucille makes it clear she is breaking their bond, they are forced to spend the night in the woods. They build up a small shelter which doesn't stop the various animals from wandering around as if it wasn't there, and Ruth says that Lucille "sat down beside me in our ruined stronghold, never still, never accepting that all our human boundaries were overrun." Which is very:
"The lines are fading in my kingdom (Though I have never known the way to border them in) So the muddy mouths of baboons and sows and the grouse and the horse and the hen Grope at the gate of the looming lake that was once a tidy pen."
ahh... this is more of a broad 'reading', but ever since reading up on the 'last unicorn' after listening to colleen, i've often pondered the idea of unconscious transformation in her work. it's presence is plausible, given she's cited 'the last unicorn' as (one of) her favourite stories, however i can't help but think that she has undergone some forgotten transformation herself. i know how she rails against this stereotype, but she just seems so goddamn ethereal and otherworldly at times... especially with Ys. in no way am i implying that she's god or an extraterrestrial being or anything (although i did see this one really amazing comment on a sadie recording "when god sent his only son, no one knew that he'd eventually send his only daughter" or something), but ah... i'd say she's had a few REALLY interesting past lives... /endcreepyfangirlrant
These are both interesting interpretations, I wish I had something to add other than: Ann, how fucking good is Housekeeping? It's probably one of the best books I've ever read.
I've written a really long essay analysing Monkey & Bear as a criticism of capitalism and reformism. Going to post it here, it's not quite done. I was almost tempted to interpret the very end of the song as a transhumanist transcendence enabled by socialist society, but that just seems too unlikely.
When Ann picked me up at the airport in Portland, I found a notebook page interpreting Easy on the floor.
Also, I see the class stuggle, but I have always associated M&B with Lady of Shalott by Tennyson. She is captive, Ursala by the Monkey and Lady by her castle. Ursala (weird to spell it like that) is tempted by the water to bathe, Lady sees Camelot and the water and is tempted by it. Ursala goes to the water and something changes in her- I always see it as freedom in death, freedom from life's burden, Lady goes to the water, gets in boat and dies as she floats into Camelot.
I fear I may be quite far off.
Of course, I have one aim, the grotesque. If I am not grotesque I am nothing.