These Apples

When I first came across the name of this board, I thought it was a forum to discuss the meaning of lyrics and not what they mean to me personally. So here's an interpretation of These apples I found (not mine!):

The Adam-Eve connection to "These Apples" certainly adds a nice overtone to the lyrics. But a direct reading of the text is also very funny and very thought-provoking.

Basically, you've got a relationship that's doomed from the start. Quite unlike the Adam and Eve story, where there's the exact opposite suggestion of complete compatibility - "at last! bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" says Adam on beholding Eve - this couple is headed for disaster. Both parties are in love with falling in love, rather than committed to loving each other, to the point that they are clueless to the obvious incompatibilities. Here we go -

She - brings flowers

He - has never been good with plants.

Clue 1 - this plant's gonna croak and she'll be miffed at his "disregard" for her gift. He will in turn resent her disappointment in his performance as a horticulturist.

She - gives a dictionary with "romance" circled - BIG HINT that she's a sentimentalist. But even more important: notice that this is "the next presentation", not the next "present." So much is packed into this one little twist of phrase. First, "presenting" is what female animals do to indicate sexual availability. Second, one gets the sense that this guy really didn't want or need a new dictionary, just as he didn't want or need the lilacs. But she has "presented" him with a dictionary, and a loaded one to boot. Presentations are designed and intended largely to serve the interests and needs of the presenter. True presents are gifts to the recipient. Just think about the "presents" you've been given that had strings attached, that were intended to produce some result in you, that were actually forms of manipulation. You say "thanks"; maybe you even get off on the idea that the giver is pursuing you, but eventually you grow weary of presents that aren't really gifts.

Clue 2 - the fundamental dynamic of giving and receiving, so essential to healthy love, is skewed from the get-go.

He - "enthusiastic, a little bit drastic" (no kidding!) shaves her name in his head. Ignoring two big clues, he makes a big presentation of his own. Unfortunately,

She - "as she beheld it, she said I'd misspelled it. Need more be said?"

Clue 3 - Is there any doubt that this relationship is headed for the crapper? I mean, anyone ga-ga enough to shave a girl's name in his head and not even know how to spell it is begging for trouble.

Now to the line in question

He - "these apples are delicious" - commenting on their flavor

She - "as a matter of fact they are" - commenting on their type: Delicious is a kind of apple, like MacIntosh or Granny Smith.

Clue 4 - oh boy, they can't even understand each other in everyday speech. She's confirming something she thought he said, but it's not what he actually was saying. She's not contradicting or correcting him - don't worry, that will come later. But even now he should recognize that she doesn't get what he means. Anyone who's been in a bad relationship recognizes this symptom IMMEDIATELY and runs for the door!

"can all this fruit be free?" Can all this giddy rush of falling in love last forever and cost nothing in terms of building relationship despite (indeed, because of) hard work and conflict? Answer - no way, kids!

She - wrote a letter as big as a phone book

He - never been big on mail

He - sent her a postcard from somewhere near Lethbridge (I assume this is way rural, Canada), wondered if it went by rail (=slow).

Clue 5 - he's gonna grow sick of reading these tomes; she's gonna be hacked off at the miniscule response, if she ever gets it at all. Soon she'll be complaining how he doesn't communicate his feelings and he'll be complaining that all she does is talk. Here we have the essence of Deborah Tannen's work (on men's and women's very different linguistic practices), distilled and set to a catchy riff.

The remainder of the song is about the guy starting to catch the drift and struggling to communicate clearly, no longer content to be misinterpreted as long as the romance still burns hot.

• "never been frightened of being enlightened, but some things can go too far": I suspect heretofore he has thought of falling in love and/or having sex as automatically equivalent to enlightenment. But now he's starting to question this - maybe infatuation is finally revealing itself to be just another cycle in a continuing pattern of self-delusion.

• "Though sometimes I stammer and mix up my grammar, you get what my meanings are." Both are vaguely aware that this ersatz Eden is going to have its all-too-real Fall, that miscommunication, though it can fuel lust, cannot sustain love. You feel that he's about to push a tad harder to be understood when he says "these apples are delicious!"

He is close to breaking through to the enlightenment he says he doesn't fear when he begins to see he's in love with falling/feeling in love and is likely to repeat such fiascos in the future unless he takes a new slant on life. And his satori will come when he really can practice what he claims: "I'm not trying to sing a lovesong, just trying to sing in tune."

You can sense his struggle: "falling in love, catching fire, I want to be consummed, wondering if I'll ever tire [of this falling in love thang]". It's great to feel the rush of cathexis that accompanies one's ego boundaries going up in flames. But there's the nagging sense that to be consummed can't be all there is to Love, much less to Life. One also needs to be working on having a true Self, from which one can love the true Self of the Beloved. And one has to love well one's own true Self in order to receive love in return.

These Apples is one of my favorite songs on MYSD because it suggests clearly that there's more to real love than the rush of falling in love. Our hero is at the edge of realizing that the only way to make a relationship work is to quit trying to sing love songs (all the "romance" stuff, which does get you high, but won't keep you together) and start trying to sing in tune - to speak clearly from an honest, authentic, consistent Self, staying true to one's values and beliefs, etc.

MYSD is a great album because what BNL say about various forms of dysfunctional, unrequited, and squandered relationship, in nearly every song, is so insightful and unsentimental, but still very sympathetic, humorous, gently ironic, and ultimately positive. Each protagonist is taking a step nearer to real insight into Love.

Given most of the dreck passing for "love" these days, one can do a lot worse than cranking up MYSD and cracking open a copy of M.Scott Peck's "The Road Less Traveled". Both aim to put us finally in the drivers' seats of our own lives. So, maybe you oughta reach over and just grab that wheel, eh?

Chris Thyberg (cat@cmu.edu) copyright 1995