So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
Is there a fire in the sky
Is there a moon up there
Is anything alive now
This darkness is what I hear
This is a breathless silence
A moment out of time
I see your face in the shadows
The tell-tale signs are in your eyes
More than I can hold in my hand
Running through the gaps like water
Aching with a passion inside
Deep as the river
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
Is there a flame in the dark
Is there a bright heart star
These creatures look the same now
We freeze wherever we are
We wake alone in the blackness
We sleep whenever we fall
One dream all around us
This big hush infects us all
Holding up an animal fear
Soaking up the waves underwater
Tuned to music no-one can hear
Forever in this half-light
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
More than I can hold in my hand
Running through the gaps like water
Aching with a passion inside
Deep as the river
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
Turning this night inside
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
Is there a moon up there
Is anything alive now
This darkness is what I hear
This is a breathless silence
A moment out of time
I see your face in the shadows
The tell-tale signs are in your eyes
More than I can hold in my hand
Running through the gaps like water
Aching with a passion inside
Deep as the river
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
Is there a flame in the dark
Is there a bright heart star
These creatures look the same now
We freeze wherever we are
We wake alone in the blackness
We sleep whenever we fall
One dream all around us
This big hush infects us all
Holding up an animal fear
Soaking up the waves underwater
Tuned to music no-one can hear
Forever in this half-light
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
More than I can hold in my hand
Running through the gaps like water
Aching with a passion inside
Deep as the river
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
All desire
The ashes and the fire
Turning this night inside
Turning this night inside
Turning this night inside
And the light from you
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(The lyrics currently shown here are for Big Hush, not Fish Below the Ice; I've submitted an update.)
So, we've got satellites beaming information and culture equally to all mankind (or at least all Europe).
But information isn't necessarily meaning. (Especially when some of it is just propaganda, the Voice of America.) Is there really any more meaning in our culture than in the paintings of early iron age culture?
And is our culture any more permanent? If we nuke the world tomorrow, how much will be left for people to pore over in a couple millennia?
The chorus is hopeful. The fish below the ice represent the murky, hidden reality beneath what we normally perceive—and sometimes, we actually can see it. Sometimes, we even fight the good fight. Of course the last line takes away a lot of the hope.