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.
Pinch history
Feel the pinch blistering
Pinch me in my dreams
'Cause I'm still not listening
X marks the spot
On your calendar days
A beard half eaten
Smiled
Crawling with legs
Temper tempered temperature
Manuscript replica
In infrared is how we saw
The night that lit up
Scarecrow plots
The nerve that pinches
Crippled hobbled
Frolicked flat on its own face
Jigsaw pattern
Dominoes left a trail
The whites of their eyes
Polaroids of the tale
For our amusement
We bring stares to the defendants
Mechanical panaceas
Absolved by history
Phonetic paralysis
Inflicted through morality
The seed that it nurtured
Was a wilted bouquet
Temper tempered temperature
Squirming through cuts in a throat
Cut it, cut it
Feel the pinch blistering
Pinch me in my dreams
'Cause I'm still not listening
X marks the spot
On your calendar days
A beard half eaten
Smiled
Crawling with legs
Temper tempered temperature
Manuscript replica
In infrared is how we saw
The night that lit up
Scarecrow plots
The nerve that pinches
Crippled hobbled
Frolicked flat on its own face
Jigsaw pattern
Dominoes left a trail
The whites of their eyes
Polaroids of the tale
For our amusement
We bring stares to the defendants
Mechanical panaceas
Absolved by history
Phonetic paralysis
Inflicted through morality
The seed that it nurtured
Was a wilted bouquet
Temper tempered temperature
Squirming through cuts in a throat
Cut it, cut it
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Like Cuiydha, I like the idea of it being about battles, that and the effect war has on people and history. I still love this song 4 years later!