"armchair something" - eg, an armchair quarterback - refers to someone removed from the actual action. Webster's puts it really well: "remote from direct dealing with problems." There's a lot of passivity/inaction in this song.
"a cosmonaut of the space between our chairs" conjures up not simply the great distance between them, but a cosmonaut is also free of gravity (more on gravity below). Cartographers not only deal with distances, but they deal with them at an analytic/conceptual remove (ie, maps are only representations of what they represent).
No one's mentioned it and it may be obvious, but looms, weaving, and cut strands are classic references to the Greek Fates. Even if the "incandescent hands" are the hands of a clock, they also tie in the to the weaving, which amazes me.
When he talks about pulling yourself up until "gravity...lets you go," it could refer to simply pulling yourself out of an armchair, out of a depression, or, if you link it to the cosmonaut idea, pulling yourself out of yourself and towards someone else. Gravity here could also imply a grave mood, an overseriousness. In this respect, the song reminds me as well of Weather Systems, as mentioned above.
"You didn't write/You didn't call...You didn't feel a thing at all" could be the speaker yelling at himself for not having done anything, for his own "awkward pause/fatal flaw," and then for sitting through an emotional storm (waves, squall) in a state of numbness/inaction. More armchair passivity, and regret.
I love the above thoughts on time as a tensed and dangerous bow (and also the implication of a single shot, a single chance). It's also occurred to me that the mathematical/scientific symbol for infinity resembles a crooked bow, but I don't think the idea of infinity adds much here, unless you want to invoke time just dragging on.
I think that's all for now, except to add that I am greatly amused by the fact of Google ads for actual armchairs appearing to the right of these lyrics.
Some thoughts, in case anyone finds them useful:
"armchair something" - eg, an armchair quarterback - refers to someone removed from the actual action. Webster's puts it really well: "remote from direct dealing with problems." There's a lot of passivity/inaction in this song.
"a cosmonaut of the space between our chairs" conjures up not simply the great distance between them, but a cosmonaut is also free of gravity (more on gravity below). Cartographers not only deal with distances, but they deal with them at an analytic/conceptual remove (ie, maps are only representations of what they represent).
No one's mentioned it and it may be obvious, but looms, weaving, and cut strands are classic references to the Greek Fates. Even if the "incandescent hands" are the hands of a clock, they also tie in the to the weaving, which amazes me.
When he talks about pulling yourself up until "gravity...lets you go," it could refer to simply pulling yourself out of an armchair, out of a depression, or, if you link it to the cosmonaut idea, pulling yourself out of yourself and towards someone else. Gravity here could also imply a grave mood, an overseriousness. In this respect, the song reminds me as well of Weather Systems, as mentioned above.
"You didn't write/You didn't call...You didn't feel a thing at all" could be the speaker yelling at himself for not having done anything, for his own "awkward pause/fatal flaw," and then for sitting through an emotional storm (waves, squall) in a state of numbness/inaction. More armchair passivity, and regret.
I love the above thoughts on time as a tensed and dangerous bow (and also the implication of a single shot, a single chance). It's also occurred to me that the mathematical/scientific symbol for infinity resembles a crooked bow, but I don't think the idea of infinity adds much here, unless you want to invoke time just dragging on.
I think that's all for now, except to add that I am greatly amused by the fact of Google ads for actual armchairs appearing to the right of these lyrics.