liqiedos, that is a very esoteric take on this song. Basically, what you're implying is that this song is only for residents of southern California. No one else could understand what happened during those fires, and Gibbard wrote a song about it FOR US.
Sorry to knock you off your Californian high horse, (are there horses in CA?) but that's not the case.
On the surface, this song is clearly about the fires in San Diego, yes. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a look at what things mean on a grander scale. There is meaning behind things, liqideos, there's meaning behind everything; you're wrong when you say there isn't. There was meaning behind the fire when it happened, and there is meaning behind these lyrics besides what's on the surface. Whether that meaning is righteous or truthful is up to you to decide; but there is meaning.
Gibbard's lyrics in this song are too surreal (aside from the fires, which obviously actually happened) to not be pointing at some philosophical truth or belief. To me, plain and simply, the fires represent Hell. And not just Hell, but the vacuum-cleaner Jesus freaks who hold Hell over your head as a warning ('to warn us it's only a matter of time/before we all burn'). Gibbard's response to this is very similar to his response in "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"; 'what happens on the other side is a terrifying thought, but as long as I'm going to witness it with you that's O.K. with me'.
The child dancing in the field of graves in the cemetery on a hill really drives this point, this meaning, home. She's celebrating in her mortality and she is celebrating mortality in general.
Whether you agree with Gibbard's apparent atheistic tendencies is your own decision to make (I don't, I dig Jesus), but to me it's clear in this song that Gibbard, through illustrating the horrid reality of the fires in San Diego as a metaphor, is giving us his two cents on the biggest question in life.
I am pretty sure Ben Gibbard is Christian, or at least agnostic. Not positive though.
I am pretty sure Ben Gibbard is Christian, or at least agnostic. Not positive though.
And I completely agree with you. Goons who think the world revolves around Southern California, or California in general piss me off like nothing else.
And I completely agree with you. Goons who think the world revolves around Southern California, or California in general piss me off like nothing else.
liqiedos, that is a very esoteric take on this song. Basically, what you're implying is that this song is only for residents of southern California. No one else could understand what happened during those fires, and Gibbard wrote a song about it FOR US.
Sorry to knock you off your Californian high horse, (are there horses in CA?) but that's not the case.
On the surface, this song is clearly about the fires in San Diego, yes. But there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a look at what things mean on a grander scale. There is meaning behind things, liqideos, there's meaning behind everything; you're wrong when you say there isn't. There was meaning behind the fire when it happened, and there is meaning behind these lyrics besides what's on the surface. Whether that meaning is righteous or truthful is up to you to decide; but there is meaning.
Gibbard's lyrics in this song are too surreal (aside from the fires, which obviously actually happened) to not be pointing at some philosophical truth or belief. To me, plain and simply, the fires represent Hell. And not just Hell, but the vacuum-cleaner Jesus freaks who hold Hell over your head as a warning ('to warn us it's only a matter of time/before we all burn'). Gibbard's response to this is very similar to his response in "I Will Follow You Into the Dark"; 'what happens on the other side is a terrifying thought, but as long as I'm going to witness it with you that's O.K. with me'.
The child dancing in the field of graves in the cemetery on a hill really drives this point, this meaning, home. She's celebrating in her mortality and she is celebrating mortality in general.
Whether you agree with Gibbard's apparent atheistic tendencies is your own decision to make (I don't, I dig Jesus), but to me it's clear in this song that Gibbard, through illustrating the horrid reality of the fires in San Diego as a metaphor, is giving us his two cents on the biggest question in life.
I am pretty sure Ben Gibbard is Christian, or at least agnostic. Not positive though.
I am pretty sure Ben Gibbard is Christian, or at least agnostic. Not positive though.
And I completely agree with you. Goons who think the world revolves around Southern California, or California in general piss me off like nothing else.
And I completely agree with you. Goons who think the world revolves around Southern California, or California in general piss me off like nothing else.
Those kind of people are the reason I hate being a Californian; they give all of us a bad name.
Those kind of people are the reason I hate being a Californian; they give all of us a bad name.