Favorite Banks/Genesis song. The story is simple enough, but the "catch-22" element is what makes it brilliant. He's fed up as a follower, gets thrust into being a leader, starts to get fed up again until convinced by water and the vine (more on that below) then continues on, and what happened to him happens to one of his fed up followers (I don't think "he thought he recognized him by his walk and by the way he fell..." means himself, it's one of the followers that reminds him of what happened to himself).
So what about the title, and the water and the vine??? Well, in typical Banks fashion, it either means something incredibly special to the writer that we will never know for sure unless there's an interview quote somewhere, or it is just typcial 70s "prog rock imagery" that seemed cool to write. lol But I think Banks is brilliant, so it must have meaning. What I can come up with is water represents life, and the vine represents growth (or even escape). So when he "talks" with water and the vine, they convince him to carry on, I assume the idea is that he will allow his followers to live and grow (or escape their oppressors) by not giving up (again).
Favorite Banks/Genesis song. The story is simple enough, but the "catch-22" element is what makes it brilliant. He's fed up as a follower, gets thrust into being a leader, starts to get fed up again until convinced by water and the vine (more on that below) then continues on, and what happened to him happens to one of his fed up followers (I don't think "he thought he recognized him by his walk and by the way he fell..." means himself, it's one of the followers that reminds him of what happened to himself).
So what about the title, and the water and the vine??? Well, in typical Banks fashion, it either means something incredibly special to the writer that we will never know for sure unless there's an interview quote somewhere, or it is just typcial 70s "prog rock imagery" that seemed cool to write. lol But I think Banks is brilliant, so it must have meaning. What I can come up with is water represents life, and the vine represents growth (or even escape). So when he "talks" with water and the vine, they convince him to carry on, I assume the idea is that he will allow his followers to live and grow (or escape their oppressors) by not giving up (again).