I shouldn't even be analyzing this because I believe so much in the song, but I guess it goes along with the irony of it.
This kind of all branches of a Nietzschean view of "life," in my view...
What lines speak to me the most?
Underneath the power lines seeking shade
We try to protect ourselves from the "truth," using the most useless, impractical things, which do nothing. Yet, we still don't realize we're protecting ourselves from any kind of "truth." It's as if we believe the shade from the power lines is real, even though it's nonexistent. This shade can be compared to the kind of "truth" we obtain from a society built on language, intellect, and logic. None of it is actual. It is all just something we've conceived of... Yet, we still try to use this blanket of falseness to "protect" us from something. In the song, it is literally the heat from the sun we're trying to protect ourselves from. In more abstract terms, it could be just the illogicity (sp), chaos, and flux in life.
Far above our heads are the icy heights
That contain all reason
Yet, this "truth" I mentioned before (which is similar to the "truth" Nietzsche refers to in "On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense," as well as "The Birth of Tragedy) is not even obtainable, if it exists at all. It's "far above our heads." I think it's ironic in a way that Mercer uses "icy" to describe this... because it's as if this nonexistent "truth" is stable, but it's actually flux. Perhaps, though, he is refering to the fact that whatever this "truth" is, it is cold. It is blunt. It is something we don't want to have to admit to ourselves--- perhaps it relates to the meaninglessness of life as well as it's randomness. This, of course, in our view, is cold. Also.... I just realized he refers to (what I've always though of (in this context) as) the "truth" as reason.... but that is false. Whatever this "truth" is must be illogical... Another irony? Or perhaps he is just saying "reason" is not reachable, because it is nonexistent.
It's a luscious mix of words and tricks
That let us bet when you know we should fold
I think of this "luscious mix of words and tricks" as the system of logic, system of reason, system of language, we have in place in our society. Society forces us to do things we may not completely agree with. IT forces us to adhere to rules, to a sort of logic, to a social standard... which goes against our true emotions and feelings. It makes us "bend" or adhere falsely to false rules.... when we "know we should fold" or we feel deep down that we should instead be following our emotions.
Hold your glass up, hold it in
Never betray the way you've always known it is
STOPPPPPPPPPP ADHERING TO SOCIETY'S FALSE SYSTEM OF LOGIC. Follow your emotions. Become dionysian, because somehow.... that is in a way more "true" than following intellect and reason.
One day I'll be wondering how
I got so old just wondering how
I never got cold wearing nothing in the snow
Favorite. Absolute favorite line of any song, ever. Favorite quote, possibly, ever. What Mercer seems to be saying is that many people "wonder how [they] never got cold wearing nothing in the snow." AKA Even though they believe in chaos, illogicity, flux, emotion, dionysus.... they still can't tear themselves away from all reason, all logic. Somehow, they can't completely let go of their instinct to make sense of everything... they can't let go of their longing to at least believe in some kind of truth, even though they ironically believe there is no truth, no absolute. Yes, this is contradictory... but this is what, IMO, Mercer is saying............... that no matter how much some may believe in flux, and nonmeaning, in randomness (which are all connected), they can't completely tear themselves away from believing in something concrete. The fact that they believe that there is nothing, that there is no reason......... just the FACT that they believe in NONREASON... is believing in something, and is logic, IS reason. This is what the snow is.... the snow is this "truth" that is all around us. This "truth" that somehow relates to flux, to nonreason, to emotion... that we're all emersed (sp) in... yet somehow we still are not ever completely in it.... that SOMEHOW is what we try to solve.... HOW do we never get "cold"... how do we never completely become this flux and illogicity, even though we believe in it? Perhaps because we DO believe in it, and that is completely opposite of what we believe in. I know this makes no "sense" but it's not supposed to. Try to live with this chiasmic unity I am trying to explain... yet never will be able to fully explain.... and that is how I will "get so old" wondering. I will never be able to reach a full explanation of this.... and yet I will continue to try to. I know I will not reach an end, yet I will continue to try until I am old, and wondering how I continued to wonder, even though I knew the "truth" all along. What irony. Ahhh I can't even explain it.
All these squawking birds won't quit
Building nothing, laying bricks
Yet, despite everything I just said.... I still won't stop laying these bricks towards a "false" end or "truth." I won't quit. If I do, I'll be nonexistent... and I can't even explain my logic behind that. After all this, it is appropriate that I not explain logic, anyway.
AH I love this song. Perhaps I've overanalyzed it.... I'm sure I have.... but at least it goes along with the irony present in the song. And, I am going to publish this without looking it over for typos or places where it makes no sense, because to some extent, I believe in the concept of stream of consciousness.
"Vee Beleev in Nothing Lebowski."
Ok. First Question. You a guy or a girl?
Second: Do you too struggle with the catch 22 of both: A) Believing that is counter-productive to overanalyze and interpret and whatnot when you know that these songs are meant to be left open to interpretation, and: B) Finding yaself possessed by a need to attach meaning to everything; you look at the big picture while picking apart the pieces and just goin with it, just writing, just thinking, a direct flow of thought that you don't screen before it hits the page, before it becomes words..
Anyways....
"Vee Beleev in Nothing Lebowski."
Ok. First Question. You a guy or a girl?
Second: Do you too struggle with the catch 22 of both: A) Believing that is counter-productive to overanalyze and interpret and whatnot when you know that these songs are meant to be left open to interpretation, and: B) Finding yaself possessed by a need to attach meaning to everything; you look at the big picture while picking apart the pieces and just goin with it, just writing, just thinking, a direct flow of thought that you don't screen before it hits the page, before it becomes words..
Anyways. All of us pseudo-intellectuals go thru our Nietzche phase, I understand. And the only small area of your rundown where I beg to differ is the 'luscious tricks..bet/fold line.' I think he's talkin bout how when you get to those forks in the road, you never take the wrong one consciously accepting that it is the wrong one. It's the bright lights, the allure, just.. SOMETHING that convinces you to indulge, maybe, or just recklessly abandon reason and logic to instead just simply.. CHOOSE. Not decide, not weigh outcomes and possibilities, but to just jump man. Because in those rare moments, we are alive. When we throw aside doubt and worry, anger and uncertainty, and just flow. When we recognize that everything is relative, (you could argue the existentialist view of subjectivity) we realize that status quo does not deserve to judge us for our actions and beliefs, "the crowd is untruth" in Kierkeggard's view, and I rock that. One generations underground, one decades counterculture, is what becomes the mainstream of the next. We go against the grain because we KNOW that it is individual thought and emotion that overrides anything else in this world, all the so called "truths" of objective science, all the bullshit that comes from trying to concretely define such ambiguous topics such as ethics and morality and put them into law. "There is no spoon."
P.S. I get that you threw this down a while back man, but if you ever get back onto this stupid site, let's jam. I know Caring is Creepy, but I follow impulse. And something tells me we should level with one another someday, sometime, kick our wisdom and dig this mystery called life, and talk about what we think of it.. Respond, or don't. Totally upto you my friend. PeAcE
HOLY SHIT.
I shouldn't even be analyzing this because I believe so much in the song, but I guess it goes along with the irony of it. This kind of all branches of a Nietzschean view of "life," in my view... What lines speak to me the most?
Underneath the power lines seeking shade We try to protect ourselves from the "truth," using the most useless, impractical things, which do nothing. Yet, we still don't realize we're protecting ourselves from any kind of "truth." It's as if we believe the shade from the power lines is real, even though it's nonexistent. This shade can be compared to the kind of "truth" we obtain from a society built on language, intellect, and logic. None of it is actual. It is all just something we've conceived of... Yet, we still try to use this blanket of falseness to "protect" us from something. In the song, it is literally the heat from the sun we're trying to protect ourselves from. In more abstract terms, it could be just the illogicity (sp), chaos, and flux in life.
Far above our heads are the icy heights That contain all reason Yet, this "truth" I mentioned before (which is similar to the "truth" Nietzsche refers to in "On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense," as well as "The Birth of Tragedy) is not even obtainable, if it exists at all. It's "far above our heads." I think it's ironic in a way that Mercer uses "icy" to describe this... because it's as if this nonexistent "truth" is stable, but it's actually flux. Perhaps, though, he is refering to the fact that whatever this "truth" is, it is cold. It is blunt. It is something we don't want to have to admit to ourselves--- perhaps it relates to the meaninglessness of life as well as it's randomness. This, of course, in our view, is cold. Also.... I just realized he refers to (what I've always though of (in this context) as) the "truth" as reason.... but that is false. Whatever this "truth" is must be illogical... Another irony? Or perhaps he is just saying "reason" is not reachable, because it is nonexistent.
It's a luscious mix of words and tricks That let us bet when you know we should fold I think of this "luscious mix of words and tricks" as the system of logic, system of reason, system of language, we have in place in our society. Society forces us to do things we may not completely agree with. IT forces us to adhere to rules, to a sort of logic, to a social standard... which goes against our true emotions and feelings. It makes us "bend" or adhere falsely to false rules.... when we "know we should fold" or we feel deep down that we should instead be following our emotions.
Hold your glass up, hold it in Never betray the way you've always known it is STOPPPPPPPPPP ADHERING TO SOCIETY'S FALSE SYSTEM OF LOGIC. Follow your emotions. Become dionysian, because somehow.... that is in a way more "true" than following intellect and reason.
One day I'll be wondering how I got so old just wondering how I never got cold wearing nothing in the snow Favorite. Absolute favorite line of any song, ever. Favorite quote, possibly, ever. What Mercer seems to be saying is that many people "wonder how [they] never got cold wearing nothing in the snow." AKA Even though they believe in chaos, illogicity, flux, emotion, dionysus.... they still can't tear themselves away from all reason, all logic. Somehow, they can't completely let go of their instinct to make sense of everything... they can't let go of their longing to at least believe in some kind of truth, even though they ironically believe there is no truth, no absolute. Yes, this is contradictory... but this is what, IMO, Mercer is saying............... that no matter how much some may believe in flux, and nonmeaning, in randomness (which are all connected), they can't completely tear themselves away from believing in something concrete. The fact that they believe that there is nothing, that there is no reason......... just the FACT that they believe in NONREASON... is believing in something, and is logic, IS reason. This is what the snow is.... the snow is this "truth" that is all around us. This "truth" that somehow relates to flux, to nonreason, to emotion... that we're all emersed (sp) in... yet somehow we still are not ever completely in it.... that SOMEHOW is what we try to solve.... HOW do we never get "cold"... how do we never completely become this flux and illogicity, even though we believe in it? Perhaps because we DO believe in it, and that is completely opposite of what we believe in. I know this makes no "sense" but it's not supposed to. Try to live with this chiasmic unity I am trying to explain... yet never will be able to fully explain.... and that is how I will "get so old" wondering. I will never be able to reach a full explanation of this.... and yet I will continue to try to. I know I will not reach an end, yet I will continue to try until I am old, and wondering how I continued to wonder, even though I knew the "truth" all along. What irony. Ahhh I can't even explain it.
All these squawking birds won't quit Building nothing, laying bricks Yet, despite everything I just said.... I still won't stop laying these bricks towards a "false" end or "truth." I won't quit. If I do, I'll be nonexistent... and I can't even explain my logic behind that. After all this, it is appropriate that I not explain logic, anyway.
AH I love this song. Perhaps I've overanalyzed it.... I'm sure I have.... but at least it goes along with the irony present in the song. And, I am going to publish this without looking it over for typos or places where it makes no sense, because to some extent, I believe in the concept of stream of consciousness.
"Vee Beleev in Nothing Lebowski." Ok. First Question. You a guy or a girl? Second: Do you too struggle with the catch 22 of both: A) Believing that is counter-productive to overanalyze and interpret and whatnot when you know that these songs are meant to be left open to interpretation, and: B) Finding yaself possessed by a need to attach meaning to everything; you look at the big picture while picking apart the pieces and just goin with it, just writing, just thinking, a direct flow of thought that you don't screen before it hits the page, before it becomes words.. Anyways....
"Vee Beleev in Nothing Lebowski." Ok. First Question. You a guy or a girl? Second: Do you too struggle with the catch 22 of both: A) Believing that is counter-productive to overanalyze and interpret and whatnot when you know that these songs are meant to be left open to interpretation, and: B) Finding yaself possessed by a need to attach meaning to everything; you look at the big picture while picking apart the pieces and just goin with it, just writing, just thinking, a direct flow of thought that you don't screen before it hits the page, before it becomes words.. Anyways. All of us pseudo-intellectuals go thru our Nietzche phase, I understand. And the only small area of your rundown where I beg to differ is the 'luscious tricks..bet/fold line.' I think he's talkin bout how when you get to those forks in the road, you never take the wrong one consciously accepting that it is the wrong one. It's the bright lights, the allure, just.. SOMETHING that convinces you to indulge, maybe, or just recklessly abandon reason and logic to instead just simply.. CHOOSE. Not decide, not weigh outcomes and possibilities, but to just jump man. Because in those rare moments, we are alive. When we throw aside doubt and worry, anger and uncertainty, and just flow. When we recognize that everything is relative, (you could argue the existentialist view of subjectivity) we realize that status quo does not deserve to judge us for our actions and beliefs, "the crowd is untruth" in Kierkeggard's view, and I rock that. One generations underground, one decades counterculture, is what becomes the mainstream of the next. We go against the grain because we KNOW that it is individual thought and emotion that overrides anything else in this world, all the so called "truths" of objective science, all the bullshit that comes from trying to concretely define such ambiguous topics such as ethics and morality and put them into law. "There is no spoon." P.S. I get that you threw this down a while back man, but if you ever get back onto this stupid site, let's jam. I know Caring is Creepy, but I follow impulse. And something tells me we should level with one another someday, sometime, kick our wisdom and dig this mystery called life, and talk about what we think of it.. Respond, or don't. Totally upto you my friend. PeAcE