Re: Over-The-Rhine Digest V2 #473

[john davis <hellomynameisj at yahoo_com>]

---Amy <aet at mail_dntcj.ro> wrote:

> 
> and it would work in another way. of course, this is not really
taking the
> whole song into perspective, just the last bit still dealing with
abortion
> (though I suppose it could apply in more ways that one) is the
thought that
> we could all have *been* baby jane. when you consider that from my
> generation a third of the children are no longer alive (I don't know
all
> the statistics I am guessing) becuase of various things. perhaps in
saying
> "if you think I am jane let me call you an angel" (which seems pretty
> obvious that it's a life that has moved on to an afterlife) is
relating us
> to those issues, the 'that could have been me' idea.

amy- these are *good* ideas...

i never would have thought of an angel as a human passed into the
afterlife because my medeival studies minor has spoiled that view of
angels for me. i had to read the works of pseudo-dionysius, whose
angelology completely altered european views of angels and we still
follow his ideas mostly- anyway, making a short story long, i usually
think of angels as celstial beings- otherworldly pre-human types (like
the "eldils" in c.s. lewis's space trilogy)

but that's a good observation.


> 
> okay, I just changed my mind or added on... so...
> 
> also, it seems possible that all these things are spoken from one
child's
> perspective. when you see the horror and pain in some families now..
and
> when you are raised around crime sometimes it becomes a part of you
too...
> so a child sees her [sister/friend] wanting to (possibly doing) commit
> suicide. her mom kills someone who she loves. (?) it seems that the
next
> part is talking about the same person, but perhaps not? saying how
he died?
> then it moves on to someone else [friend, relative] performing what
I think
> are blackmarket abortions. then it seems to turn a bit more,
suddenly mom
> is moving toward killing again, but it seems that 'jane' begins to
think
> about those things as well. getting the idea to kill.. who knows
who. but
> then it turns to her being the person who dies. makes me wonder who
she
> really was...


i like the wya you read amy, i remember reading about a poet (can't
remember her name) who said she stopped talking about the characters
in poems as if they were someone else, and started thinking about the
character in the pome as herself... the "me" in sleep baby jane
becaomes ME, the listener... your interpretation reminds me of that.

one thing i thought of too is that the album, "eve" has strong
overtones of original sin, loss of innocence, nighttime, and
femininity (not that i'm associating femininity with sin or loss of
innocence- i'm just thinking of all the ideas the word "eve" is
attached to)- so there's this kind of dark, exploratory nature to the
record- there'a lot of ambiguity and word play too. and it's got this
very childlike feel to it. (to go along with the loss of innocence
theme) 

any of you who are familliar with the innocence mission's "glow"- i
bought these two records on the same day and so i've always seen
"glow" as the child during the day, and "eve' as the child at night...
completely subjective, of course, but hey, i'm only human...




> 
> anyway, those are just a couple htoughts on the song... any more
ideas?
> 
> personally, it's just an awesome song.


hear hear.



john.


np- pearl jam- "no code."
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com

---

• Prev by Date: Re: Introduction
• Next by Date: Re: six degrees of Velvets (was: Every 80's song...)
• Prev by thread: Re: Over-The-Rhine Digest V2 #473
• Next by thread: Re: Over-The-Rhine Digest V2 #473
• Index(es):
  • Date
  • Thread