Jack.is » Poetic » Analysis » Scissors

Scissors (Nathan Fenner)

Lyrics

A stray expression lies asunder
For minutes it seems separate from rhyme and comfort
For aeons more

He cut himself his own circle
Distraught over imperfection
Perceiving a shattered dream and backward hopes

The hour just began
It's a shame he has to go
Hold him close
But let it go
Hold him close
Let it go

Asunder
He lies (repeat)

Analysis

¶1

Imagining manifestation of single human expression of whatever sort - examined separate from our subjectivity, it seems pathetic. We think that we fairly easily understand it, but we have a false sense of knowing, and the point (rhyme) and feeling of purpose to such expression (comfort) once again seems impossible to imagine.

¶2

We may try to cope with existential despair by trying to confine perception to an isolated, subjective bubble. If we can build a shelter, a circle, around us, made of life's games and distractions -- financial striving, hobbies, relationships, dedication to society -- we may distract ourselves from the objective impermanence and purposelessness of our existence and manage to finish existing without driving ourselves mad over this.

We will, in any case, experience disappointment over the flaws inherent in life and everything we try to do in it. It proves easy to fall into psychological despair -- as opposed to existential -- over such lack of perfection and constant satisfaction. It would seem to become easier when we can step back and see the illusion of inherent purpose and the misdirected aspirations thereto, under which we operated.

¶3

Once we see this, our philosophical maturation has only begun -- at least along this philosophical path -- as it remains to us to discover our subjective purpose and reach an understanding of ourselves and our existence such that we can function, even knowing our true status in the universe.

Unfortunately, we have a ridiculously finite time in which to do such things. With all the "life-games" we play so that we have some semblance of a reason to exist, we have, in many cases, not enough time to thoroughly contemplate and discover said subjective purpose and understanding. Had we more time individually, we could reach great philosophical thought.

We will tend to cling to those things which give us purpose. "He" can manifest as a real "he", a lifestyle, a "they", that one thing we can never tire of doing, etc. This attachment forms inevitably, and though we have religions based on casting off such attachment, I doubt that we can ever really defy such integral nature.

We must hold "him" close, but let go of our desire for the objective purpose, and status as valuable, special and unique snowflakes of the universe, as, for so long, we liked to think of ourselves. We simply don't have it and we have to deal with it within our limited circles of experience and influence.

¶4

Last paragraph gives a different image -- not of death before we can figure things out, but of mental breakdown over incomprehensible philosophical issues leaving "him" broken, unable to reconcile his existence.

Notes

With little difficulty we can see how my current existential questioning affected my view of these lyrics. I hear that, in fact, the lyrics mean nothing at all, and the artist chose them simply for meter and rhyme. All too often we overanalyse such things without considering that the deep philosophy or creepily foreshadowing implications didn't exist in the first place. This may show that the audience provides much of the essence of an artistic work.

You got something to say?
Type this:
Name:
Email:
URL:
Comment:
	Syntax Sample: Image: [img]http://jack.is/visual/image.jpg[/img] Link: [url="http://jack.is/"]Jack.is[/url] E-mail: [mail="jack@jack.is"]Webmaster[/mail] Bold: [b]bold[/b] Italic: [i]italic[/i] Underline: [u]underline[/u] Code: [code] #!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; while (1) { my $num = int(rand(2)); print $num; } [/code] Quote: [quote]Something someone else said[/quote]