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multiplicity_archivesTej_Agni posted about music, and since I heard this song, I've wondered what someone living plural might think about these lyrics: Nine Inch Nails "Only". Thoughts?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJk9DNSMQyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJk9DNSMQyQ
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Date: 2006-12-12 06:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-13 02:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 08:38 pm (UTC)~j
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Date: 2006-12-13 07:43 am (UTC)-- Craig and Eugene
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Date: 2006-12-12 10:20 pm (UTC)I never got any vaguely plural ideas from it. I didn't even see how until I read this post and thought *reaaaally* hard >.>
~Selene
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Date: 2006-12-12 11:20 pm (UTC)On the level of multiplicity, I don't know. Trent probably didn't think of all this when he wrote the song.
And I'm not saying songwriters/authors do think of the things other people manage to derive from their words. (Symbolism makes me laugh all too often. I know most of the authors didn't EVER think their words would be taken in such a way.)
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Date: 2006-12-12 11:46 pm (UTC)*g* That's part of why we're no longer an english major. We had a lot of teachers who were good at making you feel like you're not smart enough to read books because you can't find all the Sooper Seekrit Speshul Symbolism in them. Looking back in retrospect, I think very little of the symbolism they insisted on was actually intended by the authors.
...and, yeah, people do it with song lyrics too, even us sometimes. We have a few songs that are personally meaningful to us even though we know the "official" meaning of them is something different from what we read. Actually, trying to find songs that could be about multiplicity doesn't bother me; what does is when people start deciding that certain singers or songwriters are multiple based on their lyrics.
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Date: 2006-12-13 01:01 am (UTC)Rob
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Date: 2006-12-13 03:00 am (UTC)~mostly Selene
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Date: 2006-12-13 03:05 am (UTC)Tonight we were at our accountant and Constance and Marina were
trying to deal with it till they mentioned that they could not
understand accounting but someone inside could.
....And i popped out ;-)
After telling him about working as a porn model ....
Accountants must have fun telling people about their clients ;-)
--- Miri of Mtribe
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Date: 2006-12-13 04:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-13 04:09 am (UTC)~D~
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Date: 2006-12-13 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-13 07:14 am (UTC)I appreciate your followup post in which you explain that you didn't actually think the lyrics were about being multiple or that Reznor was multiple. Some years ago, I wrote an article on this subject (http://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/lyrics.html), inspired by a discussion thread on an old mailing list.
But you asked how someone who is living multiple responds to the lyrics. I can't answer for anyone but myself, but since none of the current frontrunners can stand NiN, I guess I'm elected, even though I can't stand them either. The song does have a good drum line.
I find Reznor's lyrics in general to be minimalist to the point of being simplistic. I see where you're getting the idea, that the lyrics could conceivably be interpreted as referring to multiplicity in denial (the old "there's no one here but me" mantra, the "I made you up" stuff), and to other worlds at the end. I'm sure there are people out there who have had such experiences and might relate to this song as having meaning for them. Our Jay is one of those people, who believed for years that he just made us all up. However, once again we're dealing with lyrics that are so ambiguous that they could mean anything from a psychedelic experience to a romance gone bad (which is what I initially thought it was about).
But there's an interesting side note to all this. I did a little digging, and it appears that Reznor did possibly have a type of multiplicity in mind when he conceived the lyrics. I'm finding repeated references to the lyrics' having been based on his response to Fight Club and his personal reaction to that film, probably in terms of his own struggles with alcoholism. He chose the film's director, David Fincher, to direct the video, and is now working with Fincher on -- wait for it -- Fight Club, The Musical (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club_(musical)).
Still not impressed, but it's interesting that you did manage to find a lyric that is apparently at least somewhat connected. I don't know how much of this is real, and how much is rumor, of course.
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Date: 2006-12-13 10:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-13 05:02 pm (UTC)The me that you know he had some second thoughts
he's covered with scabs and he is broken and sore
the me that you know he doesn't come round much
that part of me isn't here anymore
...
the me that you know he used to have feelings
but the blood has stopped pumping and he's left to decay
the me that you know is now made up of wires
and even when I'm right with you I'm so far away
the song is "The Becoming". I put a (m) in the ID3 for multiplicity (I collect songs like that, I have a few other tags I use too). Even if he isn't multiple -- lots of singers aren't but they still have lyrics that I can relate to as a person who is part of a multiple system, I like the song.
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Date: 2006-12-13 10:43 pm (UTC)Basically
Date: 2006-12-15 05:10 am (UTC)--Me
Re: Basically
Date: 2006-12-15 05:15 am (UTC)--Me