Sunday, July 31, 2011

Unexpected Allegory

Things that have deeper or hidden meanings... I usually don't get them.  Probably because I'm not looking for them.  To me a song can be just a song, without being a social commentary or a drug reference.  Same goes for books, plays, art, movies, etc.  I tend to let things be in that regard.  If things don't make sense, I'm good with that, embracing of it even.  I love a good bit of nonsense.  So all this stuff that everybody else sees goes right over my head.  I had to be told that the Narnia books were about religion.  I had to be told that the song Crystal Blue Persuasion is about crystal meth.  Why would I think that?  Is crystal meth actually blue?  I've never seen it.  "Every morning there's a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend's 4-post bed."  Apparently the halo is a condom.  Which I think makes the next line: "I know it's not mine but I'll see if I can use it for the weekend or a one-night stand," totally gross. Is he actually re-using condoms?  wtf? There are a slim few that I actually pick up on by myself, but not many, and I tend to second guess myself on them anyway.  Madonna's Like a Prayer, is this about oral sex?  I'm thinkin' so.  Why can't a story just be a story?  Why does it have to really be about the politics of communist Russia?  Why does a story about unicorns have to be an allegory for capitalism?  Why do we have to look for penises in King Triton's castle in The Little Mermaid?  Why are there so many names for our private parts?  Beaver?  Really?  You wanna name a woman's crotch after a water-dwelling rodent with giant teeth?  Why?  Especially since so many women in the US shave down there now, so it's not like the brown fur thing is even relevant in many cases.  Now, I know all this kind of is a 180 from what I said in my Thinking post, about never just accepting things without thinking about them.  I don't know why I'm ok with taking things at face value in entertainment....actually I think that's exactly it, to me there's entertainment and then there's stuff that makes ya think.  I steer toward books and movies for escape, for some fluff and fun, and nonsense is totally fun.  I guess I get annoyed when something is presented as a fun or cute little romp of a story and then it turns out that they're really trying to spread a message about politics or drugs or sex.  It ruins it.  I don't have a problem if things are going to do that, but I think they should present themselves as such from the beginning, and that way I'll know to go into it when I'm in the right mood and have some energy to really examine and contemplate.  They could at least put it on the jacket flap of books, or the description/trailer for movies.  Or if it's just straight out that kind of movie where you know there's something deeper going on, like, maybe Pan's Labyrinth.  That's the kind of movie where you just KNOW to look at the tree and see a uterus.  The Golden Compass, you know you're dealing with heavier crap than a fun adventure story there.  They make it clear.  But if you're gonna act like you're presenting a book like Wind in the Willows, or The Princess Diaries, don't go stuffing in things about religion and philosophy on the sly and expect people to be looking for it, cuz I'm sure as hell not. 

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