Song interpretation.

Like tears in rain
*WARNING: spoiler for the movie Blade runner.*

The song is from a Swedish band called Covenant. I wasn't aware that hey were Swedes before I looked them up on wikipedia, for the reason of writing this. The band formed in 1986 and is still active today according to wikipedia. I've heard a few good songs of theirs, but I'm not really familiar with their work.

I really like the beat the song has, and I think the lyrics fit in well with it. Being rather musically ignorant I can't say much about how the vocals, rhythm, tempo etc go together. wikipedia puts this sort of music into the genres of futurepop, synthpop, darkwave and electronic body music.

Judging from the title of this song I can imagine the song being a homage to the movie Blade runner. I'm going to approach my interpretation of the lyrics through the looking glass of Blade runner. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so I might remember something wrong, but alas, I'll give it a shot.

The events of the movie Blade runner take place in a dystopian future earth that, if my memory serves me correct, has been ravaged by nuclear war and industrial pollution, killing of most animals and made some humans emigrate to mars. In this world technological advancements has allowed the creation of androids so advanced that the only way to differ them from humans is a test that scans bodily functions during being asked question made to instigate emotion. Some androids have been planted with false memories, to give them a history and to possibly fool them to think they are human. Some androids were used for dangerous work in places such as space and for fighting wars. In the movie several androids, with a life span of only 4 years, have come to earth illegally to seek to lengthen their lifespan.

And the first set of lyrics is what I think Roy Batty, the leader of the group of androids, could be thinking after arriving to earth. Wondering how many others like him there are, with false memories, doing essentially slave labour in the name of whatever human advancement or expansion in space.

“Go to the empire state and watch the city lights
hear the noise of millions struggle in the sprawl
stare into the sky we're few and far between
black eyes full of stars wide with memories”

In the next set of lyrics I imagine to be about the loss of everything he has had, be it the people and places in his false memories, or the other androids he came with to earth that were killed by the android hunters.

“Every street I ever walked
every home I ever had
is lost

Every flower I ever held
every spring I ever had
has dried

Every man I ever knew
every woman I ever had
is gone

Everything I ever touched
every thing I ever had
has died”

The first part of the last set of lyrics I don't really see fitting the interpretation of mine, but the last part sort of does. I imagine this being the part in the movie where the android Roy dies of old age, after saving Deckard and after he said what he did.

“Lie down in the park and watch the satellites
hear the children sing just a breath away
dance in the heavy air along the interstate
black lung full of fumes choke on memories”

I don't think this interpretation is too solid, and I feel it perhaps was a bit forced, but I wanted to put it through that perspective. I would probably gotten a better interpretation of it all if I had watched the movie again.

Overall the lyrics are sad, and the music fitting. The song does not have an official video to go with it, so I won't be looking to make any analysis of such sort.

Here in the end I feel like I must link this video:

Part one

The book, I feel, is quite grim. It goes into great detail how Winston sees and understands the doings and effects of the party. The way the author describes things, as example ”Two minutes Hate”, are very unsettling.

”The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp. ”

The ways of controlling the population are quite scary, for example the “telescreen” an apparatus that constantly monitors peoples doings in their own homes, and the usage of children as spies on their own parents, and other adults. And then there of course is the thought police, who uncover and punish thought-crime.

In part one, Winston is debating for himself what to write in his diary and whom to write it to, the future, the past or the present. He's thinking about what to write and starts thinking about the two minute of hate, and the persons that sat close to him during the event. O'Brien and the black haired woman, both of whom will be important characters further in the book. He has a feeling that O'Brien, a member of the inner party, is like him. Someone who secretly hates the state, in sense a thought criminal.

Unconsciously, while thinking about things, he writes:

DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER
DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER

And he comes to the realization that he already is a dead man, the thought police would get him sooner or later, and what left is to just stay unnoticed for as long as possible.

“On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrappings of a cigarette Packet — everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed — no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimeters inside your skull. “

Later on, in his sleep, he dreams about his mother and baby sister. How he feels that they sacrificed themselves so that he could live on. And he felt that tragedy belonged to the ancient time, the time before the party. And after waking up he tries to remember things from his childhood, how things were before, and how the party has altered history.

“If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened — that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death? “

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the same tale — then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in New-speak, 'doublethink'. “

Doublethink = dubbeltänkande, dubbelspel.            Principle = princip, grund, grundsats.

Entail = medföra, föra, innebära.                             Comrade = kamrat.

Consciousness = medvetande, medvetenhet.        Unorthodox = oortodox, okonventionell.

Mingle = blanda.                                                     Despicable = föraktlig, usel, lumpen.

Childish = barnslig, enfaldig.                                    Scrutinize = noga undersöka, granska

Ulcer = sår, rötsår                                                   Scarlet = scharlakansrött

Alcove = alkov, nisch                                              Polysyllabic = flerstavig, polysyllabisk

Cabbage = kål                                                        Unalterable = oföränderlig

Heretic = kättare.                                                   Cubicle = hytt, skrubb, bås, avbalkning

Pneumatic = pneumatisk, tryckslufts-                       Bugger = sodomit, jävel, fan.  

Introduction

The book I've chose in Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It was published in 1948 and since then has become a classic. It tells a story about Winston Smith experiences in Orwell's vision of a totalitarian state, which controls everything, even thought.


A bit over a year ago I read perhaps half of this book, but stopped for some reason. And given this task I feel it's time to start again and finish it. All the way to the bitter end this time.