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I love this stuff - lazyfatbum - 17th December 2009
Artists the world over since the dawn of entertainment have sought to layer their stories with underlying passages of larger stories and themes, usually of actual history or using metaphors to explain a complex issue.
An obvious example of this is found in the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and I want bore you with all the Lovecraftian attention to detail the story uses to convey the old and new testament of Christian beliefs (protip: The Lion is Jesus). And never mind the satanic imagery and word play of the "Lion" a classic and ancient form of the devil, the "witch" or devil's bride and a wardrobe which you may have caught in history class as where people hid during mass executions, the cleansing of the crusades and other ritualistic forms of mass murder. You didn't think "coming out of the closet" was just a tongue in cheek phrase, do you?
But all is well, as these stories, time and again, bridge our understanding. It is found in music, novels, even our religion. I hope there are no adults in this world that actually believe Jesus used magic or Moses parted a sea, in actuality these metaphors explained delicate and deep happenings of the time which scholars spend lifetimes unraveling... usually to fall on deaf ears of the happily ignorant. It's in films as well, this sometimes subtle, sometimes profound story within the story can pique an interest on a subconscious level.
A soldier is badly wounded and becomes a paraplegic, losing his ability to walk. He is in his early 20's, spends his day in his wheelchair and finds himself usually alone, depressed and looking for something to pass his time as he spends most of it at home. One of his favorite things to do is play video games.
He is given an opportunity to undergo a radical new medical technique where his legs can be re-grown if he re-enlists in to the military for a project on another planet. This project will use a new technology to have him placed in a machine where his brain is downloaded in to a consciously-blank avatar of himself, that is partly, if not mostly, a genetically manufactured alien.
This man in his early 20's will play as his avatar in an alien environment where he has multiple lives, actual death does not affect him, and he is given a series of orders to take out.
Avatar grabs your attention by telling a story about, who else, but you. People in their 20's who have no major goals, have graduated college and do nothing but inform themselves and gain knowledge for no apparent reason other than as a hobby. They sit, as if paralyzed, with no life. Addicted to entertainment, usually in the forms of music, video games and films and are all looking for a way to reach out and change the world.
Could it be simply because we have lost our grasp on the natural world? In such a way, in a manner of speaking, have we become avatars of ourselves?
Discussion on these hidden meanings, what was purposefully placed and created by the very creators of the story can be limitless and, in and of itself, a facilitating hobby.
Samus Aran shocked us when she was revealed to be Same-as A-Man and we all reeled in surprise when we discovered that the Lion King would have been more appropriately named as the Hamlet Lion. Beauty and the Beast an early Victorian fable of a beautiful maiden who engaged in sexual acts with animals or a story of a french man who sold his daughters in to prostitution, only to find that his youngest daughter had been taken by the government to be an heir to the throne. Beast sat in his kingly bed, watching the red rose petals fall, his time was short and he was watching time leave him... and he had no heir. Belle, meaning the beautiful in french, was young and ravishing, her stunning beauty sealed her fate to be taken to the castle but when her father said no, he was told that he, in her stead, would be placed in the castle forever. As a trade, he agreed, to give up his youngest daughter to the king so he would be free.
The king, a horrible devil, a beast, had his way. But the heir would become someone very important to france (guess who he was for internetz ponts). His red rose symbolically, ironically, was the rose of the church. White along its outside and red in the middle, symbolizing the virgin mary's white purity and inner passions. The church, that crafted all government, and made all decisions, and ruled behind the velour curtains.
But often, people make that easy reference. "It's a story about beastiality!" On it's surface you can easily make that claim, but there's nothing else to backup this ideal. Besides, there were thousands of countless other fairytales that told of beastiality in rather open conditions and even in beautiful murals in church's, so it wasn't exactly something that had to be hush-hush.
But a story of a king who kidnapped children to make them his bride? ...for the fear that his bride would not be a virgin to appease the church? Oh yeah, it gets beefy in these hidden meanings. But beastiality? No.
That's where this comes in. I haven't laughed this hard in a while. I remember studying David Bowie when i was younger because of his interesting choices and subjects of study but oh my roffling Christ. This is golden.
Can someone please tell me i'm dreaming.
It begins with interesting speculation.
http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=2737
It turns in to a clown infested nightmare with a Benny Hill soundtrack.
http://marcoponce.com/2009/11/lady-gaga-is-a-witch/
I think I busted a blood vessel in my right eye from laughing.
I love this stuff - Dark Jaguar - 17th December 2009
I say there is a distinct difference between a statement like "This CAN be interpretted to mean this" and "It was the original intention for this to mean this" (including the suggestion that it was subconcious).
The first is just a subjective critical opinion on it, which is fun and welcome. The second needs to be backed up with some historical evidence.
The biggest weirdness is when people use the second untennable method on statements of fact. Rather than analyze the evidence of some old text, they instead will say something rather stupid like "because Darwin was born in racist times, his work is inextricably racist, and therefor wrong". While he may well have been a racist, it has no bearing on whether or not his evidence and reasoning behind evolution is true or not. It's truth value is independant of that.