ASSIGNMENTS:
|
|
Jessyca Murphy
Bellingham, Washington USA
|
|
REPORTS:
PREVIOUS NEXT
|
|
Me: So I just pulled out my Clash album because I've been talking to Mark a lot lately and I haven't listened to it in a long time. And I thought he raves about them all the time, I might as well pay more attention to it. You know I completely forgot about how much I love "Lost in the Supermarket." Do you remember which one that is?
Leif: No, not really.
Me: It's the kind of slower one. You know, 'I'm lost in the supermarket...da da da da da da da...' It totally reminds me of my post-modern class last year because it's like about this boring suburban life surrounding the supermarket.
Leif: You don't really know that though, do you?
Me: Know what?
Leif: That that's what the song's about. You don't know that for sure but you say you know it because you think you're always right.
Me: I never said that.
Leif: But you do it all the time. You hear a song or something and you say you know what it's about but it's just your interpretation. You didn't read anything where the guy from the Clash explains what that song's about.
Me: Well, no but it's obvious. It's a pretty straight-forward song. He talks about walking around the supermarket and living in the suburbs and getting his personality from the coupons he collects. He actually says all those things. I don't think my assumption was too far-fetched.
Leif: But that's just it, it was an assumption. You should have said 'I think it's about...' but you didn't, you said, 'it's about...' like you really knew, when you didn't.
Me: I don't have to say 'I think' it's just implied. It's like when you're writing a paper. You're not supposed to be wordy. You're supposed to be confident. Obviously you think something because you're the one saying it. 'I think' is an unnecessary phrase.
Leif: But you should say it because you don't know for sure and it makes you sound pretentious like you think you know everything and that you're always right. Like your way is the only way to see something.
Me: I would never say something like that. I don't think that at all. I think all interpretations are valid.
Leif: But it's the way you say it. It'd be different if you said "Space Boy" by the Smashing Pumpkins is about Billy Corrigan's disabled brother because it is and he said it in an interview. But you couldn't say that "Porcelaina of the Vast Oceans" was about his grandma dying because that's just what you think and not what you know. I'm just using that as an example.
Me: But that's bull shit because what if the information isn't available? Does that mean that the song is not really about something?
Leif: No, but I guess it means you can never really know what the song is about.
Me: Yeah but the meaning behind the song is really about how the audience sees it. If nobody can tell that that's what Space Boy is about than who gives a shit? The meaning comes from the viewers' heads when it really boils down to it.
Leif: I'm not having this conversation with you. This is stupid.
|
|
|
|
|
|
