Sunday, August 02, 2009
Effervescent Adolescents by Arctic Monkeys (Lughnasadh Song Video)
The first time I saw this video, I thought, Ah hell no, evil clowns, but as I watched it, it sucked me right in. I don't know what the band had in mind when they made it, but I see it as symbolic. The clown and his main protagonist here are representative of man's dual natures. The clown is our true selves, the other the face we present to the world. During childhood we are closer to our true selves, but as we grow older, we drift further apart from our true natures.
Nevertheless, there will always be occasions during which we will find ourselves face-to-face once again with our true natures, in the course of an often times unexpected and unwelcome "reunion", one that often results in disastrous consequences. In the end, we can hide our true natures, whatever they might be-be they good or be they bad-but only up to a point. We can never get rid ourselves of them completely. Sooner or later, they will manifest, as often as not at the worse possible times.
It seems kind of a fitting video with which to celebrate what amounts to a trickster deity.
Also, it happens to be one kick-ass rocking song. Enjoy. And have a blessed and happy Lughnasadh.
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8 comments:
I am still alive. But horribly depressed. I should be alright in a few months....
Get well soon.
Sonia, you need to e-mail me privately. Use my gmail address, not Yahoo. It's DancingCrow3. I want to talk to you. I emailed you once but you never answered.
It's not the same, without Sonia.
Ren-you're right, but I guess everybody needs some space from time to time.
Sounds reasonable.
That was strange. What did it have to do with Lammas?
Danielle-
I explained that in the post under the video. My use of song videos like this is something like putting them on the level of surreal art, for one example. People tend to project their inner feelings and interpret accordingly.
Think in terms of the clown as a trickster god symbol. Also think in terms of the "reunion" of man's false self-the self he presents to the world at large-with his "true self"-the "clown" who may be good or bad, depending on the individual.
Lammas, or Lughnasadh, is in part a time for "reunions"-only the reunion pictured here is symbolic, in my opinion, of a spiritual, psychological, and/or emotional one, resulting in internal struggle, one which can manifest in disruptive ways in a person's material life.
Not that the clowns or "regular" people in this video represents Hermes or any other trickster god, but they represent admirably the way in which that energy manifests within the realm of human existence. Well, that's how I see it anyway.
Finally, as a general rule I just like this kind of song and video better than the typical pagan music. I don't like straight up spiritual or religious songs and hymns, even if they're rockers, as much as I do stuff that can have symbolic layers of meaning that give you something to really think about and ponder.
Just the fact that you took the time to ask me what it meant kind of proves my point. If I had posted a typical "New Age" or pagan song video extolling the glories of the goddess and the god, it would have passed without any meaningful comment whatsoever from anyone, other than "that's a nice song", or "that was some boring fucking shit". You know, it's just mediocre, for the most part, and even the best of it kind of blends in to nothing significant on an artistic or creative level.
Take the Bast video I posted a few posts down from here. It was all right for the place I put it. But no way would I start off a series of posts with that. It's like comparing Led Zeppelin to some kind of fucking elevator music.
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