This is going to be really out there, but if you take every song to be about relationships and boring everyday problems, are you really living? I'll leave that to the philosophers. Anyway, my interpretation of this song is as follows: It's from the perspective of The Foundation to The Second Foundation around the end of the first Foundation novel, from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.
I know what you're thinking (other than "I've never heard of that"--in that case, go read it, it's great) and that's "Oh for fuck's sake, come on" but bear with me.
Let's go through it line by line.
"There is no safer place than in between cold embraces"
See, the cold embraces represent the Four Kingdoms that surround the Foundation. They are originally cold and uncaring, but eventually move to capture it. As it happens, the Foundation is in the safest possible place, as it (as predicted) absorbs the kingdoms into the core of its future empire.
"Say it again"
OK this one is a bit short on content.
"I like how you work my name"
The Second Foundation uses the name that The Foundation considers to be its own (Foundation, that is, in case you haven't been following).
Embroidering the pain on every speck of skin
This is a literal ability of the Second Foundations (if I'm remembering correctly and not confusing this with The Stainless Steel Rat... it happens)--and, in later novels, the Foundationers with their neuronic whips and psychic abilties to activate all the pain receptors of the body.
"The distance has been not so kind"
Terminus, where The Foundation is located, is at the farthest end of the galaxy from the Imperial core, which causes it to quickly lose governmental support that it was promised.
I curse this caveat
And the temperatures are wearing paper thin
I am sick of listening
"The worst is yet to come, my dear
I've been fighting back for what feels like nearly several hundred years
If you just let me make my own mistakes
I promise I'll behave, only in the worst way"
I'll take this chunk all at once: The worst that is yet to come is, of course, the Mule. The "several hundred years" remark is what made my draw this interpretation in the first place. The last two lines are more relevant around the time of Foundation's Edge: if the Second Foundation leaves the Foundation to make its own mistakes, it will behave in the worst way: that is, accelerate The Plan and make the Second empire 500 years early.
"Too heavy to hold my own evaporating soul
Sweltered and sandwiched in the middle
Of this melting heart of major compromise
I have one foot out and one foot almost in
I am sick of listening"
From the Foundation's Edge time again, the Foundation is becoming "heavy"--that is to say, it now controls half the galaxy. It is, however, sandwiched into compromise with the Second Foundation which is not a galactic empire, but a bunch of librarians who will, according to The Plan, take control of the Foundation to form the second empire. The Foundation has one foot out, as in they want to separate and set their own course (some of them), but the Plan is what gave it its power in the first place, so they have one foot almost in. Of course, the Foundation is "sick of listening" to The Second Foundation..
"I won't say I'm sorry
This hasn't been a waste of time
Tell me, do you think we'll be fine after all?
I'm all nerve, an anxious, sort of complicated fear
The worst is yet to come, my dear"
The Foundation--which is to say, the Mayor of the Foundation--changes her mind after an encounter with Gaia, and decides not to go ahead with their own short term plan--The Seldon Plan hasn't been a waste of time. They might even ask the Second Foundation "Do you think we'll be fine?" because, as Golan Trevize learns, an un-unified galaxy is at risk of alien incursion.
And then the chorus again.
Anyway, I'll put this here, and one day in the far future someone might just have the same idea as me, and look it up, and they'll find this, and they will totally freak out.
Hello person from the future. Hope you liked my interpretation--if you see anything else I could add, by all means let me know. Somehow. Uhh... you'll figure it out.
This is going to be really out there, but if you take every song to be about relationships and boring everyday problems, are you really living? I'll leave that to the philosophers. Anyway, my interpretation of this song is as follows: It's from the perspective of The Foundation to The Second Foundation around the end of the first Foundation novel, from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.
I know what you're thinking (other than "I've never heard of that"--in that case, go read it, it's great) and that's "Oh for fuck's sake, come on" but bear with me.
Let's go through it line by line.
"There is no safer place than in between cold embraces" See, the cold embraces represent the Four Kingdoms that surround the Foundation. They are originally cold and uncaring, but eventually move to capture it. As it happens, the Foundation is in the safest possible place, as it (as predicted) absorbs the kingdoms into the core of its future empire.
"Say it again" OK this one is a bit short on content.
"I like how you work my name" The Second Foundation uses the name that The Foundation considers to be its own (Foundation, that is, in case you haven't been following).
Embroidering the pain on every speck of skin This is a literal ability of the Second Foundations (if I'm remembering correctly and not confusing this with The Stainless Steel Rat... it happens)--and, in later novels, the Foundationers with their neuronic whips and psychic abilties to activate all the pain receptors of the body.
"The distance has been not so kind" Terminus, where The Foundation is located, is at the farthest end of the galaxy from the Imperial core, which causes it to quickly lose governmental support that it was promised.
I curse this caveat And the temperatures are wearing paper thin I am sick of listening
"The worst is yet to come, my dear I've been fighting back for what feels like nearly several hundred years If you just let me make my own mistakes I promise I'll behave, only in the worst way"
I'll take this chunk all at once: The worst that is yet to come is, of course, the Mule. The "several hundred years" remark is what made my draw this interpretation in the first place. The last two lines are more relevant around the time of Foundation's Edge: if the Second Foundation leaves the Foundation to make its own mistakes, it will behave in the worst way: that is, accelerate The Plan and make the Second empire 500 years early.
"Too heavy to hold my own evaporating soul Sweltered and sandwiched in the middle Of this melting heart of major compromise I have one foot out and one foot almost in I am sick of listening"
From the Foundation's Edge time again, the Foundation is becoming "heavy"--that is to say, it now controls half the galaxy. It is, however, sandwiched into compromise with the Second Foundation which is not a galactic empire, but a bunch of librarians who will, according to The Plan, take control of the Foundation to form the second empire. The Foundation has one foot out, as in they want to separate and set their own course (some of them), but the Plan is what gave it its power in the first place, so they have one foot almost in. Of course, the Foundation is "sick of listening" to The Second Foundation..
"I won't say I'm sorry This hasn't been a waste of time Tell me, do you think we'll be fine after all? I'm all nerve, an anxious, sort of complicated fear The worst is yet to come, my dear"
The Foundation--which is to say, the Mayor of the Foundation--changes her mind after an encounter with Gaia, and decides not to go ahead with their own short term plan--The Seldon Plan hasn't been a waste of time. They might even ask the Second Foundation "Do you think we'll be fine?" because, as Golan Trevize learns, an un-unified galaxy is at risk of alien incursion.
And then the chorus again.
Anyway, I'll put this here, and one day in the far future someone might just have the same idea as me, and look it up, and they'll find this, and they will totally freak out.
Hello person from the future. Hope you liked my interpretation--if you see anything else I could add, by all means let me know. Somehow. Uhh... you'll figure it out.