| Great Lake Swimmers – Moving Pictures Silent Films Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I don't believe that this song is specifically about a relationship. The singer seems to be suffering from a more fundamental pain -- some sort of existential crisis. The lyrics are a pretty clear reference to Plato's cave (as someone already pointed out.) Remember in Plato's allegory of the cave, he imagined a cave in which a group of people were restrained facing the cave wall. They were unable to move their heads or turn around. Behind the prisoners Plato imagined a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners, various objects (animals, people, plants, etc.) moved back and forth. These objects in turn cast a shadow on the wall of the cave in front of the prisoners. The prisoners were only able to apprehend a shadow of what was actually occurring around them. One thing Plato meant to suggest was that with our limited senses and limited abilities to comprehend the world with our minds, what we perceive and what we believe we know is actually something very different from the Truth. The singer in "Moving Pictures" is playing with some of these ideas. First, the title of the song refers to Plato's cave. A film is, like the shadows on the wall, a mere glimmer of reality. It's an illusion. The lyrics refer to the cave as well. He's trapped underground, but at some point he is able to turn around. He sees a set of headlights (the fire) "bearing down on shadow animals," and he realizes that he is seeing the unbearable truth. Plato imagined that some people would find the truth too difficult to tolerate, and after having seen it they would be compelled to again face the wall. So it seems with the singer. The truth of the light is unbearable for him; he'd rather perceive the shadows. What makes the song great is not the reference to Plato's cave, but how it adds an element of desperation in the singer's realization that he has not been perceiving the truth and that he would rather remain in a fantasy. While his prayerbook might help him face the truth, he would prefer to eat its pages to satisfy his worldly hunger. For him, God and prayer are useless. He is hopelessly trapped in a world of shadow. |
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