The Cinema Show

Pardon the arrogance, but pity you folks do not get around or read more. Tiresias was the "Seer of Thebes". The gods were once arguing about who enjoyed sex more, men or women. To settle the question, they employed a wise human. Being absolute believers in empiricism, they sent the usually male Tiresias to earth as a newly minted female in order to gain the experieces to settle the argument. When he returned to Olympus with his results, the gods quizzed him with the question: Who enjoys sex more? Tiresias answered "were I to divide the pleasure humans experience into a portion of 10, men enjoy sex a value of 3, and women a value of 7". The proud male gods, very angry, struck Tiresias blind on the spot. If I remember correctly, they also gave him the power of prognostication but withheld any ability to convince anyone else of his visions (like Cassandra). About 70% of the earth's surface is covered by the sea. But [in fact] THAT IS ONLY THE EARTH'S SURFACE! Truly among the most brilliant lyrics in popular music and tremendous wisdom from such young lads. Do not miss that the final synthesizer riff (of Cinema Show) comes back (full circle) to become the acoustic guitar opening of the album (Dancing with the Moonlit Knight). Truly brilliant music from a group at the pinnacle of their inspiration.

Actually the "rant at the end" is a song in itself, isn't it? They skipped it when they did the song live (check "Seconds Out"). The final lines about Tiresias do seem fuzzy...

Does seem to be a song by Tony, he was always into the mythological stuff, and it's piano/mellotron-based right through til the stunning six-minute solo, but that's also a spot where you hear Phil shining as a great drummer: funky, swinging, subtly shifting the emphasis like kites spinning in the wind.

Tiresias was a priest of Zeus, and as a young man he encountered two snakes mating and hit them with a stick. He was then transformed into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera, married and had children, including Manto. According to some versions of the tale, Lady Tiresias was a prostitute of great renown. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes, struck them with her staff, and became a man once more. As a result of his experiences, Zeus and Hera asked him to settle the question of which sex, male or female, experienced more pleasure during intercourse. Zeus claimed it was women; Hera claimed it was men. Tiresias sided with Zeus, saying that on a scale of one to ten, women enjoy sex nine times to men's one. Hera struck him blind. Since Zeus could not undo what she had done, he gave him the gift of prophecy. An alternative story in Callimachus' poem "The Bathing of Pallas" has it that Tiresias was blinded by Athena after he stumbled onto her bathing naked. His mother, Chariclo, begged her to undo her curse, but Athena couldn't; she took the serpent from her aegis and commanded it to lick his ears, giving him prophecy instead.

Stripped of its narrative and anecdotal and causal connections, the mythic figure of Tireisias combines several archaic elements: the blind seer; the impious interruption of a natural rite (whether of a bathing goddess or coupling serpents); serpents and staff (Caduceus); a holy man's double gender (shaman); and competition between deities.

Tiresias's background was important, both for his prophecy and his experiences. Greek mythology contained many hermaphroditic figures (including Hermaphroditus), but Tiresias was fully male and then fully female. Also, prophecy was a gift given only to the priests and priestesses. Therefore, Tiresias offered Zeus and Hera evidence and gained the gift of male and female priestly prophecy.

As a seer, Tiresias was "a common title for soothsayers throughout Greek legendary history" (Graves 1960, 105.5). In Greek literature, Tiresias's pronouncements are always gnomic but never wrong. He is generally extremely reluctant to offer his visions like most oracles. Often when his name is attached to a mythic prophecy, it is introduced simply to supply a personality to the generic example of a seer, not by any inherent connection of Tiresias with the myth: thus it is Tiresias who warns the mother of Narcissus that the boy will thrive as long as he never knows himself. This is his emblemmatic role in tragedy (see below).

An above comment called this Genesis' most intelligent lyrics, which seems a hard claim to justify...

But that just might be a factor of the inclusion of the "chocolate surprise" line. Still the lyrics are very good.

The opening part of the song talks about two people destined to fall in love, using the familiar example of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet is the typical woman, cleaning around the house, and Romeo is a poor man (living in a basement flat). However, because of his love, he feels like a "weekend millionaire."

The Tiresias part is based on the legend that Tiresias spent time as both a man and a woman to see who got more pleasure out of sex. Out of a total of 10, he said women got 7 and men got 3 (adding up to 10). This outraged the Gods, and some stuff happened (I'm not sure what).

Anyway, Gabriel compares man's tendency to change from calm to rage instantly to the same tendency of the sea, and woman to the earth. He then concluded with "there is in fact more earth than sea." This is true. In terms of surface area, there is twice as much sea. However, in terms of actual volume (a.k.a. substance), the earth is 70% earth and 30% water. Thus, there is, in fact, more earth than sea. And notice the 7 to 3 ratio. Thus, women get more enjoyment from sex than men.

And that's the excellent song, "The Cinema Show."

The album itself is about the decline of the British Empire, on which the sun will finally set.

Yeah, I know it's been over 2.5 years since someone (SurferDave) mentioned T.S. Eliot and over a year since anyone commented on this song at all, but just for the record, Cinema Show IS in fact a pastiche of T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland, at least in part. That is, it's not really about the Tiresias myth directly but rather a tongue-in-cheek version of the the scene between the clerk and typist in The Wasteland which refers to that myth. Rather than get into specifics, let me just quote the relevant part of the poem. Compare with the lyrics and you will see all the parallels and how Cinema Show is the cheerful, comedic counterpart to The Wasteland's bleak, tragic allusion to Tiresias as a symbol of gender duality. In the song it's all a matter of fun and conquest whereas in the poem it almost sounds like rape.

The typist home at teatime, clears her breakfast, lights Her stove, and lays out food in tins. Out of the window perilously spread Her drying combinations touched by the sun's last rays, On the divan are piled (at night her bed) Stockings, slippers, camisoles, and stays. I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest - I too awaited the expected guest.
He, the young man carbuncular, arrives, A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare, One of the low on whom assurance sits As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire. The time is now propitious, as he guesses, The meal is ended, she is bored and tired, Endeavours to engage her in caresses Which still are unreproved, if undesired. Flushed and decided, he assaults at once; Exploring hands encounter no defence;
His vanity requires no response, And makes a welcome of indifference. (And I Tiresias have foresuffered all Enacted on this same divan or bed; I who have sat by Thebes below the wall And walked among the lowest of the dead.) Bestows one final patronising kiss, And gropes his way, finding the stairs unlit . . .

Supposedly the most intelligent Genesis lyric! Until Gabriel's rant at the end. Lyrics by Banks (Obviously!) not the end bit though! Is about the battle of the sexes. Is another mythological song which is where all the refeances come from.

Me too I think it's about the war between the sexes. "more earth than sea" means that the woman's pleasure is at last bigger than the man's one. There IS a mythologcal cotext, but I cannot remember it.

The 'rant' at the end is not part of The Cinema Show but is the concluding song of Selling Enlgand... and is called Aisle of Plenty

Wow Malwurf - spot on - nice one - but it does stop others from adding!! lol - Great obversation & thought - I should be commenting on the song but I find myself commenting on the comments from someone else - Malwurf, you have caught the essence of this site - spot on

Thanks Malwurf. Really perfect interpretation, enjoyed reading it. I had this surface-thing in mind, too. :) This world needs more bands like genesis and more listeners like you!!