So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
Fine day in river heights, fine day for your skateboards and bikes, fine day in your cute little world, fine day for tough boys and submissive girls, a fine day to see that the government's got the drop on you. watching everything that you do. but you tell yourself that I you're exempt from their stare and that rules are rules and the system's fair and square, but with wired phones and two-way mirrors, they've been watching you for 20-some years, they regulate your idleness, (get a load of this next line) you agglutinate and acquiesce, this whole goddamn world's a fucking mess, but it's a fine-day in river heights (whammy bar mayhem)
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"agglutinate and acquiesce"!! Does anyone get the sense that at some point around 94-95 Chris was taking a vocab course for material!?