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.
By the bumper cars, in the pretty twining light, I may have gone too far, I may have gone too much too long. I'm a dull and witless boy. In the after bars, think I was sullied by a dream: in the killing jar, you and me at war at arms all falling in embrace.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
A tawny gypsy girl, sleeping blanketed by stars beneath the tilt-a-whirl where we were coyly caught alone all fumbling with your blouse.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
In the rollercoaster din, by the parachutes in saddle shoes you break your shin. But I have never seen two eyes so shiny.
And the sullen beery swine who try to tangle you in sullen beery balls of twine, have they ever seen two eyes so shiny?
The boys in denim vest, smoking cigarettes between their bootblack fingertips, sweetly tipsy by the half-light. The light and the half-light.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes so shiny
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
A tawny gypsy girl, sleeping blanketed by stars beneath the tilt-a-whirl where we were coyly caught alone all fumbling with your blouse.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
In the rollercoaster din, by the parachutes in saddle shoes you break your shin. But I have never seen two eyes so shiny.
And the sullen beery swine who try to tangle you in sullen beery balls of twine, have they ever seen two eyes so shiny?
The boys in denim vest, smoking cigarettes between their bootblack fingertips, sweetly tipsy by the half-light. The light and the half-light.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes so shiny
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I agree with you, but I could also believe that it's about a girl cheating on the boy. However, my initial reaction was that it was about rape.