Franny/You're Human

"Just because I'm so horribly conditioned to accept everybody else's values, and just because I like applause and people to rave about me, doesn't make it right. I'm ashamed of it. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody. I'm sick of myself and everybody else that wants to make some kind of a splash."

--Franny (J.D. Salinger)

So simple yet so compelling, I love it.

isn't this an anti-cartesian prayer?

...I am very scared of reflect upon human being, but as soon as I read the lyrics of this song the idea against Descartes just popped up in my mind. Are we only thinking being? i don't think so. Cartesio idea is very convincing but i think we are more than what he says. you could argue that he says that he doesn't exclude that we are more than a thinking machine and that is the only thing we can say for sure, the only evidence of ourselves. where is our soul? where is the trascendental part of ourselves that we can't perceive now but we will be once we'll leave this world?

The title, and the prayer within the lyrics, is a straight reference to J.D. Salinger's "Franny and Zooey". Reading the book doesn't reveal a whole secret meaning to the song or anything, but it certainly makes them more poignant, because it's such a powerful book.

maybe he's praying for help to accept that he's just not that important? and that he most likely never will be i love this song though the last couple of minutes are just both beautiful

How dare I ever consider discarding this music!

This song to me means he is trying to find the strength to let go of his pride. "Please lord give me strenght, to be nobody" is referring to how it takes a lot of strength to allow yourself to become nobody or have no pride because pride allows for embarresment and jealousy. "Cause I am not my thought" is referring to how his pride is putting up mental thoughts that block him from being himself. He is saying he is not what he thinks because that is how you can truly become a humble person. I hope this makes sense.

I'm pretty sure this is supposed to be the Jesus Prayer in Franny and Zooey although I'm not sure if this is technically the prayer or just an interpretation according to the book.

we are all nobody; our existence drowns in time and space.

drop in the bucket brick in the wall sort of thing. and certainly it takes strength we've borrowed from god to accept this and live with our hearts still fulfilled.

miiriiam's quote is very applicable. Franny was going though a shift in though processes where she resisted any and all forms of preconceived worth. Living to "be someone" is no way to live at all, she expressed. However, Franny was a victim of already being someone, due to her appearances on A Wise Child; so....she's really just another example of someone wanting what they don't have. To me, wanting what you don't have is wanting what you don't have, regardless of the context. ...still...the vision I get of Franny is basically what I think of when I think of the perfect chick