Pretension/Repulsion

A song against falsely objectifying beauty through the media.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was one of the first artists to change the way a woman’s body looked for added sexuality, when he famously painted a woman with an extra-long back because he found it more sexually attractive in his famous work Grande Odalisque. It was like the original version airbrushed photoshopping if you think about it.

“Born-a-graphic vs. Porn-a-graphic” also touches upon the same thought. Very few women in pornography or tamer sexualized photos are natural, either through caking on far too much make up to re-make their face, or through plastic surgery like breast implants.

At this stage in his writings, Richey was writing some short-hand phrasing that was almost like an inner-code only he truly understood (like on “Removables”) I don’t think they’re throw-away lines, but just something only he understood. My guess is he was writing about how so many people obsessed with their beauty are so self-loathing. Maybe "Shot from shot The androgyny fails" is referencing models? They are obsessed with their looks, and also some of the most miserable people in the universe for it.

It makes sense given the way the lyric runs that the core meaning is to be found in the chorus "Shards oh shards The androgyny fails Odalisque by Ingres Extra bones for sale Born-a-graphic vs pornographic" My take on it is that it is another lyric musing on sexual and with it personal failure, and the sexual / personal isolation it both stems from and and results in. This seems to be a running theme in Richey's lyrics from this period. He feels cast adrift by the combination of his personality and sexuality and the conflict therein. As far as I know he was straight, but not a "man's man". He recourses to his "feminine" self / self-image but he has found this to be no path to success when it comes to attracting women. It seems that he ponders, perhaps in light of this failure, that this approach is pretentious, that he has no real right to deny his masculinity, and has chosen the wrong path all along. He is repulsed by himself for this, and frames women's rejection of him as repulsion, that they must be repulsed by it. He is left with "shards", and, in a perhaps tongue-in-cheek reference / comparison, "extra bones for sale", a la the Odalisque by Ingres. The conflict and gap between himself and the world is framed in "born-a-graphic vs pornographic" The words in the verses detail the struggle of this conflict, and the veering between pretension and repulsion. I may be entirely wrong, but it seems to make sense.

The lyrics are very wrong here, it's:

"BORN.A.GRAPHIC VS PORNAGRAPHIC" and "Extra bones for sale"

If I found out how to change the lyrics I would. Anyway, I realised tonight that this song sums me up in many ways. The title "Pretension/Repulsion" explains my relationship with myself exactly. Going from a huge high, really being proud of myself you know, sort of imagining I have rights above other people, and it's a very hard train of thought to break out of. And then at the complete other end I am repulsed by myself, really full of hate, and just disgusted at everything I do and the way I look.

The lyric is actually " Shard oh Shards ".