In a nutshell, this song puts all the fine points on the nature of certain types of dysfunctional relationships. It does this so well, it's inconguous with the fact that someone with this much insight should remain in such a screwed up relationship; hence, the relationship is no more. So actually, it's not insight, it's 20/20 hindsight.
The "letterbox" is merely a hint of that new separateness/singularity; for a while anyway, our interface with the world--our new "intimacy"--is the postal system. Certain other phrases are dead giveaways. For example, "take a bite out of my spine," addresses that ugly situation where one person in a bad relationship permits the other to use shabby little expedients (e.g., playing on inner doubts, information withholding, lying) to rob them of fundamental self-worth. The other "giveaway" is that last line of the A section about "And I'll never never...". This is a reference to the fact that when one of the parties to relationships like this finally wakes up, with the resultant breakup, they have to reflect tragically on the fact that there are certain things they'll never be able to resolve in a satisfactory way; notably, why the other partner was so screwed up in the first place. If they knew, change might have been possible and the breakup might not have been necessary. It's one of the ironies of bad relationships.
In a nutshell, this song puts all the fine points on the nature of certain types of dysfunctional relationships. It does this so well, it's inconguous with the fact that someone with this much insight should remain in such a screwed up relationship; hence, the relationship is no more. So actually, it's not insight, it's 20/20 hindsight.
The "letterbox" is merely a hint of that new separateness/singularity; for a while anyway, our interface with the world--our new "intimacy"--is the postal system. Certain other phrases are dead giveaways. For example, "take a bite out of my spine," addresses that ugly situation where one person in a bad relationship permits the other to use shabby little expedients (e.g., playing on inner doubts, information withholding, lying) to rob them of fundamental self-worth. The other "giveaway" is that last line of the A section about "And I'll never never...". This is a reference to the fact that when one of the parties to relationships like this finally wakes up, with the resultant breakup, they have to reflect tragically on the fact that there are certain things they'll never be able to resolve in a satisfactory way; notably, why the other partner was so screwed up in the first place. If they knew, change might have been possible and the breakup might not have been necessary. It's one of the ironies of bad relationships.