In addition to wanderingmounty's information on the shadfly: I looked up Bobby and Springfield, Illinois. the only person I found was comedian born there in 1888 or so who started with small parts, then he did predominantly efiminate parts, then he became famous for playing hitler in movies. Towards the end of his career, he was simply waiting to get little one-liners in a few movies. That sounds similar to the story of the shadfly...spending most of his life unnoticed(under water) and then he finally comes above surface to get his break(as HITLER of all things) and everything falls apart from there as he is no longer needed. Or maybe he has nothing to do with the song, but Sufjan seems to introduce the history of these places into his stories...Maybe I'll come back and critique it further some other time. In the mean time, look it up urself and see what you find.
In addition to wanderingmounty's information on the shadfly: I looked up Bobby and Springfield, Illinois. the only person I found was comedian born there in 1888 or so who started with small parts, then he did predominantly efiminate parts, then he became famous for playing hitler in movies. Towards the end of his career, he was simply waiting to get little one-liners in a few movies. That sounds similar to the story of the shadfly...spending most of his life unnoticed(under water) and then he finally comes above surface to get his break(as HITLER of all things) and everything falls apart from there as he is no longer needed. Or maybe he has nothing to do with the song, but Sufjan seems to introduce the history of these places into his stories...Maybe I'll come back and critique it further some other time. In the mean time, look it up urself and see what you find.