I'll be a contrarian and go on record as saying that this song may or may not actually be exclusively about Ian's epilepsy. Yes, Ian suffered from epilepsy. Yes, he wrote about it (most famously in "She's Lost Control"). To me, this song is about more than having an epileptic seizure and I think there's been too much focus on that aspect of it in the comments so far. But as Ian sang, "Who is right, who can tell, and who gives a damn right now?" :-)
For me, the central line is having the spirit but losing the feeling. This is the struggle of an artist, an unhinged and disconnected artist: how to take pleasure from the things around him, how to use them to make and create, instead of growing bored and detached from them and living solely inside his own head; the protagonist has an artist's spirit but he can't live in the normal world, he can't take the banality of day to day existence as it wears him down and dillutes his artistic purity (spirit) and makes him lose his feeling (FEELING FEELING FEELING!). But here's the rub and the paradox of the great artist: without being grounded in the tangible and the real at all, he cannot fulfill the role of the artist as social commentator, trickster, or priest.
And perhaps here is where the epilepsy comes back in: Dostoyevsky also suffered from it and described it as a religious experience but it had similar effects on him, causing episodes of manic depression, the ability to see things in a high state of mania and, for a time, with piercing clarity and then at the next moment losing that feeling completely and suffering from debilitating depression; where everything becomes banal: a chore, a list, and, yes, even a news report, to go back to danohuiginn's previous comment.
I absolutely agree with this posting. As someone depressive and afflicted with ahedonia, the first stanza resonates very clearly with me. Its about becoming bored and being desperate, not giving a damn anymore while simultaneously (an on another level) hoping that companionship can help one change. And of course it cannot.
I absolutely agree with this posting. As someone depressive and afflicted with ahedonia, the first stanza resonates very clearly with me. Its about becoming bored and being desperate, not giving a damn anymore while simultaneously (an on another level) hoping that companionship can help one change. And of course it cannot.
To be depressive/anhedonic or schizoid in nature, one wishes for nothing more than the ability to feel again.
To be depressive/anhedonic or schizoid in nature, one wishes for nothing more than the ability to feel again.
I think you're right, jvw. And for Christ's sake people stop going on about epilepsy, Ian Curis did have other things in his life. Not every song can be about that. Or suicide. He was mainly struggling to keep up with every-day 'normal' relations and situations.
I think you're right, jvw. And for Christ's sake people stop going on about epilepsy, Ian Curis did have other things in his life. Not every song can be about that. Or suicide. He was mainly struggling to keep up with every-day 'normal' relations and situations.
It's like saying for every Bob Dylan song that it's about drugs or trips. Jeez he was(is) a person, not just a drug-injecting machine. And the same with Ian Curtis. One could sensibly argue that his epilepsy conditioned his feeling unsettled and sad or precarious, and therefore his feeling depressed and dealing with life...
It's like saying for every Bob Dylan song that it's about drugs or trips. Jeez he was(is) a person, not just a drug-injecting machine. And the same with Ian Curtis. One could sensibly argue that his epilepsy conditioned his feeling unsettled and sad or precarious, and therefore his feeling depressed and dealing with life in a certain way, but it was NOT the topic of each of his songs, and particularly not of this one.
My sentiments exactly. The man was losing his will to live... The meaning is going out of his life. As he focuses on deeper meanings and associations, he loses that simplicity that makes life beautiful.
My sentiments exactly. The man was losing his will to live... The meaning is going out of his life. As he focuses on deeper meanings and associations, he loses that simplicity that makes life beautiful.
I'll be a contrarian and go on record as saying that this song may or may not actually be exclusively about Ian's epilepsy. Yes, Ian suffered from epilepsy. Yes, he wrote about it (most famously in "She's Lost Control"). To me, this song is about more than having an epileptic seizure and I think there's been too much focus on that aspect of it in the comments so far. But as Ian sang, "Who is right, who can tell, and who gives a damn right now?" :-)
For me, the central line is having the spirit but losing the feeling. This is the struggle of an artist, an unhinged and disconnected artist: how to take pleasure from the things around him, how to use them to make and create, instead of growing bored and detached from them and living solely inside his own head; the protagonist has an artist's spirit but he can't live in the normal world, he can't take the banality of day to day existence as it wears him down and dillutes his artistic purity (spirit) and makes him lose his feeling (FEELING FEELING FEELING!). But here's the rub and the paradox of the great artist: without being grounded in the tangible and the real at all, he cannot fulfill the role of the artist as social commentator, trickster, or priest.
And perhaps here is where the epilepsy comes back in: Dostoyevsky also suffered from it and described it as a religious experience but it had similar effects on him, causing episodes of manic depression, the ability to see things in a high state of mania and, for a time, with piercing clarity and then at the next moment losing that feeling completely and suffering from debilitating depression; where everything becomes banal: a chore, a list, and, yes, even a news report, to go back to danohuiginn's previous comment.
Great song.
I absolutely agree with this posting. As someone depressive and afflicted with ahedonia, the first stanza resonates very clearly with me. Its about becoming bored and being desperate, not giving a damn anymore while simultaneously (an on another level) hoping that companionship can help one change. And of course it cannot.
I absolutely agree with this posting. As someone depressive and afflicted with ahedonia, the first stanza resonates very clearly with me. Its about becoming bored and being desperate, not giving a damn anymore while simultaneously (an on another level) hoping that companionship can help one change. And of course it cannot.
To be depressive/anhedonic or schizoid in nature, one wishes for nothing more than the ability to feel again.
To be depressive/anhedonic or schizoid in nature, one wishes for nothing more than the ability to feel again.
I think you're right, jvw. And for Christ's sake people stop going on about epilepsy, Ian Curis did have other things in his life. Not every song can be about that. Or suicide. He was mainly struggling to keep up with every-day 'normal' relations and situations.
I think you're right, jvw. And for Christ's sake people stop going on about epilepsy, Ian Curis did have other things in his life. Not every song can be about that. Or suicide. He was mainly struggling to keep up with every-day 'normal' relations and situations.
It's like saying for every Bob Dylan song that it's about drugs or trips. Jeez he was(is) a person, not just a drug-injecting machine. And the same with Ian Curtis. One could sensibly argue that his epilepsy conditioned his feeling unsettled and sad or precarious, and therefore his feeling depressed and dealing with life...
It's like saying for every Bob Dylan song that it's about drugs or trips. Jeez he was(is) a person, not just a drug-injecting machine. And the same with Ian Curtis. One could sensibly argue that his epilepsy conditioned his feeling unsettled and sad or precarious, and therefore his feeling depressed and dealing with life in a certain way, but it was NOT the topic of each of his songs, and particularly not of this one.
My sentiments exactly. The man was losing his will to live... The meaning is going out of his life. As he focuses on deeper meanings and associations, he loses that simplicity that makes life beautiful.
My sentiments exactly. The man was losing his will to live... The meaning is going out of his life. As he focuses on deeper meanings and associations, he loses that simplicity that makes life beautiful.
@jvw That is true. But you've only cracked the surface.
@jvw That is true. But you've only cracked the surface.