To echo what an2000 said, Steven Wilson did mention this as a slightly happy ending...this song, like much of the album, was inspired by the book "Lunar Park." Wilson mentions that this song was inspired by a part in the novel where all the kids start disappearing. It seems that they are being abducted or killed at first, but then it is clear that they "escaped" themselves. They become aware of the banality of their own existence and somehow manage to disappear from this world.
Could the escape be suicide? It certainly seems so. But I think the song is intentionally ambiguous...maybe the escape can be falling in love, actually physically moving away from, and burning all that is relvant to, postmodern western culture, or finding some sort of real meaning (maybe starting a family or something). I still see it as suicide though, depressing as it may be.
To echo what an2000 said, Steven Wilson did mention this as a slightly happy ending...this song, like much of the album, was inspired by the book "Lunar Park." Wilson mentions that this song was inspired by a part in the novel where all the kids start disappearing. It seems that they are being abducted or killed at first, but then it is clear that they "escaped" themselves. They become aware of the banality of their own existence and somehow manage to disappear from this world.
Could the escape be suicide? It certainly seems so. But I think the song is intentionally ambiguous...maybe the escape can be falling in love, actually physically moving away from, and burning all that is relvant to, postmodern western culture, or finding some sort of real meaning (maybe starting a family or something). I still see it as suicide though, depressing as it may be.