I got the same impression as lika21.
Also I think its funny that the man with thousand faces is taken as man with multiple personalitytypes/ ways of acting or something. Couldn't it also mean that this song isn't about one man, but about an experience, an emotion or an idea that can be found in a thousand of men; in people in general? A man of a thousand faces could be an allegorical person like Elckerlijc/Everyman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyman_(play) )
Whether this is a Mikhail Bulgakov reference I couldn't say because I haven't read the book, but maybe I should. Regina Spektor does have a habit of using literature as a source of inspiration...
Anyway the idea I get is that this person is a whole new level of lonely, he tries to live unobtrusively. his words are quiet like stains are: I really love this line because it feels like he wants to speak but sees his personal words/thoughts as something objectionable to others, so he tries to make them seem inconspicous, covering for eachother, hoping to be indistinguishable in the patern of everything else. (great wordplay, miss spektor)
Good is better than perfect
Scrub till your fingers are bleeding
And I'm crying for things
I tell others to do without crying
god... best stanza ever, pointing out the schism between what you expct from others and what you (don't) allow yourself. The last line is just so full of sorrow and understanding...
Also going to bookstores and ripping out favorite pages is so interesting, because your destroying for others what you hold closest, making yourself less knowable, creating your own world of fragments and things you love, idosynchratic and making no sense to any outsider.
What the moon represents I don't really know, multiple things probably. To me; cold milky light from far away shining when most people are unaware, asleep, means he feels close to the moon because its as isolated and far away as he has become.
Quiet ascension: the slipping further away into yourself, maybe death? i dunno.
place that no religion / has found a path to or a likeness: something completely his own, no rules made up by other people to follow but a transcendence nonetheless.
small lump of sugar: could be illustrating an understated lifestyle, just taking what he needs, not bothering anyone, could be drugs.. who knows.
The song probably has more to do with religion than I associate with it, but thats the fun of poetry interpretation. no ones right :D
I got the same impression as lika21. Also I think its funny that the man with thousand faces is taken as man with multiple personalitytypes/ ways of acting or something. Couldn't it also mean that this song isn't about one man, but about an experience, an emotion or an idea that can be found in a thousand of men; in people in general? A man of a thousand faces could be an allegorical person like Elckerlijc/Everyman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyman_(play) ) Whether this is a Mikhail Bulgakov reference I couldn't say because I haven't read the book, but maybe I should. Regina Spektor does have a habit of using literature as a source of inspiration...
Anyway the idea I get is that this person is a whole new level of lonely, he tries to live unobtrusively. his words are quiet like stains are: I really love this line because it feels like he wants to speak but sees his personal words/thoughts as something objectionable to others, so he tries to make them seem inconspicous, covering for eachother, hoping to be indistinguishable in the patern of everything else. (great wordplay, miss spektor) Good is better than perfect Scrub till your fingers are bleeding And I'm crying for things I tell others to do without crying god... best stanza ever, pointing out the schism between what you expct from others and what you (don't) allow yourself. The last line is just so full of sorrow and understanding... Also going to bookstores and ripping out favorite pages is so interesting, because your destroying for others what you hold closest, making yourself less knowable, creating your own world of fragments and things you love, idosynchratic and making no sense to any outsider. What the moon represents I don't really know, multiple things probably. To me; cold milky light from far away shining when most people are unaware, asleep, means he feels close to the moon because its as isolated and far away as he has become. Quiet ascension: the slipping further away into yourself, maybe death? i dunno. place that no religion / has found a path to or a likeness: something completely his own, no rules made up by other people to follow but a transcendence nonetheless. small lump of sugar: could be illustrating an understated lifestyle, just taking what he needs, not bothering anyone, could be drugs.. who knows. The song probably has more to do with religion than I associate with it, but thats the fun of poetry interpretation. no ones right :D
Good one!
Good one!