I'll refrain from trying to speculate about Chapman's thoughts in writing this song (on grounds of respecting her personal/artistic boundaries as well as Barthesian grounds), but just in terms of what we're given with the song:
This isn't just a description of any two people -- this is everybody. As much as we want and struggle to feel like we really understand another person, ultimately we can only construct our own fictions of everyone else and hope that those fictions are something that other people might see themselves in. Thoughts and language alike are "fiction", not the reality we try to describe; but "sometimes a lie is the best thing" in that we can sometimes recognize that everything we think we know is, to some extent, a "fiction", and that really the best we can do is to try to come up with a "fiction" which respects and is sensitive to the needs of everyone else that we base our fictions on.
In other words -- this is a song about the impossible but necessary task of really understanding other people, and our failures along the way as well as our hopefully-reciprocal acceptance of the same failures in others.
@Professor M Exactly. This song does not apply to a single situation. In fact, to me it seems much more general. The "you" that Chapman addresses is not a specific person but rather the listener, and thus every individual.
The song gets at what is lost in translation between us—the "space between" our perception and our expression of these perceived realities. The song isn't about fiction, then, so much as it's about the nonexistence of non-fiction. People tend to think of everything as fact or fiction, but this is a false binary. Hence, "you write the words and make believe/ there...
@Professor M Exactly. This song does not apply to a single situation. In fact, to me it seems much more general. The "you" that Chapman addresses is not a specific person but rather the listener, and thus every individual.
The song gets at what is lost in translation between us—the "space between" our perception and our expression of these perceived realities. The song isn't about fiction, then, so much as it's about the nonexistence of non-fiction. People tend to think of everything as fact or fiction, but this is a false binary. Hence, "you write the words and make believe/ there is truth in the space between...but in the fiction of the space between/ sometimes a lie is the best thing." If you acknowledge the fictional nature of the space between everybody, the place between where one person's conception of the world ends and another's begins, sometimes a lie is the best thing. Sometimes a lie keeps two people's realities from violently crashing down; sometimes a lie can protect someone's positive outlook from the negative realities of another person; sometimes a lie can cover up the ugliness of your own past to highlight the generosity of someone else.
@Professor M this is such a beautiful comment, and the reply by @redsoxfan3189 is also so fascinating. I know these comments are from years ago, but I just have to leave a message of appreciation for blessing this page with such a beautiful interpretation of this song (the same way i interpreted it - I'm so happy some others interpreted it the same). ❤️
@Professor M this is such a beautiful comment, and the reply by @redsoxfan3189 is also so fascinating. I know these comments are from years ago, but I just have to leave a message of appreciation for blessing this page with such a beautiful interpretation of this song (the same way i interpreted it - I'm so happy some others interpreted it the same). ❤️
I'll refrain from trying to speculate about Chapman's thoughts in writing this song (on grounds of respecting her personal/artistic boundaries as well as Barthesian grounds), but just in terms of what we're given with the song:
This isn't just a description of any two people -- this is everybody. As much as we want and struggle to feel like we really understand another person, ultimately we can only construct our own fictions of everyone else and hope that those fictions are something that other people might see themselves in. Thoughts and language alike are "fiction", not the reality we try to describe; but "sometimes a lie is the best thing" in that we can sometimes recognize that everything we think we know is, to some extent, a "fiction", and that really the best we can do is to try to come up with a "fiction" which respects and is sensitive to the needs of everyone else that we base our fictions on.
In other words -- this is a song about the impossible but necessary task of really understanding other people, and our failures along the way as well as our hopefully-reciprocal acceptance of the same failures in others.
@Professor M Exactly. This song does not apply to a single situation. In fact, to me it seems much more general. The "you" that Chapman addresses is not a specific person but rather the listener, and thus every individual. The song gets at what is lost in translation between us—the "space between" our perception and our expression of these perceived realities. The song isn't about fiction, then, so much as it's about the nonexistence of non-fiction. People tend to think of everything as fact or fiction, but this is a false binary. Hence, "you write the words and make believe/ there...
@Professor M Exactly. This song does not apply to a single situation. In fact, to me it seems much more general. The "you" that Chapman addresses is not a specific person but rather the listener, and thus every individual. The song gets at what is lost in translation between us—the "space between" our perception and our expression of these perceived realities. The song isn't about fiction, then, so much as it's about the nonexistence of non-fiction. People tend to think of everything as fact or fiction, but this is a false binary. Hence, "you write the words and make believe/ there is truth in the space between...but in the fiction of the space between/ sometimes a lie is the best thing." If you acknowledge the fictional nature of the space between everybody, the place between where one person's conception of the world ends and another's begins, sometimes a lie is the best thing. Sometimes a lie keeps two people's realities from violently crashing down; sometimes a lie can protect someone's positive outlook from the negative realities of another person; sometimes a lie can cover up the ugliness of your own past to highlight the generosity of someone else.
@Professor M this is such a beautiful comment, and the reply by @redsoxfan3189 is also so fascinating. I know these comments are from years ago, but I just have to leave a message of appreciation for blessing this page with such a beautiful interpretation of this song (the same way i interpreted it - I'm so happy some others interpreted it the same). ❤️
@Professor M this is such a beautiful comment, and the reply by @redsoxfan3189 is also so fascinating. I know these comments are from years ago, but I just have to leave a message of appreciation for blessing this page with such a beautiful interpretation of this song (the same way i interpreted it - I'm so happy some others interpreted it the same). ❤️