In an interview a few months ago, he said something about the realization that nothing can be created without destroying something else. At the time, I think he was talking about "destroying" J. Tillman to create Father John Misty, but it made me interpret this song differently. I think the "war" he's talking about it just that - destroying something to create another. He goes a lot deeper into that in this song, talking about the decomposition of things, how everything is made from particles as old as fuckin time itself, and how everything that makes up what we are and everything we own will eventually recompose into something entirely different. That's what makes the line, "I sure hope they make something useful out of me." I think that's what he means by "learning to love" this whole cyclical process - feeling that as useless as you are, maybe after you decompose, those cells will become part of something better than anything you ever were. It's a little depressing, but I guess when you're in a depression like he was, that kind of thinking is how you turn your morbid thoughts around. So the way he phrases the title, "NOW I'm Learning to Love the War" - it's as though he's finally coming to peace with his obsession with death. He's getting out the pit of depression he spent crazing over insignificance. Probably the best track on the record. It definitely has the strongest theme running through it.
In an interview a few months ago, he said something about the realization that nothing can be created without destroying something else. At the time, I think he was talking about "destroying" J. Tillman to create Father John Misty, but it made me interpret this song differently. I think the "war" he's talking about it just that - destroying something to create another. He goes a lot deeper into that in this song, talking about the decomposition of things, how everything is made from particles as old as fuckin time itself, and how everything that makes up what we are and everything we own will eventually recompose into something entirely different. That's what makes the line, "I sure hope they make something useful out of me." I think that's what he means by "learning to love" this whole cyclical process - feeling that as useless as you are, maybe after you decompose, those cells will become part of something better than anything you ever were. It's a little depressing, but I guess when you're in a depression like he was, that kind of thinking is how you turn your morbid thoughts around. So the way he phrases the title, "NOW I'm Learning to Love the War" - it's as though he's finally coming to peace with his obsession with death. He's getting out the pit of depression he spent crazing over insignificance. Probably the best track on the record. It definitely has the strongest theme running through it.