word salad, William S. Burroughs 'cut up' technique Using chance words, feelings, emotions, not logical sense or story. Silent Machine revolves around an idea of a loving mother, a religious father, and a child that accepts without regret the role of the 'sinner', which the adults around him are drooling to discover. The mother strives to show this abstract emotion 'love', with her prayrs and personal martyrdoms, the father is a punishing figure - a silent machine - which regards the child as an objective other. Teachers, priests, what have you, all encounter a child "Charlie" who fulfills the whipping boy role. All of this behavior is to get the attention of the silent machine, the father, which (as a machine) is incapable of noticing him.
Personal interpretations aside, for the most part I think the song is an experiment in automatic writing.
word salad, William S. Burroughs 'cut up' technique Using chance words, feelings, emotions, not logical sense or story. Silent Machine revolves around an idea of a loving mother, a religious father, and a child that accepts without regret the role of the 'sinner', which the adults around him are drooling to discover. The mother strives to show this abstract emotion 'love', with her prayrs and personal martyrdoms, the father is a punishing figure - a silent machine - which regards the child as an objective other. Teachers, priests, what have you, all encounter a child "Charlie" who fulfills the whipping boy role. All of this behavior is to get the attention of the silent machine, the father, which (as a machine) is incapable of noticing him.
Personal interpretations aside, for the most part I think the song is an experiment in automatic writing.