IxCheltab
08-04-2005, 12:39 PM
I'm going to assume people know the references to Melchizadek's theory of 46 + 2 chromosomes (which, incidentally, is bollocks; we all have 44 + 2 and any extra ones would just make us severely deformed) and Jung's concept of the shadow. Most interpretations of this song that i've read take this to be a song about change for the good, stepping through the shadowy areas of your personality that have been suppressed and coming out the other side having transformed into a better all round person. I'm not disputing that this is probably the case, all i'm doing is offering a slightly different twist based on my own experiences.
The song has a very dark tone all the way through, but it comes in powerfully at one particular point that first sparked this idea off in my mind. This verse:
“I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through”
...starts off relatively calmly, then at the phrase 'Be paranoid', the music suddenly takes on a much darker tone: the guitar comes in with an almost jarring sound (bear with me, i'm not a musician at all but i'm trying to put it in words as best i can). The tone of this descends rapidly and it really flagged up in my mind as significant, specially cause their lyrics are supposed to be so intimately entwined with the music. It highlights the idea of choosing to be paranoid, to lie, hate and fear as if these are essential elements of life on the other side of the shadow.
Recently i went through an intense change in my life in which i was dragged kicking and screaming out of a shell i'd been living in most of my life, brought about by a 'friend' who'd been poking around my skull and playing some nasty games. Even though in some respects it was well meaning (H), it screwed me up and forced me to face up to parts of myself that i'd buried deep a long time ago, leaving me extremely paranoid and aggressive and ready to start the whole cycle all over again (I did start but caught myself in time, in part thanks to Tool). 46 & 2 is very apt in describing the nature of that change, both in the interplay of the music and lyrics, and simply the overall feel; the slamming, grinding guitars at the end captured the violent ripping apart of my chrysalis perfectly.
Now, i can't imagine Tool would really fall for Melchizadek completely. Common genetic disorders like Down's Syndrome are related to additional chromosomes so it doesn't take a genius to work out that 46 + 2 just wouldn't work. I think it could be used as a metaphor, which you can look at in two ways: either as a metaphor for a positive change, though personal and not quite as dramatic as the one the geneticist (or whatever he was) wrote about, or as a FALSE transformation, since the idea itself is based on a lie.
Reading that over, it feels a little contrived, particularly the stuff about Melchy. Equally valid an interpretation would be that this paranoia is simply part of the transformation and i'm just not all the way through yet! But i'll stand by what i said about attention being drawn specifically to 'be paranoid', even if my interpretation is wrong. Although there probably is no wrong, or at least no absolute RIGHT. I guess that's the point.
The song has a very dark tone all the way through, but it comes in powerfully at one particular point that first sparked this idea off in my mind. This verse:
“I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through”
...starts off relatively calmly, then at the phrase 'Be paranoid', the music suddenly takes on a much darker tone: the guitar comes in with an almost jarring sound (bear with me, i'm not a musician at all but i'm trying to put it in words as best i can). The tone of this descends rapidly and it really flagged up in my mind as significant, specially cause their lyrics are supposed to be so intimately entwined with the music. It highlights the idea of choosing to be paranoid, to lie, hate and fear as if these are essential elements of life on the other side of the shadow.
Recently i went through an intense change in my life in which i was dragged kicking and screaming out of a shell i'd been living in most of my life, brought about by a 'friend' who'd been poking around my skull and playing some nasty games. Even though in some respects it was well meaning (H), it screwed me up and forced me to face up to parts of myself that i'd buried deep a long time ago, leaving me extremely paranoid and aggressive and ready to start the whole cycle all over again (I did start but caught myself in time, in part thanks to Tool). 46 & 2 is very apt in describing the nature of that change, both in the interplay of the music and lyrics, and simply the overall feel; the slamming, grinding guitars at the end captured the violent ripping apart of my chrysalis perfectly.
Now, i can't imagine Tool would really fall for Melchizadek completely. Common genetic disorders like Down's Syndrome are related to additional chromosomes so it doesn't take a genius to work out that 46 + 2 just wouldn't work. I think it could be used as a metaphor, which you can look at in two ways: either as a metaphor for a positive change, though personal and not quite as dramatic as the one the geneticist (or whatever he was) wrote about, or as a FALSE transformation, since the idea itself is based on a lie.
Reading that over, it feels a little contrived, particularly the stuff about Melchy. Equally valid an interpretation would be that this paranoia is simply part of the transformation and i'm just not all the way through yet! But i'll stand by what i said about attention being drawn specifically to 'be paranoid', even if my interpretation is wrong. Although there probably is no wrong, or at least no absolute RIGHT. I guess that's the point.