patient interpretation

[palms]

What The Patient means to me:


Overall, I think this song is a critique of people (the patient) who think they are more ‘enlightened’ than others, but fail to see that their own (possibly stubborn/arrogant) self-belief in their own version of reality is really just more dogmatism. The other main point for me is that waiting for things to happen (rather than making it happen yourself) can be destructive.


“A groan of tedium escapes me,?
Startling the fearful.?
Is this a test? It has to be,?
Otherwise I can't go on.?
Draining patience, drain vitality.?
This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old.”


The first verse describes the unhappiness/frustration/boredom of this position (of waiting for things to get better, waiting for the rest of the world to realise how ignorant they are, but without doing anything) and how it can leave you stunted and make you lose yourself (“paralysed vampire acts a little old”).


“But I'm still right here?
Giving blood, keeping faith?
And I'm still right here.
Wait it out,?
Gonna wait it out,?
Be patient (wait it out).”


This next bit illustrates the patient’s self-belief and perseverance in their beliefs despite the need to ‘wait out’ something undesirable (maybe the perceived ignorance of everyone else). Tool may also be drawing attention to the patient’s wrong approach (“wait it out” rather than do something about it).


“If there were no rewards to reap,?
No loving embrace to see me through?
This tedious path I've chosen here,?
I certainly would've walked away by now.?
Gonna wait it out.”

“If there were no desire to heal?
The damaged and broken met along?
This tedious path I've chosen here?
I certainly would've walked away by now.
And I still may ... (sigh) ... I still may.”


These bits (“desire to heal, rewards to reap etc.”) show that the reason the patient persevere with their “tedious path” is because they think it is the best way to achieve the things worth living for (love, helping others). So I think that although this song is criticizing the patient for having self belief to the point of ignorance, it is also portraying them as good people who are mainly just misguided in the way they live –instead of acting, they wait it out.

Although this song could obviously be taken as the singer explaining his own position, the reason I think of it as being a description of someone else is largely due to the bit where it goes quiet and we hear “and I still may…(sigh)…I still may”. The idea of someone writing a song about himself and saying this seems incredibly arrogant and self-indulgent (especially the sigh –as if anyone gives a shit about whether you still may walk away from your shitty little mission). So I’m kinda sure that tool are being tongue in cheek with these lyrics, particularly given that later songs on lateralus makes me think that a theme of this album is the rejection of dogma (which can be linked to self-belief) of any form. So I think this song is either describing a particular type of person (of which the singer does not envy) or a previous mindframe of the singer. Thinking of The Patient as a previous mindframe of the singer might fit with the rest of album –if you think of the song Reflection as a reflection on what has been said in the album, then many of the lyrics could be references to The Patient (and maybe other songs) as misguided previous ways he looked at the world.


“Be patient.?
I must keep reminding myself of this.”


These kind of lines “be patient, wait it out” are like a mantra, repeated throughout the song, maybe to reassure the patient that he isn’t misguided, but also to epitomize the patient’s attitude –that of waiting for life to begin for real, rather than taking action to improve things.


“And if there were no rewards to reap,?
No loving embrace to see me through?
This tedious path I've chosen here,?
I certainly would've walked away by now.?
And I still may.
Gonna wait it out.”

I guess this final paragraph can summarise the song:
-the first two lines show the good intentions of the patient.
-the third/fourth show that this way of living (waiting it out) is undesirable (or at least unhappy).
-the fifth line is a reminder of the patient’s self-belief to the point of arrogance and naivety.
-the last line sums up the attitude of not taking action to improve your life.


The title “The Patient” could be a double meaning: these people are “the patient” because they are patient, but maybe also because they are the ones who really need to be ‘cured’.


So I suppose the advice which Tool offer in my interpretation (if you want advice) is to:
1) Be wary of your own beliefs –it may be that your own convictions are as dogmatic and misguided (or arbitrary) as those you see in some other people.
2) Act to make life better, waiting for things to improve by themselves may leave you bored/lonely/unhappy.


Any feedback would be awesome. I’m interested in how well this interpretation really fits the lyrics, because I have a feeling that I might just be projecting my own beliefs onto the song, rather than actually learning anything from it.

[marshall888]

Very nice interp

I'm not 100% sure what I think the patient is about, but I've settled on two possibilities, and your interpretation is pretty close to one of them.

The first idea is that the song is a criticism of those who cling to something (maybe a belief, lifestyle, or schema) that doesn't do any good for them, because of pride and self pity. This seems to kind of fit with your interpretation. The lyrics "This paranoid, paralyzed vampire act's a little old" seem to support this theory best.

The other idea is that the song is not a criticism of someone taking a slow and painful path in life wastefully, but rather it is actually supporting the person taking a slow and painful path because it will make things better for them in the long run.

Lately, I've been leaning towards the second idea for several reasons. First, the tone fits the mood of the song. Most tool songs let the feel of the music fit the tone of the lyrics. Tool songs that are criticising something or being sarcastic, usually sound angrier and harsher. Secondly, little bits in the lyrics suggest to me that all the waiting (which is obviously painful) is for a good reason. Especially in the verse:

"If there were no desire to heal,
The damaged and broken met along,
this tedious path I've chosen here,
I certainly would've walked away by now."

I think this verse clearly means that he's done some real damage to people in his life and the point of his 'tedious path' is to fix it.

Don't worry about projecting your own beliefs into the song, or about whether you're really 'learning' from it. I think that if Tool didn't want people to have their own ideas about their song meanings, they would have made the lyrics a little more clear.

[palms]

That's a really good point about the tone of the music.

The reason I think of the 'tedious path' as not being good for you in the long run has alot to do with my thoughts of the rest of the album. Overall I get the sense that some of the songs on lateralus are descriptions of ways of looking at the world whihc are at odds with each other. e.g maybe the patient and parabola. The song 'disposition' is then a comment on how your perception of reality, the landscape of the mind, can change at any time for little reason. Then 'reflection' is a reflection on what he has been through as the album has progressed and where he has been left. It's lines in 'reflection' like "i've come close to this pitiful hole, crucify the ego, etc." (i can't remember them exactly) which makes me think that he considers the perspectives shown in earlier songs (ways he has looked at hte world in the past) as maybe being a product of his ego and untruthful, self-delusional. But the patient is the only song of whihc i've tried to get my thoughts in order, so it's really just occasional lyrics and the feel of the album which makes me think of it like that.

The reason I was interested in whether my interpretation was likely to be close to what the band intended had to do with just a general curiosity about what art really means to me. I've previously assumed that behind the music which I like are people who are 'intelligent', have good insight into the world, or are at least honest about their lack of insight and know where they stand. So maybe listening to thier music is a chance to experience something 'real', untainted by my own and other people's delusions, egos etc. Not that I think that the members of Tool are any different that anybody else, but just that maybe you can be more honest and personal through art than in everyday conversation or whatever. But i find that as my own frame of mind changes as time goes by, I just interpret the same songs to fit with this, so really it's just like listening to my own beliefs repeated back to me, so I'm not sure (it feels like my perception of the world will continue to change, but not progress, there's no such thing as objective truth, only perception). I don't think any of this really matters, but it's interesting to think about. I also write songs myself, so i guess that has something to do with it.