simplydaman87
07-09-2006, 11:31 PM
i have a theory about the pot that i haven't really seen discussed and i think its pretty cool...
for some context, i feel like aenima and lateralus, lyrically, both suggest that there are answers to the questions of all the tough questions about the universe, who we are, where we come from, etc., and that divinity is real and that human beings are a part of it. in contrast, i feel like 10000 days expresses the opposite. maynard's viewpoint has shifted to thinking humans are no more than monkeys (right in two) and that there aren't any concrete answers.
its pretty well established that maynard thinks that christianity, and other organized religions are not acceptable answers to those questions or divinely inspired. now that he realizes (or believes) that there are no answers, he looked back and saw himself believing the answers on aenima and lateralus were true. in other words, he fell into a similar trap that christians do, and his condemnation of one set of answers over another is just the pot calling the kettle black.
in the wings duo, maynard clearly mocks and "points his finger" at christianity while eulogizing and speaking to his mother, and also declares that "high is the way," which i believe refers to the "answers" on aenima and lateralus.
now for the pot. i think that the speaker in the song is maynard's mother scolding him for what he's just said. the echo seemingly coming back from where 10000 days left off suggests this, as well as the speaker calling the addressee "boy." in the mother-son relationship, at least a functional one, when the son is scolded the mother is correct. so maynard uses judith's real role in his life to express to us his new realization that is then manifested in vicarious, rosetta stoned, and right in two (basically that humanity is pathetic), and that he was wrong and hypocritical the whole time. ultimately, through the song, he is mocking his former self and the way he has treated his mother's beliefs.
the lyrics provide a lot of evidence for this (i'll just go through a bunch of them):
"who are you to wave your finger?" - self explanatory
"rob the grave to snow the cradle" - maynard is, through wings/10k days, maximising his mother's hyprocricy while minimizing his own
"soapbox house..." - people get up and lecture people on soapboxes, just like maynard lectures the congregation and his mother in wings
"you must have been so high" - mocks "high is the way" with the double meaning of the word high
"what you talkin bout? difficult to dance round this one till you pull it out boy" - self explanatory
"steal, borrow, reefer, savior, shady inference" - to judith it would be shady to infer that steal:borrow and reefer (or high, or the way):savior (or christ) could be a true analogy
"weeping shades of indigo" - could mean that maynard brought the stress of his realization on himself
"liar, lawyer, mirror, show me whats the difference?" - this is a bit of a stretch, but i think there is a case for saying that maynard refers to himself and his mother as reflections of one another (using that word or light) in jimmy, pushit, reflection, and wings..."mirror" could simply mean "maynard". in other words "a liar and a lawyer, maynard, show me what the difference is. you say you hate lawyers so much and you say there's no difference. well now you're a liar!"
"ghanja please?! you must have been out your mind" - keeps mocking "high is the way" by saying that the double meaning of high...stoned...isn't crazy enough to describe how maynard was acting, he must have been out of his mind.
all this explains the pot's placement after and transition from wings.
sorry to be long but i thought of this all today and thought it was really sweet. pretty fucking cool how simple this song looks on first glance and then how many layers maynard seems to have tied into it.
for some context, i feel like aenima and lateralus, lyrically, both suggest that there are answers to the questions of all the tough questions about the universe, who we are, where we come from, etc., and that divinity is real and that human beings are a part of it. in contrast, i feel like 10000 days expresses the opposite. maynard's viewpoint has shifted to thinking humans are no more than monkeys (right in two) and that there aren't any concrete answers.
its pretty well established that maynard thinks that christianity, and other organized religions are not acceptable answers to those questions or divinely inspired. now that he realizes (or believes) that there are no answers, he looked back and saw himself believing the answers on aenima and lateralus were true. in other words, he fell into a similar trap that christians do, and his condemnation of one set of answers over another is just the pot calling the kettle black.
in the wings duo, maynard clearly mocks and "points his finger" at christianity while eulogizing and speaking to his mother, and also declares that "high is the way," which i believe refers to the "answers" on aenima and lateralus.
now for the pot. i think that the speaker in the song is maynard's mother scolding him for what he's just said. the echo seemingly coming back from where 10000 days left off suggests this, as well as the speaker calling the addressee "boy." in the mother-son relationship, at least a functional one, when the son is scolded the mother is correct. so maynard uses judith's real role in his life to express to us his new realization that is then manifested in vicarious, rosetta stoned, and right in two (basically that humanity is pathetic), and that he was wrong and hypocritical the whole time. ultimately, through the song, he is mocking his former self and the way he has treated his mother's beliefs.
the lyrics provide a lot of evidence for this (i'll just go through a bunch of them):
"who are you to wave your finger?" - self explanatory
"rob the grave to snow the cradle" - maynard is, through wings/10k days, maximising his mother's hyprocricy while minimizing his own
"soapbox house..." - people get up and lecture people on soapboxes, just like maynard lectures the congregation and his mother in wings
"you must have been so high" - mocks "high is the way" with the double meaning of the word high
"what you talkin bout? difficult to dance round this one till you pull it out boy" - self explanatory
"steal, borrow, reefer, savior, shady inference" - to judith it would be shady to infer that steal:borrow and reefer (or high, or the way):savior (or christ) could be a true analogy
"weeping shades of indigo" - could mean that maynard brought the stress of his realization on himself
"liar, lawyer, mirror, show me whats the difference?" - this is a bit of a stretch, but i think there is a case for saying that maynard refers to himself and his mother as reflections of one another (using that word or light) in jimmy, pushit, reflection, and wings..."mirror" could simply mean "maynard". in other words "a liar and a lawyer, maynard, show me what the difference is. you say you hate lawyers so much and you say there's no difference. well now you're a liar!"
"ghanja please?! you must have been out your mind" - keeps mocking "high is the way" by saying that the double meaning of high...stoned...isn't crazy enough to describe how maynard was acting, he must have been out of his mind.
all this explains the pot's placement after and transition from wings.
sorry to be long but i thought of this all today and thought it was really sweet. pretty fucking cool how simple this song looks on first glance and then how many layers maynard seems to have tied into it.