Quote:
Originally Posted by EssnayRepXTamEt
Cool post, but tragedies require certain things... one of those things is the Tragic Hero, which this song lacks.
The Tragic Hero:
1. is not a regular person. Cannot be average, needs to be somebody "great." The song lacks this...
2. The person must be essentially good. We have no evidence of this in the song.
3. They need to have a tragic flaw, such as hubris. Or failing to learn from his/her mistakes. There's nothing of the like in the song.
I see your points though, and it's very interesting, indeed. Nice post.
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Technically his tragic flaw was that he "forgot his pen" .. and he did think he was someone great, a "hero", "the one" etc. but that was while he still thought he remembered "the message".. but owing to his tragic flaw he forgot the message and thence the song takes a turn .. im not saying this was a classic greek tragedy.. it was tool's interpretation of tragic.
Also it was a creative way of thinking about tragedies which were so brutally criticized in Vicarious.. here Maynard comes up with the greatest of all tragedies.. to gain esoteric wisdom and then to forget it all. thats more tragic than the following:
1. Killed by the husband
2. Shot by his own son
3. She used the poison in his tea, and kissed him good bye.
plus no one dies at the end of this.. just a guy shitting his bed ..
on a slightly different note though, its also a critique on irresponsible drug use, or "junkies" .. i heard in a recent tour while singing Aenema, Maynard sang the lyric
"Fuck all you junkies, and fuck your short memory" 4-5 times in a row.. just to mess with the crowd's heads.. imagine if you were stoned when he did that little twist.