Perhaps this is coincidence, but all the lyrics seem to relate very strongly to the novella Journey to the East by Hermann Hesse. The main character is called H.H, and is mostly referred to as H. most especially during the part when he is being judged by Leo (coincidentally, Leo is a great singer, and also described as moving ‘in the same way that a snake moves which has fallen asleep’.)
The Journey to the East is an allegorical story, and I interpret it to represent the journey through the shadow; the East is not a spatial place, but the Anima. H. failed his journey to the East and returned home (to the ego), thinking that the League who arranged the journey had been broken and disbanded. He tries to piece together what happened on the journey and why it failed. His account is confused and inaccurate by his own admission. He thinks that the point that the other members of the group started to fall apart and quarrel and eventually disband was related to the servant Leo leaving the journey. The servant Leo was a joyous happy man who could talk to the animals and had a wondrous singing voice. Though a lowly servant, he was a very popular and loved member of the group.
Much later, when H. is attempting to write his story of the journey he comes across Leo once more and finds out that he was wrong; the League does still exists, it was not the journey that failed, but H. himself. I think that the song H. is all about the point in the book where Leo is passing judgement on H., and then H.’s reaction to it, and then what happens at the very end.
The lyrics and the mood of the song is almost exactly the same as the events at the end of The Journey to the East. It’s uncanny. I would be surprised if it was only a co-incidence.
Anyone else think so too?
“I perceived that my image was in the process of adding to and flowing into Leo’s, nourishing and strengthening it. It seemed that, in time, all the substance from one image would flow into the other and only one would remain; Leo. He must grow; I must disappear.” I’d need to quote all of the last chapter to get in all the similarities, and I don’t have the time or intention to do that.
The story is allegorical in itself, and the song is also allegorical. To me both the story and the song represents the positivity in letting go of the ego, letting it die. In place of this you feed into the one consciousness and become part of a larger, happier thing. You are no longer important, but you are happy, you are part of something larger.
Very interesting and a great 1st post. Welcome to the ToolNavy. Be advised that there are a lot of assholes on this website and they will be very quick to cut you down, so you have been warned, but with posts like this one you should be alright.
Very interesting and a great 1st post. Welcome to the ToolNavy. Be advised that there are a lot of assholes on this website and they will be very quick to cut you down, so you have been warned, but with posts like this one you should be alright.
Thanks for the warning and the welcome. Much appreciated.
A further thought I had about both the song and Journey to the East is Roland Barthes' and Michel Foucault’s ideas on the death of the author. Hesse was often frustrated that his readers didn’t understand the concepts in his books, that they read things into the books that he never intended to be there (this is something I read in his introduction to a later edition of Steppenwolf). Journey to the East seems like some kind of therapy for Hesse, to accept that his influences must die as soon as other people read his words.
“I perceived that my image was in the process of adding to and flowing into Leo’s, nourishing and strengthening it. It seemed that, in time, all the substance from one image would flow into the other and only one would remain; Leo. He must grow; I must disappear.”
“We had talked about the creations of poetry being more vivid and real than the poets themselves.”
It seems to have a lot of similarities to ego-death, that as soon as you let your opinions, your influences, your baggage go then you can rise above it and allow all of that to fade away in place of a clean and neutral self or creation. It doesn’t matter what Hesse was trying to communicate with his stories, or what Tool are trying to communicate with their songs; they fade away, slip away in the face of their creation and all the differing ways people will read into it, bringing their own influences to the work, changing it, shaping it into something new. This could be incredibly irritating for the creators (Hesse and Tool in this case) because their creations are special to them, they cling to them and shape them and it’s difficult to accept that their hard work can so easily be changed and shifted by other people. If they try to fight this then they will end up unable to make new work, but if they allow the death of the author to occur, if they let their creations be changed and interpreted as their audience sees fit, then they will reach a happier place.
I know a lot of people reference the fact that Devo’s middle name is H. and I think that fits in well with the above mentioned stuff. Because as a parent you have to let all of your opinions about stuff slip away in order to properly enjoy your role of being a parent. Your child is your creation, just as your music or your writing is. The same principle applies.
in Dead Eye Dick Kurt Vonnegut uses the term 'undifferentiated nothingness' in describing our little wisps of existence. i take it to mean, don't take it so seriously, and for darn sakes crucify the ego. over and over again.
the ego should be as a snakes skin, to be shed when we've outgrown its usefulness.
__________________ Time is still the infinite jest.
in Dead Eye Dick Kurt Vonnegut uses the term 'undifferentiated nothingness' in describing our little wisps of existence. i take it to mean, don't take it so seriously, and for darn sakes crucify the ego. over and over again.
the ego should be as a snakes skin, to be shed when we've outgrown its usefulness.
Dead Eye Dick is a great book! Yes, I agree with your points about the ego, and about not taking things too seriously and how this can be related to Dead Eye Dick too. If we try to force a narrative onto our lives, if we try and construct our lives into something that we can pin a meaning to, then we are living in a constructed reality. Who defines the limits of the constructed reality? Why should one person's construction affect another person's? What if I want to live outside of the construction and be free of ego, be free of the construction?
Albert Camus' The Stranger also comes to mind, I think Dead Eye Dick is similar, in a way. Forcing meaning on things without meaning is absurd.
Just be happy. Freeing oneself of the ego is a very good way to go about getting your head into a position to accept the meaningless world around you and not let it bog you down; it's the best way of staying happy.
I mentioned Vonnegut so I could relate to this topic as I've only read Steppenwolf by Hesse but now I would really like to read The Journey To The East.
I find reading is a good way for me to break out of my 'default setting' and to glimpse, if only briefly, a grander view than my own.
Good stuff.
__________________ Time is still the infinite jest.
im gonna have to read this book now. ive read steppenwolf by HH and the undiscovered self by CJ, have been wanting to read beneath the wheel (for a long while now. must get up off my ass and read that book.), and now i'll be reading this one so i can properly participate in this thread. thanks for the tip.
["
It seems to have a lot of similarities to ego-death, that as soon as you let your opinions, your influences, your baggage go then you can rise above it and allow all of that to fade away in place of a clean and neutral self or creation. It doesn’t matter what Hesse was trying to communicate with his stories, or what Tool are trying to communicate with their songs; they fade away, slip away in the face of their creation and all the differing ways people will read into it, bringing their own influences to the work, changing it, shaping it into something new. This could be incredibly irritating for the creators (Hesse and Tool in this case) because their creations are special to them, they cling to them and shape them and it’s difficult to accept that their hard work can so easily be changed and shifted by other people. If they try to fight this then they will end up unable to make new work, but if they allow the death of the author to occur, if they let their creations be changed and interpreted as their audience sees fit, then they will reach a happier place. "]
