I am a junior in high school and I am in AP English. Our teacher told us to find 4 lines of a poem or song that are significant and explain why they are significant. I searched around and I knew I wanted to do a Tool song, and I eventually picked the lyrics "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 my teacher talked for like 20 minutes about these lyrics. It was awesome for me as a tool fan to be able to hear my teacher searching for the meaning of these lyrics...and he saw it as I see it....that life is a test....a difficult journey...and it is tedious....and if it was'nt for knowing that the afterlife holds some sort of comfort...then we would all just give up (suicide perhaps?)....and I am in no way christian...but maybe there is a greater something waiting for all of us ...and that is what this song is about to me....about waiting for the end....
Now as to poetry, in his class we are anylzing poetry very in depth and it reminds me of how everyone on here anylizes tool songs.....just food for thought.....anyways...just wanted to let u guys know what i thought of the song and what my teacher thought.....
I am a junior in high school and I am in AP English. Our teacher told us to find 4 lines of a poem or song that are significant and explain why they are significant. I searched around and I knew I wanted to do a Tool song, and I eventually picked the lyrics "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 my teacher talked for like 20 minutes about these lyrics. It was awesome for me as a tool fan to be able to hear my teacher searching for the meaning of these lyrics...and he saw it as I see it....that life is a test....a difficult journey...and it is tedious....and if it was'nt for knowing that the afterlife holds some sort of comfort...then we would all just give up (suicide perhaps?)....and I am in no way christian...but maybe there is a greater something waiting for all of us ...and that is what this song is about to me....about waiting for the end....
Now as to poetry, in his class we are anylzing poetry very in depth and it reminds me of how everyone on here anylizes tool songs.....just food for thought.....anyways...just wanted to let u guys know what i thought of the song and what my teacher thought.....
We too have had to do similar activities, and i too find much meaning and emotion in these words... In our english class we had to make a line by line interpretation... My teacher also though it was amazing
"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 my teacher talked for like 20 minutes about these lyrics. It was awesome for me as a tool fan to be able to hear my teacher searching for the meaning of these lyrics...and he saw it as I see it....that life is a test....a difficult journey...and it is tedious....and if it was'nt for knowing that the afterlife holds some sort of comfort...then we would all just give up (suicide perhaps?)....and I am in no way christian...but maybe there is a greater something waiting for all of us ...and that is what this song is about to me....about waiting for the end....
Why afterlife? Isn't there any other "reward to reap" in your life than "maybe there is an afterlife"?
I personally believe (and I have blatantly stolen this from someone whose name I don't even have the decensy to remember) that the idea of an afterlife is a result of your ego's desperate struggle to come to terms with the fact that it will one day cease to exist...
I find the following meaning in those 4 lines:
Life sucks. There it is. I like to think that the day my puberty "started" was the same day I started doubting myself. I've been...negatively inclined in my thought patterns...for as long as I can remember...it's been going on for roughly 10 years now, and yet I'm still here. What could possibly have kept me from slicing my wrists open during this chaotic journey? Well, for one... I was standing in a music store in New Haven, Mass. leafing through the "metal" section when I stumbled across Ænema and though "Hm...the guy from Know your enemy is in tool) The rest is history.
The main reason, however, is that I've been convinced that there must be something good waiting for me. I'm a good guy, I try to do right, my karma can't be this messed up. It'll work out, IT HAS TO! If there was no reward to reap, now loving embrace to see me through, I certainly would have walked away by now...and I still may
Your teachers opinion is excatly like mine actually. I haven't seen anyone else mention the suicide part beside myself. I have always thought it was just about life and everything that the teacher said.
ok heres a little something to chew on... Maybe there is no afterlife, and what this heavenly place is is on earth. The rewards are imediate and when you do good deads and when you are a good person it is given back to you through the people around you and the life you'll live. We researched Buhdism in my history class and one of the many truths were that you will always have desires and desires will always bring you pain so once you eliminate your desires you will be content. If you get that point aren't you already happy?
"Is this a test? It has to be, otherwise I can't go on"--Quote
I see why your teacher may have come to the conclusion that this song may somehow resemble life represented as a strive towards the afterlife, but AFU is right, there is more to it than that...
Life as a whole may be a test and perhaps on judgement day all the rights and wrongs would be tallied up and you are sent either up, down or around via an incarnate body. One thing you must understand, guitarist, is that THE BIG TEST on judgement day could theoretically be sub-divided into a collection of mini-tests given throughout our life to instill 'patience,' understanding and compassion for our situation in society or as humans, in general. This could mean that the ultimate goal of ascension beyond the netherrealms of the universe must first be realized in the immediate context of everyday life and how we react to all of our mini-tests. So take every test or situation, learn from it, be happy and stuff should turn out okay, i guess.
"overthinking, overanalyzing, seperates the body from the mind"
maybe instead of spending so much time analyzing what others have to say, you should spend more time on thinking about what you have to say
or you should realize what that line is about.
Seperating the body from the mind are infact good things, (and you should have gathered that from Parabol[a]), and hence overthinking and overanalyzing would be a good thing, chief.
"overthinking, overanalyzing, seperates the body from the mind"
maybe instead of spending so much time analyzing what others have to say, you should spend more time on thinking about what you have to say
I believe that overthinking, overanalyzing is a positive step towards expanding your perspective on life as well as your consciousness. That's what you meant right??
__________________ l don't want to be alone again today...
Hold me close and together we'll pray
That this moment never fades away...
Fade away, fade away, like any other day.
l don't think the reward to reap is an after-life, or death. l think it's something deeper than that...
"Afterlife" is simply the term we humans use to define that "something deeper" that you're speaking of. "Something deeper" then the afterlife is an oxymoron- the something deeper could just be labeled the afterlife by us here on earth. You see what I mean?
Your teacher was right, guitarist. At least, I agree.
"This body, this body holding me, be my reminder here that I am not alone."
(from parabol/a)
That line seems to say it all. Maynard does believe in a higher power, and he does believe in "the afterlife", whatever that signifies for him.
"This paranoid paralyzed vampire rocks a little old. But I'm still right here, giving blood keeping the faith. Gonna wait it out."
Obviously, life is gonna hit you with some hard shit. Why would you go through all that if you didn't have to? Because there is redemtion, there is life, there is hope. That's what this song says to me.
i hate being dislexic (fuk knows if thats how you spell it) i have the best things to say to everyone but i can't write them down, If you could only read my mind then you would realise some insane things about life, death, karma, good, evil etc. Not saying i know everything but i have been reading into occult matters for a few years.
"overthinking, overanalyzing, seperates the body from the mind"
maybe instead of spending so much time analyzing what others have to say, you should spend more time on thinking about what you have to say
In addition to my opinion, I wanna hit on this. I think Tool didn't mean it like that. At first I did, but when I read the articles on Parabol(a), I started thinking, "Maybe they want you to seperate body and mind." Those two songs make me think of disconnecting and separating.
Anyways, my opinion, is that if there wasn't any heaven/afterlife, or hell, the man wouldn't try to be so good, because it isn't what he wants. And following religion is tedious, and he wouldn't dare pursue it unless he'd get something out of it. Selfish while seeming selfless. Maybe Mother Theresa only did all of that to get a front row seat in heaven.
Emily Dickinson said that our god was jealous because he'd rather us do things for him than each other(no independence). Maybe it's about how he wouldn't be a lamb or whatever if he couldn't get something out of it.
i don't mean literally separating, but if you've ever experienced hypnosis, you can't feel your body. Tool wants to draw you into that relaxed state possibly? I'm not saying it's what they intended, but it's what I think. If you can reach a plane where your mind is so focused that it temporarily lost its focus on the body, you can find your power/energy and ambition and whatnot...
seperating the body from the mind is bad, because then both exist without the other . . .
I believe it's about feeling, being more in tune with your own thought process. Have you ever been really tired or on something and you couldn't sense your body? I think it is stating to strive to become that higher mental standard... naturally, on your own. And to quote my father, an intellect of high standard, before he died... "TO be in a state of mind is to NOT be in a state of being."
True enough, the grey area in this topic is heavy and needs to brought to light. It isn't always a black and white conclusion we must arrive at...but, rather a subtle play between the light and dark, body and mind, body and soul.
After all, if mind and body were indeed 'separated,' perse...then the symbiosis shared would cease to exist as an associative entity. Like crow said, they 'feed' off one another. I will use Maynard in this silly analogy; T00L does not exist without him...however, when he assumes a temporary separation(i.e. APC), it allows for him to explore different avenues of his musical ability, making him a more complete musician or vocalist, if you will. So, when he reunites with his true partner in T00L, he brings with him this insight he has gained from his adventures abroad in the musical world. He has achieved growth...just as we may achieve growth by separating the body from the mind.
