Thursday 5 May 2016

O(+>-ology : The Main Schools of Lyrical Analysis



The Fundamentalist Literalist : 
"He means what it say. 
Who am I to question it? 
God works through Prince in mysterious ways."

The Anglican-Episcopalian : 
"Yes, Prince says that, but what he actually means is this... : "

The Preist : 
"My son, in our faith, we not only have the lyrics, we have our dogma, by the grace of God, we have the commentaries and dissertations written by all of the wise and venerable Saints, Martyrs, Blessed and ordinary clergy to aid in our understand of Prince's true meaning with this lyric - I would suggest that you consult the following essay to gain a more complete and detailed understanding of the true meaning of this particular  lyric.... " 

The Talmudic Scholar : 
"Eh, it may mean this, but it could also mean that, or possibly both of those things at once. 
Possibly something else entirely. 
If it still does seem to make sense, that just means that somebody screwed up somewhere, in which case I wouldn't bother worrying about it too much."

The Freudian : 
"It is about sex. 

It is always about sex. 

This lyric is about how Prince wanted to have sex with his mother and kill his father, but was afraid of him and beat him and so became repressed, but perfectly sublimated his unconscious fantasy desire to have sex with his mother into writing the lyrics. To Sister.

I think you could probably benefit from a lot more of these sessions, say perhaps on a twice-weekly basis, that way I think there's an opportunity for you to really focus on working through these issues systematically, we are on the verge, I think, of making significant breakthrough, provided we work hard on these points and you can stay focused and committed to the process of moving forward. You've been doing really well these last few sessions, I feel.

You can pay as you leave - my receptionist will take care of that for you, and she has access to my appointment diary, she will be happy to help you schedule another two dozen sessions, or as many as we decide to go with for now.

We can take cash, Visa or American Express. See you next Tuesday."

The Jungian : 
"You know what it really means. 
So do I. 
So does everyone. 
You just don't necessarily know that you know it, and most people have forgotten how to access and reconnect with the source of that knowledge.

The Post-Modern :
This text means absolutely nothing other than what we tell ourself it does, according to social norms, and if it does mean anything to you (or you imagine to think it does), then that means is what Prince could not possibly have actually meant (because The Author (like God) is Dead, so how could he possibly have meant anything when writing the text?

The Nihilist :

"It means absolutely nuzzink, Libowski.

And zen, ve cutt off your Johnson."

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