(no subject)
"Pitchfork: Can you amplify the symbolism of the crane wife? Not the album, but the actual story.
CM: It's a story about a peasant living in, I assume, rural Japan, it being a Japanese folk tale. He finds a wounded crane on the road as he's walking one night. It has an arrow in its wing, and he pulls out the arrow and revives the crane. A couple of days later this mysterious woman shows up at his door and he brings her in. Eventually, they fall in love and are married. Although they're poor-- she's a seamstress, a weaver-- she suggests that she can make this cloth that he could sell and make money. But the one condition is that when she's weaving he can't look into the room at her weaving. This goes on for awhile, until eventually the peasant's curiosity gets the best of him and he looks in. It turns out that the woman is a crane, and she's pulling feathers from her wings and putting them into the cloth, which is what makes it so beautiful and soft. Apparently, having looked in at her breaks the spell and she turns permanently back into a crane and flies away.
Pitchfork: Wow. That's almost identical to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, isn't it? Where he's leading her out of Hades and he's not allowed to look back, and finally his doubt and curiosity get the best of him, and he looks, and she fades away forever. It's the same narrative arc unfurling in a different culture. "
Dear Pitchfork,
I know you like to sound smart, but you are wrong.
1. Eurydice died,
2. Orpheus went down to rescue her, and did so by outplaying the devil with his lyre, as opposed to the peasant's passive role in the other story.
3. The crane wife came to the peasant, whereas Orpheus came upon Eurydice and charmed her with his song
4. After Eurydice was swept back to Hades, Orpheus was ripped to shreds by the maenads - Maenads were worshippers of Dionysius, god of the stage - Dionysian music invoked extreme emotion and an almost bloodlust, as opposed to Apollonian music, associated with the lyre. It shows the almost struggle between the musical types, with Orpheus representing the Apollonian style, and the Maenads the Dionysian style.
asshat.
CM: It's a story about a peasant living in, I assume, rural Japan, it being a Japanese folk tale. He finds a wounded crane on the road as he's walking one night. It has an arrow in its wing, and he pulls out the arrow and revives the crane. A couple of days later this mysterious woman shows up at his door and he brings her in. Eventually, they fall in love and are married. Although they're poor-- she's a seamstress, a weaver-- she suggests that she can make this cloth that he could sell and make money. But the one condition is that when she's weaving he can't look into the room at her weaving. This goes on for awhile, until eventually the peasant's curiosity gets the best of him and he looks in. It turns out that the woman is a crane, and she's pulling feathers from her wings and putting them into the cloth, which is what makes it so beautiful and soft. Apparently, having looked in at her breaks the spell and she turns permanently back into a crane and flies away.
Pitchfork: Wow. That's almost identical to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, isn't it? Where he's leading her out of Hades and he's not allowed to look back, and finally his doubt and curiosity get the best of him, and he looks, and she fades away forever. It's the same narrative arc unfurling in a different culture. "
Dear Pitchfork,
I know you like to sound smart, but you are wrong.
1. Eurydice died,
2. Orpheus went down to rescue her, and did so by outplaying the devil with his lyre, as opposed to the peasant's passive role in the other story.
3. The crane wife came to the peasant, whereas Orpheus came upon Eurydice and charmed her with his song
4. After Eurydice was swept back to Hades, Orpheus was ripped to shreds by the maenads - Maenads were worshippers of Dionysius, god of the stage - Dionysian music invoked extreme emotion and an almost bloodlust, as opposed to Apollonian music, associated with the lyre. It shows the almost struggle between the musical types, with Orpheus representing the Apollonian style, and the Maenads the Dionysian style.
asshat.