revisions
Summary: Artie has been isolated and traumatized by the burdens placed on him, he is shy and has a bad case of lineface. Mute and introspective, it is infinitely easier for him to be alone. He has trouble with others because he is not very trusting after being hurt and manipulated. A god-child, he does not wholly understand those that once worshiped him. Even knowing that worship, he is torn between accepting his powers and feeling like a freak. Freak often overrides, and he keeps his powers smothered ("Just a boy who can't talk.") Very uncertain in who or what he truly is, he is alone
✗ Childhood and Isolation. Artie as a child is not entirely unlike any other boy. At the heart of it, he is a good boy who wants to do the right thing, to be with his family, to learn and to play. He is still young and testing boundaries at this point, and it is this experimentation that leads him out in the polluted stream. The only thing about Artemis, initially, that is beyond the norm is that he is mute and he seems to be particularly aware of this, as it marks him as different. I note this because of his rather childish and dramatic reaction to his powers in (To Live Forever) in that he's going to hide himself away in a cave forever. I think, if he were not already sensitive to being different or 'weird' he would have been enthused about his powers, which is what others expect ("I can see it in his eyes, he thinks it's fun.") This is before the dreams began to haunt him, anyway. Once the dreams do begin, however, they lay down a significant scar on the young boy, which will forever mark him as different. Some traumas can never truly be shared.
"I saw rows and rows of bleeding hands, reaching out for me."
This sense of being different is obviously exacerbated by his powers, which he demonstrates very clearly in (What I See) where he is, essentially, begging someone to have seen what he's seen, to be like him. Artemis is truly a child at this point, and the end of the world is a terribly heavy and isolating burden for him to bear. In the video for (What I See) he is often portrayed as alone in a sea of empty cots, cut off from the other dreamers/his peers/etc. To suffer this while also being dragged into the spotlight is difficult for him. After Artemis communicates his dreams, he is taken in by the government, this is a stark transition for a boy from A Little Nowhere Town Way Out Deep In the Woods. In (Boy Who Can't Talk) it is stated explicitly that he just wants to go home and be left alone, but instead he is not only fawned over by Artemites and politicians alike, but also hounded by the newspapers for more information and proof of his visions. This situation cements him as a lonely and isolated figure, which is later remarked on in (What Artie Knows) when an Artemite observes "And his ways are so mysterious, his manner can't be read." Because of this isolation, I feel that the song (Stranger) is not only about his dogma spreading throughout the world and changing people, it is also about Artie's relationship to the world in kind; it is a lonely relationship. "Power. No, you can't go home. We know you'll learn to love this place."
--Power
"And you'd like to say leave me alone, would you all get away?
And you wish you were safely at home
And you wish that somebody would stand up and say:
He's a boy. A boy who can't talk."
--Boy Who Can't Talk
"He stifles his emotion, and he wipes them from his face
He shuffles round his secret things hidden in their secret place
And nobody knows where the stranger will go
And, oh, as you know, nobody cares."
--Stranger
As both a savior ("I hear he wears a halo when you get up close to him.") and a freak ("They're all so afraid of you, what you do with your mind.") he does not really know who he is.
✗ Worship and Manipulation. Despite this isolation and confusion, Artie is still very dedicated to helping people with his powers. He is seen in the (Behind the Barrier) video moving amongst the people he has saved and smiling that they are still alive. His good intentions allow him to be manipulated by his country's government. Artie's naivety and kind heart are what lead him to continue to support the government inside the Zone in establishing the fascist regime. "They feed you with flattery to get you to show them the things that you do." They being the politicians and the Artemites, and because they praised him, he thought he was doing the right thing; he was only a child. Due to this, Artie would be much more cynical in his approach to others and often questions himself.
"He's righteous and just, in Artie we trust, he knows it all."
It is important to make note of the fact that the Artemites had certain expectations of him as seen in the (Untitled) song, where they expected him to be increasingly severe and vengeful as depended upon their needs. He was also unable to truly make good people of his followers, as seen in the (Untitled) song as well as in (Behind the Barrier) where "The true believers looked on and laughed" at those outside the barrier. These pressures are part of what eventually leads to his abandoning them, as well as to Artemis's reservations about using his powers to fix the world's problems ("Just a boy."), and in relating to others. He is uncertain of who he is as separate from his own myths. Leaving behind the persona of the god-child is not an easy task for him when he does truly know so much more than any mortal ("I could see into the future, I could hear what the people think.")
✗ Guarded and Cynical. He is not emotive, making him seem cold to the outside viewer, his emotions have been smothered by tragedy and he learned to hide his feelings and uncertainties lest they be used against him while still entangled with the vicious politicians. This is again surmised from the remark made about him in (What Artie Knows) "Artie the enigma, knows he's better dead than read." His concepts of truth and trust were shattered by his experiences as God of the Zone, and he is once bitten twice shy. His inability to express his emotions easily and his muteness unfortunately both make it even more difficult for him to connect to others. To deal with this, one would have to write out messages or compensate with hand gestures. For reasons I'll discuss he is not likely to reach directly into anyone's mind to speak telepathically.
Artie does not like to be singled out and that is how compliments and flattery now make him feel, bringing up old memories of smiling government officials and priests. ("Artie we believe in you." "We need your power.") They give him the impression that someone is trying to manipulate something out of him, and he is not looking to ever have that experience again. Otherwise pleasant exchanges can turn chilly. He was deeply unhappy ("They hide you and shut you away just to keep you in line.") while under the government's thumb, and he remembers this clearly. He also remembers how poorly his attempts to fix everyone's problems went. He is not able to turn his telepathy off, it is a passive power, but he has learned to tune it out entirely (though that was not always the case.) Either way, he would prefer quieter settings, he does not enjoy being part of a crowd and cherishes time to himself, for introspection, quite a bit. His favorite places are the forests, which remind him of his childhood home, which he longed to return to.
"Artemis is missing and the night is growing cool."
✗ Conclusions and Fear. Artemis at the end of the album has left the Zone in despair (Baby's at the Door), had been raised up on a pedestal as a symbol, as a savior, as a god, and fell from it as he realized he was just a boy who can't talk (Boy Who Can't Talk II.) On his own, he is both wise and uncertain. He was both forced to grow up quickly to take on the troubles of the world, and deprived of trusted, valuable guidance and childhood experiences when he was taken away from his family. He is still in transition as to how to reconcile these two parts of himself.
In the end, Artie retains his good heart (which I take from Baby's at the Door), but has lost any real sense of happiness he may have had as a child. He is shy because he is mute, which we've well discussed, and because of the isolation and burdens he's experienced. Thus he is shyer about exposing his heart and more discerning in who he shows it to. Truly, he wants to learn like everyone else, to be like everyone else, but suspects he never will be. He will never truly be like them, and this does leave a palpable sadness and bitterness lingering in his thoughts, and it can be heard in (Boy Who Can't Talk, II.)
"Just a boy, a boy who can't talk."
Though it is not explicitly stated (though hinted at, see below What I See,) I do not think it would be outside the realm of possibility to suggest that Artie's presence as a secret weapon may have made other foreign leaders nervous and more willing to push the button; a major theme of Cold War rhetoric, the time period in which this album was written. The title of the album also leads me to suspect this, as the Pink World is describing the world inside Artie's barrier and not the nuclear holocaust itself. I do not think this understanding that he may have been the ultimate cause has escaped him. The fear that perhaps things happen because he dreams them is a niggling one and absolutely contributes to the theme of avoiding the use of his powers.
"I have the power that can keep us alive
It's a sugar-coated pill and it's bitter inside."
A lonely, super-powered, brooding and guarded, immortal teenager, ex-messiah with a heart of gold. Current alignment of Chaotic Good. After his experiences with fascism (In the Zone) the description that he values personal freedom and disdains bureaucracy is apt. As well as the notes about intending the right thing, but maybe not quite getting there. He is also not likely to allow himself to be pushed around a second time.