Re: Some simple questions

[btm805@btrtx9.hrz.uni-bayreuth.de (B. Gramlich)]

Thanks a lot to all of you who answered my questions on the list and via private
e-mail.

Rich, Re:
 
> >   4.  I never really understood the lyrics of `Athena'.  Does anybody have
> >   a good interpretation?  Especially: who is Athena?  She is not the girl in
> >   question (`the bomb') but a third person, or am I missing something???
> 
> Can't really help you with the interpretation, but I can refer you to parts
> of Pete's book (Horse's Neck) where the song's lyrics pop up or are adapted.
> Check out pages 8 and 28; actually, reading from 25 to 28 helps.

Sorry, don't have that book yet.  Could anybody try to summarize what Pete
writes on these pages?

> But since
> a couple of your other questions dealt with Psychoderelict, what connection
> (if any) is there between the song "Athena" and the Psychoderelict
> character--the woman who controls the Grid?

I'm not Ray High (in fact I'm not even ugly), but I doubt that there is any
deeper connection between those two `Athenae'.  PD is, as we all know, kind of
a parody of Pete's own life as a rock star.  The dialogue (Yes, I finally have
an English transcription of it!) contains a lot of allusions to Pete's previous
work and lyrics, so it seems rather funny than surprising to me that we see
another Athena there:  Pete just recalls the most important women of his life
:-).  Personally, I don't give any more importance to the PD Athena than to this
other Ray High line: `Dear Lily.  Thank you for the pictures.  You look really
nice.'

In one point, however, you are right:  Both in the song `Athena' and in PD,
Athena seems to be a divine or at least extremely powerful character (maybe with
connections to Greek mythology, where Athena is goddess of both wisdom and
warfare).  Could it be that Pete was thinking of both Athenae playing the same
role under different circumstances?

Anyway, my very own, very rudimentary and very literal interpretation of the
song `Athena' is the following:  (Feel free to tear it to pieces.)  The narrator
falls in love with much too young a girl, seduces her, and feels remorse right
thereafter.  This way, `she's a bomb' refers to sexual attraction whereas Athena
stands either for the narrator's conscience (wisdom!) or for some female
real-life authority (e. g. his wife) blaming him for what he has done.

However, someone pointed out to me that probably it's not the `bomb' that has to
be regarded as a metaphor but the `girl'.  `Athena' could be a song about a
`leader' who derives his power from possessing the atomic bomb and finally
cannot resist the temptation of using it.  This would not change the
interpretation of Athena as being his conscience or some goddess.  (He turns
into a `castrated leader' after Athena has convinced him not to use the bomb
anymore.)

I really like this ambiguity of the lyrics, especially since it looks like Pete
wanted them to be ambiguous.  Well, I must admit that I still have difficulties
to interpret the rather cryptic stanzas 3 & 4 (`my heart felt like a shattered
glass ... You were requisitioned blondie').  But maybe they have no more meaning
than pointing out that there was no sensible reason for the narrator to commit
his ugly deed.

Any comments?

Bernd   ---   `Just one word from her and my troubles are long gone.'


BTW:  I see we have an `Athena' here on the list.  Greetings :-) !