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poetry
>>You can argue that the Acid Queen is a metaphor and not a symbol, but
I don't think you have grounds to say she's only imagery.
>Well, techinically you can argue that anything in the entire world,
from a song to the chair you are sitting on, is a symbol or a metaphore
[sic]. However, I believe that I said "Townshend does not use MASTERFUL
metaphores." That is true, at least in my mind. If the Acid Queen is
indeed a metaphore, what is she representing? I have to believe that if
she is indeed a matephore, which she may be, she would stand for
conventional youth culture, or something like that. While that would
certainly be a metaphore, or possibly even symbolism, it lacks a certain
degree of mastery and precision.
Here's what you said:
>>I have spent far too long analizing Townshend's songs and he does not
have any of the symbolism or masterful metaphores of Dickinson.
And I said yes he does, too, use symbolism and cited the Acid Queen as
an example (I don't personally think she's a metaphor). She is, to be
technical, a "personification," or representation of an abstraction as a
person, and performs a symbolic function in TOMMY. It's not youth
culture she stands for, it's drug experimentation/addiction ("acid"
being lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD). It's perfectly precise, if
you mean by that "clear."
>>Here's an excerpt from "Drowned": (snip) There's a symbolism that runs
through this song, as well.
>But once again he lacks true mastery. Later on in this post, I will
show you what I consider to be a masterful example of all of these
things, just hang on.
Hmmm. Apparently the problem here is in the definition of "mastery." I
already said that I think PT can be haphazard, but still his work is
quite strong in it's way. We haven't really discussed different
artistic styles, other than to say "apples" vs. "oranges," but I suspect
PT is an impressionist. He tends to use a song to represent a
particular experience or emotion, rather than something you can pick
apart intellectually. Rather than going for depth of meaning, he goes
for depth of feeling. His work can be quite lovely and atmospheric, and
generally packs a big emotional whallop. That's also why people relate
it to mysticism and the soul, rather than to the mind. (Have you
studied Jung at all?)
BTW is your example of Ms. Dickinson's work about sex? That would be my
guess, according to conventional symbolism. If a poem is so dense that
it's inaccessible to 90 percent of people, how useful is it? And how
much emotion has she conveyed here? Not much, as far as I can tell.
Definitely an intellectual.
keets
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