[Jordan~]

[doublewuzzy]

I forget the page number, but in the third part of The Sound and the Fury (Jason's part), he compares Luster and Benjy behind the fence to a Monkey and Bear. Benjy is autistic and Luster takes 'care' of him, though often secretly abuses him when no one is looking.

[threearrows]

Wow - good one wuzz, thanks.

[doublewuzzy]

I started reading "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaardner, which is this novelization of the history of philosophy, and two of the chapters are called "The Garden of Eden" and "The Garden Party."

[doublewuzzy]

John Donne, "No man is an island."

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

[Ann]

Ooooooh, good catch!

[Weirdelves]

Yeah I thought about that link a lot when I was really loving Donne. What a poet.

[ribbonbows]

reading some excerpts from Ulysses.

i see a lot of joyce in joanna's voice... nothing specific, but yes

[doublewuzzy]

"We spun gold clear out of straw" in No Provenance is a reference to the story of Rumplestiltskin.

[janaesanchez]

Hello fellow Newsomniacs!

Erm. I'm not exactly sure how to start this so I'll just dive right on through..
I am a Freshman in high school (and a devoted Joanna fan for a year and a half :p) and for the past few weeks in my English class we have been studying myths. About a week ago we were assigned books with about 12 different myths in them. One of these myths that I have had to read and write a summary on is called "Halcyone's Dream"

This is basically how the story goes:

Ceyx (Halcyone's husband) decides to sail across the sea to consult an oracle to find out if the gods are angry with him. Halcyone, fearing the dangers of such a voyage, begs him not to go. However, Ceyx sets out and, as Halcyone fears, drowns in a storm. Somnus, the god of sleep and dreams, comes to Halcyone in a dream disguised as Ceyx and tells her of his death. Later she goes out to sea to remember the last place she saw Ceyx and sees her husbands lifeless body and decides to swim to him knowing that she will drown. The gods -basically pitying their love for each other- transform both of them into kingfisher seabirds. Every winter Aeolus sends calm winds for a short time so that Halcyone can hatch her eggs in peace. From this story comes the expression "halcyon days," meaning a time of peace and joy.

So, I am not exactly sure why this didn't click for me at first. Oh sure-- when I first read the word "Kingfisher" I was like *gigglegiggle* Joanna, but then earlier today when my teacher was going over every story with the class, it just hit me!

& the line Kingfisher: "I had a dream you came to me" just reminded me completely of this story.

Of course, I could be completely wrong. Kingfisher isn't one of my favorites on the new album so I don't listen to it much and haven't tried to comprehend what it might be about. But I couldn't help thinking if maybe these two things are tied together somehow.

[janaesanchez]

HOLD THE PHONE. I just found -while looking up Haclyone's Dream- some very interesting information:

Two separate Greek myths mention a figure named Halcyone (or Alcyone). In the first of these tales, Halcyone is one of seven sisters called the Pleiades. This story has different versions. In one, the death of two of the sisters drives all of the Pleiades to commit suicide. In the more familiar version, a giant named Orion chases the Pleiades for seven years. To allow them to escape, Zeus* changes the sisters into a constellation, or group of stars. Orion also becomes a constellation, and he still chases the sisters in the night sky.

[doublewuzzy]

I may be reading too far into this, but I'm still reading that book about philosophy, and it's talking about Spinoza and his idea that God is the world, rather than God existing apart from the world, which is an idea he got from St. Paul, who said "In him we live and move and have our being." That reminds me of Emily - "loving him, we move within his borders" (though "him" could be their father).

[claire]

I just read Jane Eyre for the first time, and there were a bunch of passages that reminded me of Joanna's lyrics.

In this part, Jane wakes up in the middle of the night because Mrs. Rochester is lurking outside her room:

"I tried again to sleep; but my heart beat anxiously: my inward tranquillity was broken. The clock, far down in the hall, struck two. Just then it seemed my chamber-door was touched; as if fingers had swept the panels in groping a way along the dark gallery outside. I said, 'Who is there?' Nothing answered. I was chilled with fear... This was a demoniac laugh - low, suppressed, and deep - uttered, as it seemed, at the very key-hole of my chamber-door. The head of my bed was near the door, and I thought at first the goblin-laughter stood at my bedside - or rather, crouched by my pillow: but I rose, looked round, and could see nothing; while, as I still gazed, the unnatural sound was reiterated: and I knew it came from behind the panels. My first impulse was to rise and fasten the bolt; my next, again to cry out, 'Who is there?'"


The day after Jane and Mr. Rochester get engaged:

"The feeling, the announcement sent through me, was something stronger than was consistent with joy - something that smote and stunned. It was, I think, almost fear."


Jane is wondering whether she was right not to run away to France with Mr. Rochester:

"Mr. Rochester's mistress; delirious with his love half my time - for he would - oh, yes, he would have loved me well for a while. He did love me - no one will ever love me so again. I shall never more know the sweet homage given to beauty, youth, and grace - for never to any one else shall I seem to possess these charms. He was fond and proud of me - it is what no man besides will ever be."


And then the phrases "all alive," "my little darling" and "so sweet and full" pop up throughout the book.


Can't say if any of this is intentional, I just kept on folding down pages as I was reading it so I thought I'd share!

[polliwog]

I guess it's time to read Jane Eyre again. Thanks for bringing it up, claire.

[doublewuzzy]

This isn't a direct reference, but I finished reading "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder (which I recommend you read) and the last chapter is about the Big Bang. It made me think of "Emily" and gave it more weight. Some salient points:

-"When we gaze at a star that is 50,000 light years away, we are looking back 50,000 years in time."
-"The only way we can look out into space, then, is to look back in time. We can never know what the universe is like now. We only know what it was like then."
-"The universe has no timeless geography. The universe is a happening. The universe is an explosion."
-"Everything we see in the sky is a cosmic fossil from thousands and millions of years ago."
-"If it's a clear night, we can see millions, even billions of years back into the history of the universe. So in a way, we are going home."
-"We must not exaggerate the importance of these figures. It is enough just to hold a stone in your hand. The universe would have been equally incomprehensible if it had only consisted of that one stone."

[madpawn]

"Have One On Me" is definitely referencing the classic novel Daddy-Long-Legs. It, like the song, is epistolary, taking the form of letters addressed to this "Daddy-Long-Legs."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daddy-Long-Legs_(novel)

[Ann]

Ahh, so Lola, King Ludwig AND Daddy Long Legs? Dang, Joanna.

[Steve]

Given the alcohilic theme of HOOM, it's a happy coincidence that one of the Australian gold-rush towns which Lola Montez (a/k/a Miss Eliza Rosanna Gilbert, a/k/a the Countess of Landsfeld) visited was Castlemaine, Victoria, in 1856, and that just one year later the Castlemaine Brewers Company was founded there, launching its famous Four-X (XXXX) brand in 1924.

[Weirdelves]

I never looked up the Castlemaine she was referencing because I secretly hoped it was the small town in Kerry, Ireland near to where I was born (Killarney), I knew it wouldn't be but I enjoyed entertaining the fantasy. So thanks, Steve, for ruining my dreams



YOU SHOULD'VE KNOWN

[Jordan~]

You still have Christmas in Killarney, though! It's Christmas in Killarney, with all o' the folks at home!

I knew it was the Australian gold mining town. I can't remember why, I must have read it here. I think including the reference is a nod towards the different sort of excess practiced there from that in the Bavarian court - it's a kind of fall from grace, I think. Once she was the concubine of a king of one of the grand old dynasties of Europe, now she entertains bawdy miners who've struck it lucky in a crude colonial backwater. The point, I think, is that the sort of love she had for Ludwig has destroyed them both - he's been deposed and she, the Countess of Landsfeld, has been reduced to dancing for miners. And that ties in to the poisoned chalice image that dominates the song - destructive self-sacrifice, the motif of the album.