Jshei's Musings

How Fragile We Are

Yes, I know that line is from a Sting song. It just seems to fit with what happened. I was awake for another nine hours after making my blog entry last night. Yep, up till 7am. That is the latest I've ever stayed up, and I will readily admit I feel like crap today. And I have a calculus midterm tomorrow, so I have no room to slack off. I shouldn't even be taking the time to make this entry, but I have to before the memories fade into static.
So randomly, because I was so discouraged after the failure of my remix, Brian offered we try to analyze as much of The Fragile as we could, and I readily agreed.

The rest of this entry, for length's sake, will be made in an extended entry:

The Fragile (Left Disk)

This album follows a man who, unlike the man in The Downward Spiral, is already clearly broken and damaged (first track, "Somewhat Damaged" being an obvious understatement of the truth) and already contemplating the option of suicide (The Day the World Went Away). What this album has that the other doesnt is a clear representation of feminine: The Frail, The Fragile, La Mer. I believe this represents how there is a struggle to balance masculine and feminine aspects of the self, and possibly also in relationships. We follow this man as he discovers this feminine (The Frail) sees himself starting to fall back down into familiar shitholes (The Wretched) makes a vow to cling to this feminine (We're In this Together) and realizes he's taking "her" all the way down with him (The Fragile). I dont want to explicitly say whether or not this feminine is an aspect of himself or a woman, because I am not completely sure. It can easily be either, yet it is also more easily dealt with to say that it is a woman (easier to talk about, I mean).
So then the the second instrumental (the first being The Frail) occurs, entitled "Just Like You Imagined". Something rather important occurs here, Brian thinks it is something good, I think it is something not so good. It is debatable, and because it is an instrumental, it is very hard to make any conclusions. But entering the next song, Even Deeper, we find our main man alone, feeling everything sink in, feeling himself unable to keep himself from moving toward some inevitability. This is followed by our third instrumental, "Pilgrimage", which is full of the sounds of marching, yelling men, which brings to mind war, and for some reason both Brian and I had images of Nazis here. This possible imagry adds ideas like brainwashing, which gives a reason for his journey, his pilgrimage, and his madness--he is not under control of himself. This is really the only echo of the immense control issues that could be seen in The Downward Spiral, something I didnt get into in my other entry (though listening to the album it is decently clear, especially in songs like "Closer").
After this song is "No, You Don't" and it is clear this woman has betrayed our "hero" (If I can call him a hero...) and he can't believe she left him to his fate, he was abandonned again, something that he feels happens "every time" he seeks help and guidance (this is not just an idea in this song but in several).
"La Mer" Is a mostly instrumental piece, which gives a premonition to the melodies of "Into The Void", a song on the Right disk of the Album. The phrase "into the void" should give anyone an idea what is going on, and translating the french that can be softly heard in "La Mer" will make the picture crystal clear:

"And when the day arrives
I'll become the sky
And I'll become the sea

And the sea will come to kiss me
For I am going home

Nothing can stop me now"

Visions of a cliff... standing in the wind and the smell of the sea, sky above, water below, and nothing but the only choice for salvation in between...
Simply put, both of us were shedding tears by this point, and we hadn't even gotten to the last song on the Left disk. As a side note, the phrase "nothing can stop me now" or something closely resembling this has appeared in six of NIN's songs. Brian believes it is his tell-tale way of saying that something *is* going to stop whatever he's trying to do, because it does not come true in any of the songs in which this line is mentioned.
(Edit: Brian thinks I am being a bit too careless with my addition of a slight interpretation of "Into The Void" here when we havent thoroughly gone over the song. I stand by what I have here. I'll post complete results of this song in the Right disk after we complete it.)
(Edit again: Alright, alright. We've talked about it and it seems to make sense now that the bassline being in "Into The Void" is him thinking back to the feelings of "La Mer". The fact that I heard "Into The Void" several years before getting this album makes me think that it would come first and the echo of the melody in "La Mer" was simply a reflection of this. But one listening to the album obviously hears "La Mer" first. "Into The Void" is then a reflection of these feelings, amplefied thanks to the new outlook he adopts in "The Way Out Is Through".)
Alright. So any of you out there that are lucky enough to have heard the last song on this half of the album before, "The Great Below", you likely know how chillingly beautiful it is. This is about his serious contemplation of suicide through drowning, an idea started with "La Mer" and followed through in this song. Abandonment, regret, helplessness, and such an overwhelming feeling of sadness make this song ideal to sob to like you never have before. Or possibly It affects me so because it feel so personal. The thought of suicide is no stranger to me.
This whole side of the album is extremely personal, brian described it as "ethereal" though I dont think I am spelling that right. All of the action is in the mind, which allows every individual that hears it to take away their own unique meaning. It's all very open to interpretation, something that wasn't quite as much the case in TDS. Things were much more physical in that album and thus more concrete.
The presence of the other half of this album shows that all the illusions to suicide never really went anywhere. We have yet to tackle that half, but when we do I believe some of the questions that arose on this half of the album (what happened during Just Like You Imagined, or during Pilgrimage, what directly caused La Mer and The Great Below?) will be answered.

That is it for now, I have to study. <3 to everyone, especially Mr. Reznor.

P.S. Yes, Brian, much love to you too. Thank you so much for helping me through last night.

EDIT OF EDITINGNESS: part two can be found HERE WHEE

Posted by Jshei at April 17, 2005 05:08 PM