Let's read Temptation as another result of Barney's apparent James Joyce influence. It seems all too clearly to be full of references to the story "An Encounter" from Joyce's 'Dubliners.' The child narrator and a friend play hooky from school to go see some pigeons, but they don't get that far. They look for a GREEN-EYED SAILOR, but only see grey eyes and blue eyes. He eventually finds a person with green eyes in a perverted old man, someone unlike he has never seen before, who stops to talk to him in a field on the way home. Of course, the great epiphany in this story comes as the boy realizes how much he doesn't want to become anything like this old man and how he has always despised his friend a bit but is now thankful that the friend is there to accompany him away from the pervert--thus becoming the finding of one's soul as he goes home. I'd need to give the time and energy to a fuller interpretation of the lyrics beside Joyce's story, but that's enough for the moment to put your minds at work. Have at it, Patrick! :D
new order and joyce (again) :D
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His (Late) Holiness, The Pope wrote: Let's read Temptation as another result of Barney's apparent James Joyce influence. It seems all too clearly to be full of references to the story "An Encounter" from Joyce's 'Dubliners.' The child narrator and a friend play hooky from school to go see some pigeons, but they don't get that far. They look for a GREEN-EYED SAILOR, but only see grey eyes and blue eyes. He eventually finds a person with green eyes in a perverted old man, someone unlike he has never seen before, who stops to talk to him in a field on the way home. Of course, the great epiphany in this story comes as the boy realizes how much he doesn't want to become anything like this old man and how he has always despised his friend a bit but is now thankful that the friend is there to accompany him away from the pervert--thus becoming the finding of one's soul as he goes home. I'd need to give the time and energy to a fuller interpretation of the lyrics beside Joyce's story, but that's enough for the moment to put your minds at work. Have at it, Patrick! :D
I'm delighted to see that the WFTSC/odyssey parallel has inspird others to begin a reexamination of prior NO from the perspective newly gained from the release of WFTSC. For myself, until the WFTSC work is more complete, I will be concentrating on that task more or less full-time.
Thanks for your efforts, Pope!
Conduct wrote: My friend thinks that TPK is a re-telling of Romeo & Juliet.
"The perfect kiss is the kiss of death."
Makes sense to me.
And 60 MPH was definitely influenced by Tatu's 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane.
Hmmm...perhaps WFTSC is modeled not after Homer's Odyssey, per se, but after Joyce's Ulysses, which would help explain the stylistic disconnect of the final track, which would be attributed to Molly Bloom.
Conduct wrote: My friend thinks that TPK is a re-telling of Romeo & Juliet.
A homoerotic Romeo and Juliet?
Gnu Odor wrote: And 60 MPH was definitely influenced by Tatu's 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane.
Hmmm...perhaps WFTSC is modeled not after Homer's Odyssey, per se, but after Joyce's Ulysses, which would help explain the stylistic disconnect of the final track, which would be attributed to Molly Bloom.
I think the idea that WFTSC is influenced by both the Odyssey and Joyce's Ulysses is a very good possibility, Gnu. However, I don't know that I would say that Working Overtime specifically reminds me of that "Yes I will yes" episode. It has also occurred to me that there is a Finnegans Wake parallel when the opening bell is seen as a funeral bell and Turn is seen as depicting death (with WO as the wake), WFTSC can be viewed as circular, in the way FW is.
James Joyce is namechecked in "Que Onda Guero" on the new Beck album, which was released on iTunes the exact same day as WFTSC.
I enjoy the thread, but I think the idea that WFTSC is at all inspired by the Oddyssey is so very wrong. First, the stretch to include many of the tracks (GIAUE) is just too, too far. Second, Joyce is one of the greatest Western writers, and Barney's lyrics just flat out suck so much of the time.
No offense, but I can't imagine Bernard sustaining a single theme across an entire album; the man's musical brain just doesn't work that way. Here's a song. Here's another song.
They're both Irish, though. 
Well, you're entitled to your opinion, of course. Obviously, I think there's something there or I wouldn't have devoted so much time to this little project.
As I've said before, I think the idea of a parallel can be valid without it being possible to explain every aspect of WFTSC by reference to The Odyssey.
Some parts of it fit better than others.
Maybe if I ever finish it you'll find it a little more persuasive.
In any event, thanks for the input.
Don't lose hope! The Deconstructionist school of criticism (the recently deceased Jacques Derrida et al) would argue that:
"A traditional reader believes that ... the author of a text is the source of its meaning. Derrida's deconstructive style of reading ... challenges the idea that a text has an unchanging, unified meaning.... As a result, the author's intentions in speaking cannot be unconditionally accepted. This multiplies the number of legitimate interpretations of a text."
I just said that I didn't think Barney was writing a concept album intentionally or even consciously. That doesn't mean, though, that he wasn't dealing with some universal themes that may well have inspired both Homer and Joyce.
See, even if Barney denies it, don't believe him!
