Re: Mules

[harvard!topaz!jerpc.PE.UUCP]

> > (throw this in the list or not, as you wish, but...)

Gee, if you hadn't "thrown this in the list," I would never have
known such a discussion had apparently been going on, off to the
side, while I was up there in New Jersey advancing the state of
the art and other uninteresting stuff instead of discussing Kate
Bush... well, Jean "'Ambar 'flua" Diaz is right, that was
what I meant... that mules are sterile, but anatomically work
just fine...

> Or maybe the story isn't over, and when J. Eric sends KB a letter
> saying "Look, mules aren't neuter!" she'll write a sequel to "Get Out"
> telling us what happens when the character realizes this.

I wouldn't sent KB a letter... I quit writing fan letters when
Martha Quinn wouldn't answer my fan mail... I mean, why can't it
work like in "Johnny Ace," where you get back a nice photo et.
al...

Anyhow... it's just "Eric", not "J. Eric"... I just write J.
Eric to deal with certain red-tape sorts of problems.

> Does it really matter if mules aren't really neuter?  I think not!  The
> point came across perfectly to me.  After all, this is poetic metaphor
> -- not reality.  I don't think "I turn into the Amoeba/ Ooze Ooze" would
> have worked quite as well....

I do... it would have made me laugh!  I can imagine Kate Bush
singing "ooze ooze"... (you know... down here in Florida they
have Killer Amoebas... so it could have been just as intense,
poignant, and so on...)

I don't think it really matters extremely, it is just a sort of
a flaw, like the story in "Pull out the pin"... that song
bothers me for similar reasons, because

	(a) I don't think Americans' "stink of sweat" would be a
            major reason for guerilla-types to dislike them, nor
            even a characteristic they would notice... I mean,
            how many guerillas carry Ban Roll-On around in
            their supplies?

        (b) I'm not sure if many of the guerilla-types are
            Buddhists.

        (c) This song seems to deal with a hand grenade, but her
            victim is apparently walking down the street.

        (d) Just at an intuitive level, it doesn't seem to fit
            with what I perceive to be the ideological position
            of most anti-American revolutionary types.

        (e) Why does it say "I gaze in American eyes," rather
            than, say, British?  Does Kate Bush believe, as do
            something like 65% of "all" British people, that
            America is a major threat to world peace?  Why?
            I hope she doesn't write one of those "argument from
            comparative anatomy" songs, like this "Sting"
            character recently came out with...

        (f) The situation she describes doesn't seem very
            confrontational to me, so the "I love life", 
            "me or him", etc. just don't seem to fit.


Let's look at another song, though... what is this "Leave it
open" song about?  I don't understand what it means when it says
"Harm in us but power to arm"?