Man gets and forgets; Kate gives and forgives. -- H. W. Thompson

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu]

     "Castaway" is out, and IED gives it thumbs up.
Kate's song is edited in three places and
is faded out early so that it can be fit into the
title sequence, but at least it's there.
     IED doesn't remember where he got the info from (someone in L-Hs, he
thinks), but anyway his previous notice that "Be kind to my mistakes"
is the last remark made by Lucy, the heroine in
the movie, is wrong. It's the second to the last
line that the _man_, Oliver Reed's character, says to her,
anticipating the future publication of her memoirs about
the year she had just completed alone with him on a desert island.
Which of course changes the whole meaning of Kate's song sufficiently
to warrant renewed study.
     Not for the first time has Kate chosen
to write from or for the man's point of view. So "BKTMM", "Cloudbusting",
"In the Warm Room" (which she has said was written for men),
"Pull Out the Pin", "Ran Tan Waltz",
"In Search of Peter Pan", parts of "RUTH", "Waking the Witch",
"Night of the Swallow" and "Delius" all include attempts by Kate
to see life from the other side of the chromosomes, so to speak.
Other songs which represent the same kind of fascination with (and, it
should be added, sympathy for) male gender roles and male psychology
in general, although possibly told from a neutral or female point of
view, include "The Handsome Cabin Boy"; "Kashka
>From Baghdad" and "Wow" (both about male homosexuality);
"James and the Cold Gun"; and "The Empty Bullring".
Has any other female artist ever made quite so
far-ranging an exploration of gender projection?

-- Andrew Martian