_The Ninth Wave_

[blblbl!henrik@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (Larry DeLuca)]

Something has been bothering me quite a bit for the past week, and
since no one has said anything about it, I'm going to venture into the
fray (at least it is something different than the Gaffa wars).

> From: |>oug:

> ... then we hear the submarine coming to rescue Kate ...

I'm sorry - I just can't buy that interpretation.  I think she's
doomed to die from the start.  As far as my reasons go, let me start
with the transition from _Hello Earth_ to _Morning Fog_, and then go
over the rest of the piece to substantiate my viewpoint further.

We do in fact hear the sonar at the end of _Hello, Earth_, but we hear
it in _And Dream of Sheep_ as well.  Each time it's used, the lyrics
indicate that we are moving deeper into the death state (or
unconsciousness) and away from the life state.  In the case of _Hello,
Earth_:

	"Deeper, deeper, somewhere in the depths, there is a light."

During the course of the song, things grow gradually softer.  We are
lulled into a final sleep, like a leaf drifting downward, or some
object slowly sinking into water.  The last thing we hear is a bit of
a muffled seagull, and the line:

	"Go to sleep Little Earth"

and then we fade.  Suddenly, the very sharp attack (along with a
greatly increased volume level) of _Morning Fog_ starts.  The words to
_Morning Fog_ also imply that a metamporphosis has taken place, and a
fairly specific one at that:

	I am falling
	like a stone
	like a storm 
	being born again
	into the sweet morning fog

In this passage the life of the "storm" is over, it has changed into
something else, and is going to continue on with its existance.  It
would seem a rescue would imply a more gradual recovering of
consciousness, and certainly a return to the previous state.  The
storm chaning to fog, however, also implies the fight against the
environment being given up and succumbing to becoming part of it.
It's a wonderful image.

Second, we mention the light again - implying that the light is an
important figure in the transition.  Certainly, in "the depths" (be
they the depths of the ocean or the depths of unconsciousness - but
I'll get to that in a minute) there isn't much light at all - so
perhaps the light is the doorway to another place.

	The light
	Begin to bleed,
	Begin to breathe,
	Begin to speak

Images of birth -- while rescue is a possibility, it would make it a
much weaker statement.  The "light" that was identified as the speaker
lost consciousness for the last time in _Hello Earth_ clearly led
somewhere (into _The Morning Fog_).  I would place the exact moment of
"death" at the juncture between the two pieces.

Further, the line "I'm falling / And I'd love to hold you now" is in
the subjunctive -- implying that for some reason she *can't* hold the
person she's talking to.

Now, as far as an overview of the entire piece (mind you, from my own
perspective).  It's a time-compression - a mixture of hallucinations
and reality as the speaker drifts in and out of consciuosness (the
reader is referred to "Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose
Bierce for another example of this method of telling a story).

Starting at the present, with _And Dream of Sheep_.  We encounter the
leading character treading water, hoping for rescue.  It's late, it's
cold, she's tired.  Starting to drift in and out a bit:

	"Let me be weak, let me sleep, and dream of sheep"

The recurring images of shifting alertness like "I'll wake up to any
sound of engines / every gull a seeking craft" - reassurance that she
won't, in fact, drift too deep into sleep and drown.  The gull here is
one of the first effects we hear, again implying that attention is
more easily shifted - (anyone who's driven too many hours on a rainy
night can appreciate this one, I think).

	"They take me deeper and deeper"

As she drifts off into the first hallucination, in the strings we hear
the first rescue boats in the water.  However, the leading character's
mind is remembering the incident that caused her to end up there in
the first place.  (Her seeing herself precludes this actually
happening in the present).

At this point, most likely the rescuer voices are real, coming in from
far away as they do - those little bits of consciousness that creep in
even when you're asleep or drifting.

Next, we have the "Wake up" section.  while it is possible that the
leading character is actually dragged up onto the beach at this point
(I still consider it a possibility), the theory I currently prefer is
that the lines are the conscious mind attempting to push through the
haze again).  The series of "Wake up", and "Wake up love" lines could
plausibly have been spoken and filtered through the unconscious, but
the other lines, like "Pay Attention", "See that little light over
there", "Over here", and "Look who's here to see you" that clearly are
not taking place in the present and are most likely drawn from
experiences, knowledge, and lore that are the province of the leading
character (certainly the "See the light ..."  dialogue is the
temptation to give in and die).  In any event, the broken-up voice
that starts _Waking the Witch_ reminds me very strongly of the
near-drowning experience I had as a small child -- bobbing up and down
in the water desperately struggling for breath and trying to scream
for help sounded a lot like that, and is part of what makes _Waking
the Witch_ so chilling for me.

As everyone I am sure will recall, there were a series of "tests" to
determine if one was, in fact, a witch.  It was believed that every
witch had a spot on their body which proved they were a witch because
if it was stabbed with a needle no blood would come forth ("You won't
bleed").  Another common test was to submerge the would-be witch in a
well.  If the water "accepted" her (she sank) she was not a witch.  If
the water "rejected" her (she floated) clearly she was a witch since
wood floated -> wood was lighter than water -> witches floated ->
witches were made of wood (how do you argue with logic like that).

Note that our "witch-hunter" is the same voice that encouraged the
leading character toward the "light" in the earlier passage of the
song (the last "Over here").  Now encouraging her further into the
"depths" - "Wings in the water - Go down".

Again, the metaphor of the depths doesn't necessarily imply that she's
literally sinking, but losing the battle.

The helicopter and the "Get out of the waves", "get out of the water"
imply our rescue party giving up -- "the waves" further suggests
stormy seas - perhaps there is a large storm coming and they have to
cut their losses.

_Watching You Without Me_ - the lyrics are pretty straightforward -
nice use of the muffler at the beginning to imply that it's more like
voices on the wind - the suggestion of presence instead of the
actuality of it.  The only sounds we hear are nautical ones - the
morse-code SOS after the second verse of the song, the rolling waves,
the seagulls.  We haven't really left the beach at all, as our
auditory cues tell us, it's just the mind drifting again.

The mind shifts again, and the leading character's mind makes one last
bid for survival - herself as an old woman confronting her present
self.  "I put this moment here. I put this moment here.  I put this
moment *over here*" - the last *over here* is a voice from earlier on
in _Waking the Witch_ - the voice that attempted to lull her away
before, and is having more success now.  The lines of the poem
following imply further temptation to give in and follow.

	"A kiss on the wind and we'll make the land "

The kiss of death...

	"Waiting for them when the life-spray cools"

pretty obvious.

_Hello Earth_ - as our leading character drifts further away from
life, she becomes more passive.  The descision point was at the end of
_Jig of Life_.  Now we drift downward, accepting fate.  The cue that
there isn't a whole lot of time passing between this and _Waking the
Witch_ are the second set of rescuer's commands to "Get out of the
waves, get out of the water".  People are called home, the search
over.  The leading character also doesn't ask for help any more "All
you fishermen / head for home / Go to sleep little earth".

The rest of the analytical trail picks up at the beginning of the
article.

One alternative interpretation I've considered is that during the
"Wake up" section and preceding it, the leading character is dragged
out of the water and the more sensible "wake up"'s come from the
rescuers.  However, there is less founding for this in the rest of the
music.

					larry...