More Powerlessness

[Douglas MacGowan <MACGOWAN@SRI-NIC.ARPA>]

IED sez:

>Therefore, it's very interesting that Doug notices a theme of
>hopelessness running through Kate's work.

I don't have my posting in front of me, but I'm pretty sure I used the
word "powerlessness" -- which is quite different from *hopelessness*.
I agree that Kate's work is full of hope and good beliefs, and that
she has the attitude that we can make changes to the beds that we lie
in.

>she insists that _The_Ninth_Wave_ ends on a note of hope for the
>future

Interesting you should point this one out, IED.  After thinking about
the theory I presented in my last posting, I have come to the
conclusion that this aspect of helplessness or powerlessness is most
apparent in The Ninth Wave, the song Hello Earth particularly:

	Can't do anything - just watch them swing on the wind
        out to sea

And the passages where all the possible rescuers (sailors, fishermen,
life-savers, etc.,) are told to head for home.

The more I think about it, the more I see this trait in her songs.
Even a song about transitionary action, such as Full House, has the
character making a change, but only after Pride and The Voices force
her into it.  

I cannot think of any of Kate's songs where the perspective is that of
a person who is not acting on some kind of interior or exterior source
that leads them into action: Under The Ivy has the "little girl inside
me", Ran Tan Waltz's main character is a very weak man, Cloudbusting
is full of other sources, and Ne T'en Fuis Pas (which I still maintain
is the *best* song Kate ever did) has "the large eyes of my God."


>she is _not_ trying to express her own _personal_attitude or
>opinion.  She does _not_ (for the most part) mean to _endorse_
>those characters' attitudes and opinions, although she might
>happen to agree with some of them.

I'm going to have to ask you to expound on this one.  Maybe I am
misunderstanding what you're saying, but I would maintain that she
identifies in some way with most, if not all, of the attitudes and
opinions of her characters.  This does not imply that she has
experienced everything that her characters have (so I agree the songs
are not autobiographical), but I believe that her character's actions
must portray some aspect of her personality.  I've read that she gets
some of her ideas from TV or things she's read; and while she has not
experienced events like in King's The Shining or World War III, she
can imagine if-that-were-me-I'd-feel-like-this, and write songs like
Get Out Of My House and Breathing, putting herself into those
imaginary situations.  The very fact that there is so little
resemblance between GOoMH and The Shining (thank god) is because Kate
took that material and put aspects of *herself* into it.

>IED believes, however, that her ultimate and overriding message is
>a positive one.

Abso-blooming-lutely, to quote the Griffin in "Dreamchild."  But not,
however, your run-of-the-mill kind of positiveness.


Douglas MacGowan
MACGOWAN@SRI-NIC.ARPA
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