Between a Computer and a Woman

[Doug Alan <nessus@athena.mit.edu>]

> I fail to see why the interpretation "Kate decides (or is forced by
> her family who intervened) to leave the computer program for good"
> isn't equally plausible.  Perhaps she has decided that she no longer
> needs the program as a crutch or escape from reality, but like all
> good things which come to an end, leaving isn't easy.

> -mjm

I never said that the interpretation that Kate decides to leave the
computer program isn't plausible.  I just don't like it quite as much.
I don't like the interpretation that Kate is forced by her family away
from the computer.  What *meaning* would the story have in this case?
It wouldn't really say anything.  In the other two interpretations, it
has the nice meaning that everyone needs an emotionaly crutch every
now and then, but eventually you have to grow up again and stand on
your own two feet.

This is what I said earlier about the song when I wrote on it in more
depth: 

	Deeper Understanding -- A beautiful and sad song.  This is the
	first song where Kate's exquisite weaving of Bulgarian folk
	music with her own appears.  The song seems to be about
	someone who is lonely and sad.  They acquire some sort of
	marvelous computer program that is intelligent and becomes a
	good friend.  At the end, we hear a voice that says "I hate to
	leave you".  I think that this indicates that the program has
	decided that Kate no longer needs the program as a crutch and
	can stand on her own feet now, and so the program must leave.
	Another possibility is that Kate has grown up and has decided
	she no longer needs the program as a crutch.  Jon Drunkbrain
	says that it indicates that Kate has been forcibly separated
	from the computer by her evil, nonunderstanding family.  I
	disagree.  Kate is not this morbid.

	The story of this song reminds me of "Puff the Magic Dragon"
	or "Peter Pan", where a magical being helps children who have
	sad childhoods, but must eventually watch them grow up and
	leave them.

|>oug

"I love Mickey Mouse more than any woman I've ever known." -- Walt Disney