Re: Between a Computer and a Woman

["Woj,,," <woiccare%image.soe!clutx.clarkson.edu@omnigate.clarkson.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?

Let's see: to me, if Kate was unable to remove herself from her comp-
uter and her family was forced to do so, it could be a warning about
the seductiveness of technology.

I personally see the song as a conflict between technology and human-
ity. "When the people here grow colder..." => as technology becomes a
larger and larger part of human life, we become more and more like it
(ie. colder).  So in effect, turning to her computer is *just as good*
as turning to another human since we are are becoming just like them
in many aspects.

This, I think, is the crux of the song: that technology, for all its
greatness and usefulness, is dangerous. My mother is always complain-
ing about "how all you engineers don't know how to think, love and
communicate!" While this is an exagerration, it parallels what Kate
seems to be saying in "Deeper Understanding".

> 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.
 
The trouble with this, Doug, is that most people who develop a need
for an emotional crutch and find one usually *don't* know when they
no longer need it and do not leave of their own accord. That is why
I feel that the "I hate to leave you..." chorus is actually Kate
singing to her computer as her family takes her away, or whenever
she leaves her terminal. The computer saying goodbye is not very
viable in my mind...especially if one takes the tech vs. humanity
route, for the program would not make Kate leave, even if it did
know that Kate no longer needed it.

As for:
> 	Kate is not this morbid.

What about "Under Ice"?

woj --- woiccare@clutx.clarkson.edu