TKI stuffich

[katefans@world.std.com (Chris'n'Vickie of Kansas City)]

Vickie here. Jorn wants to know:

> js&cold gun: i find the imagery here confusing-- james the hero has left
> his old-west friends to be a gunfighter... and she calls that running away
> from reality???  assuming that it's only a metaphorical gun-- any theories
> on what the subtext might be?

Yeah, he wants to be an outlaw & gunfighter. Outlaws were very often seen
as "heros" because they robbed trains and banks, they hit the rich and
left poor people alone because the outlaws themselves generally came from
a poor background. I live in Jesse James country and people 'round here
are generally fascinated by the guy. I think it's a bit too obvious that
she could actually be talking about Jesse James but who knows? Who knows
what Westerns she saw as a kid? Anyway, the character can stick around
town and maybe get a job pitching hay or working with the blacksmith but
that's so boring when he can go out and make a name for himself as an
outlaw. I'd call that running away from reality. Of course, that brings
up another thought. Kate could have gotten a job at Woolworths but instead
she chose to "run away from reality" and become a musician. Thank God!

Ok, then again, it might not be about an outlaw at all. It very well
could be about a fellow who's gone off to join the Army. Maybe during
the Civil War? (Well, either way, the song sounds as if it's set in
America-did anyone wear buckskins in England?)

Ok, then again, she throws a loop in at the end. "Rat-a-tat-tat"? Sure
sounds like a machine gun to me. Buckskin & machine guns & brass beds!
Yikes! Let me try another one...

> l'amour: nobody ever heard of a goose moon? pebbles and boatmen?

uh....next...

> tki: what's this about lace and chintz? and zeus and mythology?

I thought this had been answered but if it hasn't, here's my 2 bits:
I've always figured this song is set in Victorian times. All girls
wore lace & chintz (well, maybe poor kids didn't, but this family
sounds fairly upscale). The family is close and the character and 
her brother would sit on their father's bobbing knee while he read
mythology to them. The girl and her brother slept in the same bed to
keep each other warm and a physical love developed as an extension
of the sibling love. To the siblings everything is perfectly natural.
It's only when the girl gets pregnant that she realizes that the
love they shared is considered taboo by society. She feels she must
commit suicide to save the family from scandal. As young girls do,
she cloaks everything in romantic, mythological concepts as she writes
the suicide note.
"I'll send your love to Zeus...oh by the time you read this I'll be
well in touch"

This is based on a story called "Lucy Wan" but I don't remember any
details about it. Seems like it was a Chinese folk tale or something.

Vickie (one of Vickie'n'Chris)
katefans@world.std.com