The meaning of "Gaffa"

[Doug Alan <nessus@mit.edu>]

> [Chris Williams:] To put it bluntly, the song makes little or no
> sense if you only consider Kate's explanation. The "well, that's
> what _Kate_ said" view doesn't count for much in my book, given the
> errors in the published lyrics in _The Complete Kate_. Discussion
> cheerfully encouraged.

I really don't have time (I am being worked to a frazzle at work and
at home) for endless bantering on ridiculous topics anymore, but
unfortunately I cannot let such an inane and incorrect comment go by
without commenting.  To say that "the song makes little or no sense if
you only consider Kate's explanation" means that you have missed the
very essence of the song.  The essence of the song has a lot to do
with the fact that people often get snagged in the processes they use
to achieve enlightenment.  A graduate student might get tangled in all
the requirements they must fulfill to get their degree.  A scholar
climbs intellectual hills, only to find taller hills on the other
side.  A Zen monk might never get past being hit on the head
repeatedly with a stick.  A guitarist may feel that the thickness and
slowness of his fingers are preventing the true music within him or
her from flowing out.

Kate desperately wants enlightenment in "Suspended in Gaffa" and the
road for her to enlightenment is through her music.  However, it often
seems that the process of making music gets in the way of the music.
She wants enlightenment, but has gotten snagged in gaffer's tape, one
of the very tools that is supposed to help her achieve enlightenment!

All this talk of the meanings of "gaffe" or words similar in Itallian
or abreviations of "God the Father" or whatever silly theory someone
is likely to come up with this week is doing a disservice to the song.
It muddies the true meaning of the song.  It is accusing Kate of using
a shotgun of meaning.  Kate is better than that.  Instead she used a
scalpel, a scalpel to cut a beautiful, sharp and crystaline structure
of meaning.  "Gaffa" denotes only gaffer's tape.  As a symbol, and
precisely because of its sharpness of meaning, it connotes much more
-- it connets the very struggle of life.

|>oug