Babooshka (was Re: embarassing videos)

[Christopher Tate <CXT105@psuvm.psu.edu>]

In article <m0kWCz5-00023sC@chinet.chi.il.us>, katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris
n Vickie) says:
>
>  That's (as near as we can tell) "The Sprit of Female Vengance". The video
>was the end result of weeks of touring European TV stations lip-syncing the
>song, dragging around what appears to be a bass bigger than she is. (Actually
>it's a cello, she's _really_ tiny!) The story deals with a repressed wife
>who suspects her husband of cheating, arranges a tryst with him in costume...

Put a great big IMHO in front of everything I'm about to say....

I don't think that "vengeance" fits the spirit of the song *at all*.  The
woman portrayed in the video, especially in the chain mail bikini [:-)],
fits your term "Spirit of Female Vengeance" very well.  But I don't believe
that this interpretation is appropriate for the song.

There is *no* vengeance in the song.  The woman is insecure, realizes
that her relationship with her husband is not what it used to be, and
sets up a "test" -- song quote: "She wanted to test her husband; she
knew exactly what to do.  A pseudonym to fool him -- she couldn't have
made a worse choice."  She starts sending him fake love letters, from
a "secret admirer," to which he responds very strongly (quote:  "...he
received them with a strange delight....").

However, he sees his secret admirer as "just like his wife, but how she
was before the tears ... how she was before the years flew by ... how
she was when she was beautiful."  He still loves the person that his
wife once was, but she has faded over the years.

She wants to take the charade further, and arranges a rendezvous between
the "secret admirer" (who is she herself) and her husband.  I see this
as the action of a hurt woman, who recognizes that she has become un-
attractive to her husband, and is driven to prove the fact to herself.
When he sees her, in her guise as the "secret admirer," he surrenders
himself to her (quote "He shouted out 'I'm all yours Babooshka....'").
This is final, crushing proof that focuses blame on herself for his
lack of love for her -- not "He doesn't love me anymore," which blames
him for changing, but "I'm not what he loves anymore," which points to
her as the one who has changed.

Now, before I get flamed:  it is entirely possible to interpret her
emotions as focused on him, blaming him for no longer loving her.  I
feel that her despair is focused inward, however, because the structure
of the song is similar to that of Greek tragedy -- the protagonist is
driven to find out the truth, which destroys him (or her, in this case).
The shattering glass sounds at the end symbolize the effect of the
terrible truth on her.

I do see the song as tragic, in the classical literary sense.  It is
one of my favorite songs.  It is *packed* with emotion.  And, to return
to my statement about the video (finally!), I think the "vengeance"
idea is inappropriate.

Now, what happens now is that we have to decide whether KaTe really
*meant* for it to be the "vengeance" image, in which case I mourn that
the author has missed what I feel to be the main strength of her work,
or whether that interpretation just needs to be tossed out and a new
one developed.

Personally, I see the warrior woman as representative of the Truth.  The
figure of KaTe with the cello is the narrator, not the wife.  Neither the
wife nor the husband are characters in the video, in fact.  The simple
costume and the cello of the narrator also suggest elements of the Greek
chorus -- a neutral, narrative element, combined with a musical element.

(Whew!  This is turning into quite a weighty analysis of the song and
the video, isn't it!  I certainly didn't intend it to be so long....!)

In this light, I think the video is better than it may appear to some
viewers at first.  I think of it as providing the "Greek chorus," and
letting the lyrics and our imaginations fill in the actual characters...

-------
Christopher Tate                   | "Begin at the beginning," the King said,
cxt105@psuvm.psu.edu               |  gravely, "and go on till you come to
 ..!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cxt105    |  the end: then stop."
cxt105@psuvm.bitnet                |      -- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland