Re: Sexual pleasure? RUTH

[jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu (Jeffrey C. Burka)]

Angel asks:

>       Excuse me Mr. Andrew D. Simchik but I am curious to know how on earth
>you have arrived at the conclusion that Kate's lyrics to RUTH is about her
>wanting her male companion to experience female sexual pleasure? 

Actually, when I first  started listening to HoL, I interpreted RUTH in a 
similar way--that the narrator wanted to swap bodies so they could
both experience sex from the other's viewpoint.  I don't know when I started
thinking of it in a much more broad, platonic sense.

>According
>to Kate it's about the whole ball of wax, the complicated roles each of us
>have in a relationship.  RUTH is least of all about sexual pleasure.  Think
>about it.

Never, *ever* chastise someone for not knowing what KaTe or any other artist
says about their work and "how it should be interpreted.  If the artist
has to explain what they meant in order to avoid such confusion or
misinterpretation then the artist has done a poor job of conveying their
idea.  Admittedly, it *can* be difficult to interpret a work (whether
music, literature, or whatever) and come up with exactly what the author
intended.  One of the reasons for this is that you often have no way of
knowing exactly what the author intended.  And even if you do find out
what the artist's idea was, your different interpretation may still be just
as correct, based upon a subconscious subtext that the artist wasn't even
aware of writing.  And lastly, I think it's intellectual snobbery to 
question someone else's interpretation just because it doesn't agree with
yours or even with the author's.  That's the sort of thing I expect from
bad teachers...;-)

All that said, welcome to rec.music.gaffa!  After hearing about you and
Mike on Ecto for so long from Vickie, it's nice to see that y'all got
net.access.  But now that you've made it online, how long will it last
before you head off to Australia?

Jeff



-- 
|Jeffrey C. Burka                | "Show what you are / Be strong, be true  |
|                                |  Time for you to / Be who you are."      |
|jeffy@syrinx.umd.edu            |                         --Happy Rhodes   |