RE: The Ninth Wave

["Forward, Jonathan" <JForward@SITGBSD1.TELECOM.com.au>]

Date: Tuesday, 16 August 1994 11:34AM
Henry B. Messenger wrote:

]By-Tor Blackwing writes:
]
]> About that wonderful interpretation of _The Ninth Wave_...I always
]> thought that it was an *ice-skating* accident, not a sailing
]> accident...or do you mean 'inspired' not 'direct-transcription-of-fact'?
]
]I've always taken "Under Ice" to be a metaphor.
]
]That's where the story gets into the personal Joseph Campbell-style quest
]of the sailor lost at sea.
]
]> I'd better go read the lyrics again.
]
]Yes, but also listen: you can hear the rescue helicopter, for one thing.
]Helicopter crews rescued most of the Fastnet racers (in force 10 gale
]conditions, no less).

 I think you'll find Under Ice refers to a dream in which the unfortunate
 person imagines him/herself skating over ice, then looking through the
 ice and seeing him/herself.  Seeing oneself was taken to be a sign of
 imminent death.  One of the Pre-Raphaelites painted something along these
 lines (can't remember which artist), showing a couple walking in the woods
 and being terrified at meeting themselves.

J>>>o>>>n>>>a>>>t>>>h>>>a>>>n>>>>>>F>>>o>>>r>>>w>>>a>>>r>>>d>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Of all the clever people round me here I most delight in me -
 Mine is the only voice I hear, And mine the only face I see." - Roy 
Campbell

"You never understood me. You never really tried." - Kate Bush
A<<<d<<<e<<<l<<<a<<<i<<<d<<<e<<<<<<A<<<u<<<s<<<t<<<r<<<a<<<l<<<i<<<a<<<<<<<<<