Re: Where there's smoke, there's flaming.

["Stuart M. Castergine" <scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us>]

On Mon, 2 Oct 1995, p. Dale Campbell wrote:

> <\BEGIN OPINION>
> This passage is really saying something else.  The "nicotine" refers to
> the charred smoke from her mother's *body*; a very disturbing and
> effective image (affective, also!), I think.  I used to think that the
> narrator was an older person, but now I can see it being a newborn
> baby.
> 
> {By popular demand, "smoking" flames suppressed.}
> <\END OPINION>

Gee, in proper html, it would actually be

<OPINION>

You need to go even younger than that. The baby isn't newborn, it is 
*unborn* and rebelling at the idea of going out into the 
nuclear-war-ravaged world. I believe the nicotine reference is just that. 
The baby's mother (not Kate's mother) is alive and she smokes. But of 
much greater fear is the plutonium "in every lung". This song has strong 
elements of reincarnation. The baby has been around before and is 
speculating that there ain't gonna be another go-around.

I can't quote any references, but I believe Kate has explained this 
fairly clearly on at least one occasion. And in the video, she appears as 
a fetus still in the womb.

</OPINION><! :-)>

Stu

scasterg@dispatch.com == Stuart M. Castergine        |              ---
All young gentle dreams drowning                     | "Mmm, yes."   |/
In life's grief                                      |               |\
Can you hang on to me? --Kate Bush, _Big Stripey Lie_|