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

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

On Tue, 3 Oct 1995, pDaleCampbell wrote:

> In article <Pine.3.89.9510031156.E9397-0100000@cd.cd.columbus.oh.us>,
> Stuart M. Castergine <scasterg@cd.columbus.oh.us> writes:
> 
> Yes, I've seen the video, but the two stories are not necessarily
> equivalent (and sometimes better if not, IMHO).  I *used* to
> picture the narrator as an adult woman in a fall-out shelter.
> 
> It sounds to me like the narrator is saying she is breathing.
> Wouldn't you agree?  If so, what does her character mean by that?
> Unborn children do not breathe.  Couldn't they be "the first and last"
> post-nuclear babies?
> And what does she mean by "breathing my mother in"?

I took the Breathing reference as poetic license. Babies don't breath, 
but they "respirate" -- take in fresh oxygen through the placenta. I took 
breathing as analogy for life.

the reason I think the baby is unborn is because of the lines

	Outside
	Gets inside
	Through her skin.
	I've been out before
	But this time it's much safer in.

The whole song is sung in first person, so her is unlikely to be the 
protagonist. The contaminants are getting in through the mother's skin -- 
skin isn't a sufficient barrier to stop radiation.

The second part of that verse, indicating that the baby has been out 
before, but this time finds it safer "in" I took as a reference to past 
lives and the fact that the baby resists being born this time.

	Last night in the sky,
	Such a bright light.
	My radar send me danger
	But my instincts tell me to keep

		Breathing,
		Breathing,
		Breathing my mother in,
		Breathing my beloved in,
		Breathing,
		Breathing her nicotine,
		Breathing,
		Breathing the fall-out in,
		Out in, out in, out in, out in.

It is known that babies can sense bright lights in the womb, so seeing 
the mention of the light is not proof that the person is born. 

In the Chorus, "breathing my mother in" I take as another referece to the 
mother being the baby's environment. The baby "breathes" through the 
mother's bloodstream which is contaminated with nicotine and radioactive 
particles. I read "beloved" s a synonym for Mother.

But I could be wrong. I can see other ways to interpret it. It could be 
that kate took images and perspectives that don't quite match and blended 
them.

If I get a chance, I'll hunt rund Cloudbusting and the Garden to see if 
she said anything about it herself.

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_|