Experiment IV

[Sumita Mikio <sumita@ptij.or.jp>]

On Tue, 30 Jul 1996 15:57:03 -0400,IEDSRI@aol.com writes,

>Certainly there is a lot of truth and wisdom in "Deeper Understanding",
>but it is not true that the song only shows the dangers involved with
>computers.  In fact the strangeness and brilliance of the lyrics can
>be traced to their presentation of two very different attitudes, each 
>of which can be seen as the "right" one, depending on how the 
>song is read.  Kate Bush herself in at least one interview went out
>of her way to deny that the song is meant to present a message of
>technophobia, a la Experiment IV.  She was very clear that the song
>is genuine in its good feeling for the computer and the promise of 
>an electronic surrogate for the increasingly dehumanized society of
>our time.  The irony presents itself as though unintentionally, which
>subtlety makes the message all the more poignant.

 Did Kate herself call "Experiment IV" a song of "technophobia"?
 I find there an ambivalent attitude toward technology.Certainly,
technology is great and the researchers' intention is good.
"Music made for pleasure/Music made to thrill/It was 
music we were making here all." But reality and consequence is tragic 
and cruel.In this sense, it is a song of politics rather than 
a song of technology. And what this bad political intention effective 
is the nature of technology that shares with politics(maybe with
art). It is "a function that …develops, tranforms, stocks and 
distributes the potentials of nature that sciences reveal"
(NAKAMURA Yujiro _What is the Clinical Knowledge_,p.75. 
My translation from Japanese). But we cannot reduce the problem 
to people's good/bad intention. Technology "develops, 
tranforms…the potentials of nature" and it intrudes into 
nature itself,the eco-system and becomes part of it. 
So technology  has possibilities to escape from our control 
and to release grotesque potentials of nature(Chemical or nuclear 
pollutions are realization of the potentials of nature,
metals, uranium, plutonium…,but without modern technology,
these never happened). Technology is neither good nor bad
(or at the same time both).It only has power to make nature good/bad.
 So,Alexander Fuchs(Wed, 31 Jul 96 09:39:33 GMT) writes,

>"Press execute" makes me 
>think of the consequences involved with pressing this button. There may be 
>bad/good things as a result - on the screen and indirectly also for the person 
>in front of the computer. 

 Kate's song evokes further thinkings. What is bad or what is good?
Good/bad for what/who? Kate sings,"It could feel falling in love/
It could feel so bad/But it could feel so good/It could sing you 
to sleep/But that dream is your enemy."  Listening to this part, 
it is a song of extasy/transcendence, a song of ambiguity 
of extasy/transcendence, like "Hounds of Love". Now I think of 
Paul Valery's "Young Parque". It is also a poem about 
ambiguity of extasy/pleasure. But Parque leaves extasy/pleasure (night) 
and goes to rationality(day). What is Kate's attitude 
toward these ambiguities of technology or of extasy/transcendence? 
Perhaps, Kate affirms this ambiguity and thnks of somekind of balance.
Or she thnks of somekind of a larger whole, where all goods and bads
are relativized and given proper position as a part of ever-circulating
flux,as in " The Mornig Fog". In "Experiment IV" melody and beats are 
so plain and cool,I think.It seems distance itself from lyrics to tell
think it ourselves. But this distance and wind that blows there
is so quiet and gentle like Buddha's smile.

 Sumita Mikio
  sumita@ptij.or.jp
  From hot and wet August Japan
  
  Merry Katemas