Radio Week - Let's try this again...

Hello everyone! I'm back and ready to go. The fever is gone and only the last vestiges of a sounds-worse-than-it-is cough remain.

As you all know, Radio Week became truncated last week when I became a quivering mess of sickly lit major, completely incapable of processing anything more intelligent than Calvin and Hobbes comics. And even those tested me.

Whatever. Now, I am fully recovered and Radio Week will resume. And since we're starting it over this week, you'll get a couple bonus songs. Here's the problem...I don't have enough requests.

Well...that's a lie. I have plenty of requests. When I checked through the lyrics, however, I discovered that too many of them, while being good songs, are not good analysis material. They are a bit too literal. I plan on doing one of Grandma Jill's requests (I'm trying to save it for Friday) and possibly one of Moon's...but otherwise I'm a little strapped for what to do. PLEASE send more requests.

In order to pad out the week, today's analysis is the song that inspired Radio Week. Cutting Crew's "(I Just) Died in Your Arms"



Just a quickie analysis today. I have some errands I have to run this morning.

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must have been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight

This is the reason I picked the song. Most people don't really get that this song is NOT about death. Death is actually a pretty classic euphemism for "orgasm" and is used in poetry a lot. In French les petits-morts or "little deaths" is a term frequently used to mean orgasms. When Cutting Crew is singing that they "died" in your arms, they're talking about having sex.

I keep looking for something I can't get
Broken hearts lie all around me
And I don't see an easy way to get out of this
Her diary it sits on the bedside table
The curtains are closed, the cats in the cradle
Who would've thought that a boy like me could come to this

Pretty simple here. The first three lines are pretty literal. The diary brings in a second character..."her". The diary implies "her" secrets have been revealed to the speaker and are likely the source of his unease. The closed curtains imply secrecy, and the further connotation is shame. "The cats in the cradle" calls up the children's game cat's cradle in which you make patterns out of string by tangling it with your fingers. The tangled imagery implies complications.

Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must've been something you said
I just died in your arms tonight
Oh I, I just died in your arms tonight
It must've been some kind of kiss
I should've walked away, I should've walked away

Once again, the sexual imagery, combined with the assertion "I should've walked away". Obviously, the sex was a bad idea...a cause of the complications.

Is there any just cause for feeling like this?
On the surface I'm a name on a list
I try to be discreet, but then blow it again
I've lost and found, it's my final mistake
She's loving by proxy, no give and all take
'cos I've been thrilled to fantasy one too many times

"Name on a list" implies that it was supposed to be a simple physical relationship. "On the surface" implies that it isn't. The loving by proxy line shows that she's faking something...no give and all take tells us that it's she's hiding her emotions while dragging his out. His being thrilled to fantasy is exactly as sexual as it sounds.

It was a long hot night
She made it easy, she made it feel right
But now it's over the moment has gone
I followed my hands not my head, I knew I was wrong

Translation - During sex it feels so good that I don't worry about the issues, when it's over I remember them. I let my libido get me in this situation.

Overall analysis: I'm having sex with this girl. It's very good. It makes me forget that it's a bad idea, and that she has deeper feelings than she lets on. This is the classic 80's subtle precursor to Britney Spears's "Oops I did it again."

So there you are. A quick and dirty analysis. (No pun intended) I will be back tomorrow with another. PLEASE put any radio requests (Please keep to songs whose lyrics are difficult to grasp the meaning of) in the comments below or on the Rabid Lit Major Facebook page.

Until tomorrow!

You've Been Bit

...by a rabid Literature Major. Symptoms include seeing sexual metaphors everywhere, regular metaphors almost everywhere, and generally over-thinking everything you see.

Ok...so I assume you'd like to know what this blog is about.

As I enter my final year of Liberal Arts College ™ and become ever closer to obtaining my English Literature and Psychology degrees, I realize how much my perspective has been totally, completely, and irreversibly skewed. Forever.

First of all, when you go to a Liberal Arts College ™ you quickly begin to let every field of study bleed into every other field of study. And once that leak has been established, the floodgates open. Suddenly, everywhere you look you see the things you've been learning about. I find that this makes it impossible to interact normally with others.

SCENE - movie theatre, patrons come streaming out chattering happily, finishing off too-large sodas and trailing popcorn in their wake

Friend - "Wow, that was a really good movie!"
Me - "Totally, didn't you just love that dreary ending?"
Friend - "Dreary ending?"
Me - "Yeah! It's refreshing to see a non-hollywood ending. Happily ever after is nice, but having the character die in the end…You're looking at me funny."
Friend - "He didn't die in the end. What are you talking about?"
Me - "You didn't get the way ____ stood as a figurative representation of death?"
Friend - "…"
Me - "Never mind."

END SCENE

SCENE - a car barreling down the highway. Top 40 radio is on.

*California Girls they're unbelievable! Daisy dukes, bikinis on top!*
Me - Ugh. Can't we listen to something else?
Friend - Hush. I like this song.
Me - It's gonna be stuck in my head all day. And I hate this line. (sings along) Sun-drenched skin so hot we'll melt your popsicle!
Friend - Why? What's wrong with that line?
Me - Doesn't it sound like she's saying it will cause his erection to flag?
Friend - ...
Me - Never mind.

END SCENE

And so on and so forth.

If you often hear a "…" in response to your insights…or if you are the one delivering the aforementioned elipses…this may be the blog for you. I intend to share my viewpoint - because isn't that the point of this generation? Blog your opinions, hoping that you're either insightful or entertaining enough that people will flock to see what you have to say next? Me. Me. Me. Each week, I hope to offer you an in-depth, literary analysis. However, I'm not going to be analyzing Gothic poetry or "The Scarlet Letter" or even the works of the Bard. I'm going to be analyzing pop culture. Film, music, popular fiction…even every day interactions with people. Some days I will simply rant. Others, I may offer an in-depth review of a recent film or show. Want to know how the liberal arts mind works? In a world that places an increasing emphasis on college education you are (unfortunately) going to need to. Welcome.