Musings

          Very few musical artists have the ability to go beyond mere music and take their listeners on a journey as they move through the album: Muse is one of those bands. The Resistance is one of my favorite albums of all time. I can't even give Muse's newest album a proper listening because I love The Resistance that much. Beginning with a booming anthem and ending with a delicate symphony, this album takes the listener on a journey of rebellion, hope, oppression, fear, and finally acceptance.

           My favorite part about this album is not just the brilliant music or lyrics, it's the fact that it tells a story. And I'm not saying that in a "this music makes me feel like it's the soundtrack to my life" kind of way. They literally tell a story.

            I'm sure others have realized this before me, however as far as I know no one has actually come out with a detailed list of how Muse told the story. I'm just crazy enough to be that person. The story I am referencing is none other than George Orwell's 1984. The book is also one of my favorites. It's one of the few books I have actually read more than once. I'm not sure why I love books of the utopia/dystopia persuasion so much, but they are undoubtedly my favorite.

            I've been wanting to write the comparison between this album and the book for a few years now. I guess I was waiting for one of my professors to give us an open-topic or comparison paper so I could whip it out then and sound absolutely brilliant and blow them away. Much to my dismay, the opportunity never came.

            Now I have a blog. A blog about nonsense. If there were ever a place for such a comparison I reckon a nonsense blog is as good a place as any. Maybe it'll go viral. Maybe the members of Muse will read it and think "FINALLY someone got all of those vague references in our lyrics!" and I'll be famous. Maybe.

Note: I am not going to get too terribly deep with the meanings of phrases or subtle hints that could maybe mean something- I'm simply pointing out the blatant references or similar themes to the book. It's obvious the album is about some sort of governmental revolt, but there are certain specific phrases that allude back to the book.

If you have never read 1984, you will be 100% confused if you don't read this first.

Let's begin.

Muse says: "The PR transmissions will resume, They'll try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down, And hope that we will never see the truth around."

1984 says: "She has without exception the most stupid, vulgar, empty mind that he had ever encountered. She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan, and there was no imbecility, absolutely none, that she was not capable of swallowing if the Party handed it to her."


Muse says:  "Is our secret safe tonight, And are we out of sight...Will they find our hiding place, Is this our last embrace"

1984 says:  "Now that they had a secure hiding place, almost a home, it did not even seem a hardship that they could only meet infrequently and for a couple of hours at a time."


Muse says:  "It could be wrong, Could be wrong, This is out of control. It could be wrong, could be wrong, It can never last."

1984 says:  "Both of them knew- in a way, it was never out of their minds- that what was happening could not last long."


Muse says:  "Kill the prayers for love and peace, You'll wake the thought police, We can't hide the truth inside"

1984 says:   "It occurred to Winston that for the first time in his life he was looking, with knowledge, at a member of the Thought Police."


Muse says:  "Love is our resistance, They'll keep us apart they won't stop breaking us down."

1984 says:  "The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love and justice. Ours is founded on hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy- everything...There will be no love except for love of Big Brother..."


Muse says:  "You and me fall in line, to be punished for unproven crimes."

1984 says:  "He became simply a mouth that uttered, a hand that signed whatever was demanded of him. His sole concern was to find out what they wanted him to confess, and then confess it quickly, before the bullying started anew."


Muse says:  "And these wars, they can't be won, Does anyone know or care how they begun? They just promise to go on and on and on..."

1984 says: "Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Since the beginning of your life, since the beginning of the Party, since the beginning of history, the war has continued without a break, always the same war."


Muse says: "There can be only one United States of Eurasia!"

1984 says: "I remember that until only a week before I was arrested, we were not at war with Eastasia at all. We were in alliance with them. The war was against Eurasia. That had lasted for four years. Before that..."


Muse says:  "Counterbalance this commotion, We're not droplets in the ocean, We're the ocean."

1984 says: "This, he thought with a sort of vague distaste- this was London, chief city of Airstrip One, itself the third most populous of the provinces in Oceania."


Muse says:  "A universe trapped inside a tear, It resonates the core, Creates unnatural laws, replaces love and happiness with fear."

1984 says: "Everything will be dead inside you. Never again will you be capable of love, or friendship, or joy of living, or laughter, or curiosity, or courage, or integrity. You will be hollow. We shall squeeze you empty, and then we shall fill you with ourselves."
and 
"No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred."


Muse says:  "Invisible to all, the mind becomes a wall."

1984 says: "He was standing in front of a wall of darkness, and on the other side of it was something unendurable, something too dreadful to be faced."


Muse says:  "All of history deleted with one stroke."

1984 says:  "This process of continuous alteration was applied not only to newspapers, but to books, periodicals, pamphlets, posters, leaflets, films, sound tracks, cartoons, photographs- to every kind of literature or documentation which might conceivably hold any political or ideological significance. Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date."


Muse says:  "Who are we, where are we, Who are we in here?"

1984 says:  "Was it not a sign that it was not the natural order of things, if one's heart sickened at the dirt and scarcity, the interminable winters, the stickiness of one's own socks, the lifts that never worked, the cold water, the gritty soap, the cigarettes that came to pieces, the food with its strange evil tastes? Why should one feel it to be intolerable unless one had some kind of ancestral memory that things had been different?"


Muse says:  "Breach through the outer sphere, the edge of all our fears..."

1984 says:  "We shall turn you into gas and pour you into the stratosphere. Nothing will remain of you: not a name on a register, not a memory in a living brain. You will be annihilated in the past as well as the future. You will have never existed."


Muse says:  "Just let us start it over again, And we'll be good this time we'll get it right."

1984 says:  "He was back at the Ministry of Love, with everything forgiven, his soul white as snow."




         And that's that. This post took me two afternoons to write. I basically re-read the entire book hunting for good quotes to back up the lyrics. I could have explained the similarities using my own words, but it felt more poignant to use Orwell's own words. This book is brilliant. So is the album. I suggest listening to the album while reading the book. The only way it could possibly get any better than that is to read the book while listening to the album while watching the movie. But I've never watched the movie so I cannot, with confidence, say that is a good idea. In my opinion Matt Bellamy of Muse has taken the emotions that one feels from reading a book and correctly translates them into music. He also wrote a symphony for this album. So...you know...he's pretty amazing.

         I will leave you with this. It's a good song.

I Dreamed A Dream

        Do you ever wake up from a dream because you were sure your life was in danger? You gilt yourself awake because that giant spider/man-eating clown/teddy bear was sure to end your life if you didn't get out of there? I experienced one of those dreams this morning. Around 7:45 I found myself startled and relieved that I was still alive and was not about to be discovered by the creature that was looking to kill me.
 
        Of course survival is a natural human instinct. While we sleep all of our senses except for our hearing turn off completely and what we hear even in our deepest sleep can alert us to danger. Except for ninjas. They use some weird tactics to remain completely silent. But if you are afraid a ninja is going to kill you in your sleep I think you should probably rethink you life decisions.

         Survival is hard wired into our brains. Our reactions in a life threatening situation don't come from logical thinking-- they come from our need to survive. Historically people have gone to extreme measures to ensure their own survival. From cutting off your own arm to surviving adrift in the ocean for three months, for years people have been doing whatever they can to continue living.

         I've had a few dreams in my day that involved me being chased by something or someone and having to run, having to get out of there immediately with no time to think. I remember stopping in a gas station market to pick up supplies and praying my pursuer didn't catch me before I had time to pay. But it's not often that I get to see what is chasing me. My dream last night ended with me hiding under three wardrobe racks full of clothes and watching the feet of something dressed in a rubber chicken suit slowly turn in my direction, getting closer and closer, until I knew if I didn't take action in that moment that it would catch me and I would be killed. Did I mention this rubber chicken creature was also covered in goop? And that where it lived, the place where I was trespassing, was also covered in goop? I do not know what was inside of the rubber chicken suit. I do not know if there is, in fact, such a thing as a rubber chicken suit. I also don't know why someone with three racks of clothes would choose to dress in a goopy rubber chicken suit. Only my brain knows.

         In a panic, I knew I had to react. I had a bag of coins in my hand. The tree people I had collected the coins with had done this before. They had escaped past the goopy chicken man without incident but I was not as experienced and it had found me. Terrified of what this thing would do to me, I reasoned that my best way of escaping was to burst forth from the wardrobe racks while simultaneously thrusting the racks upon the chicken man and running past him to the door.

        My heart rate quickened. I had to do it now. The feet were getting closer and I couldn't waste anymore time. I burst forth! The residual excitement had, in real life, quickened my heart rate and I woke up. That's the unfortunate part about dreaming. Our body requires deep breaths and a slower heart rate to stay asleep. The first rule in lucid dreaming is not to get too excited because your heart rate will rise and you'll wake up.

        I'll never really know if I had escaped the goopy chicken man. I like to think that he got tangled in a pile of cardigan sweaters and was incapacitated for many minutes not only allowing time for me to escape but also giving time for the others in my party to also exit safely from his goopy lair. Did he make chicken noises as he fought his way out from under a pants suit? I like to think so. It wouldn't be a good story if it didn't. Maybe I'll meet him in a dream again and I can have a Scooby Doo-like monster reveal to see who was behind the mask the entire time. I bet it's old man Jenkins. He's always up to something kooky.


If you're a beginner ninja and want some advise, look no further...





SIDE NOTE: Today I'm embarking on an adventure with 2,500 others wanting to start being awesome and living their dream. It's headed by the incredible Jon Acuff and I'm so excited to take this journey. I've known for years that I was going to write books. But over the next 24 days I will be hustling toward my dream with the support of thousands of other dreamers. Look for more blog posts and updates about my novel! (My short story is a novel now, deal with it.)

How I Feel About Pre-Independence Day Fireworks

I don't like fireworks. I especially don't like them when every hooligan within earshot of my house has been setting them off for the last three weeks. It's worse than when you start seeing Christmas trees in stores before Halloween. This is for anyone who is angry about their disrupted sleep, cowering animals, or PTSD uncle who is FREAKING OUT. 

Let's keep July 4th fireworks to July 4th, okay?