BryeMye: Michael Robbins' "Lust for Life"
This is another take on this from my dear girlfriend, who quite clearly has a better grasp of current events than I do. I think parts of it are better.
I think Tiger Woods is more amusing in stanza two, but her’s probably makes more sense.
I read this poem in the New Yorker a while ago and very much enjoyed it.
Text:
The elephants ate each other then they dreamed
of eating elephants till their captors came
to feed them. Then they died. My meth lab
tends to explode. I move to a new one
like a hermit crab. I give…Thoughts on your interpretation from an amateur political scientist:
Brian, if we follow your idea:
1. I am taking credit for the elephant = GOP since I told that to you (though it is a really obvious reference).
2. Meth lab/gift of gab is a reference to Ted Haggard
3. Oils the beaver. C’mon do I need to direct you to urban dictionary?
MY IDEA:
1. Like you , I think the first stanza is about the Tea Party and “grassroots” movements in general which tend to be very active for a while and then die down (“then they died”). I interpret the rest of the first stanza to about activists or politicians who are always trying to drum up some sort of movement. When one dies or “explodes”, they try to stir up support for some similar but different movement. I also think it could be referencing Arlen Specter and his switch of political parties but who knows.
2. I take the second stanza to be an indictment of cable news. They use flashy graphics and dramatic music to captivate the average Joe. I think the “idiot Swedes” could refer to the beautiful but horribly stupid commentators that you often find on Fox News. It has been pretty well established that Fox has the best looking anchors (http://nextround.net/2009/04/15/the-11-hottest-fox-news-reporters/). It could also be possible that the Swedes is being used an example of a body politic. Sweden has a pretty interesting constitution (yeah, constitutional design is kind of my thing) and they have a history of popular movements. They are well known, at least in political circles, for an amazingly high level of involvement in politics by its citizens. I believe their voter turnout rate is above 80% and that is after a decline in the last decade or two.
3. I think the Britney Spears reference could be alluding to modern American society. We’re fake, superficial, artificial, stupid, etc. It’s also from Pink’s song Don’t Let Me Get Me (which I am slightly embarrassed to know). The title of the song has meaning to our current political situation. There is also a line in the song about being your own worst enemy - American citizens are trying to “bring down” the American government…
4. I’m not sure about the third stanza though it might have to do with charismatic politicians, especially since they tell you what you want to hear instead of the truth (“the truth makes me hurt”). The John Milton line is about the fight between religious ideas and democratic principles/liberalism/republicanism (not the political party but the government structure, opposed to monarchy).
5. The Mohican line could have to do with false promises (Hey, sign this treaty with us even they will not abide by it, kill your people, and steal your land!). Fruit Stripe gum, which had an animated donkey as its advertising mascot, is a reference to the Democratic Party. How do I know this? Dailykos. So even though the Democrats are in charge now, there is always a shifting from one party to the other. It could also refer to the promises that the Democrats made in 2008 but have been unable to deliver on or have made more moderate/weakened/”loses flavor.” The next two lines could either be about the Democrats or the Tea Party. I think the last line is amazing at pointing out all the irony of these groups and therefore will receive its own spot on my list.
6. Ok, so everyone is going to think of the postmen as being a government worker and doctors as an example of the privatized world but I think the point is that it is the opposite and no one has any idea what is going on in the real world yet they act like they do. So let’s begin with the history of the US Postal Service. The USPS is actually mentioned in the constitution (very few government agencies are mentioned in the constitution) yet people, especially conservatives and libertarians, often talk about privatizing the post office. Part of the irony of the Tea Party is that they often say we must read or look to the US Constitution while having no idea what is actually written in it. They base their case for privatization on enhanced efficiency and why do we need it competing with companies like FedEx, UPS, etc. but the US postal service is already pretty damn private. It is already an independent organization. This means they receive ZERO tax dollars! (They can borrow money from the government but that is completely different.) Meanwhile, doctors actually receive a lot more in tax dollars than people think. The federal government spends about 5-6% of GDP on Medicare and Medicaid (and this is more if you consider that most Medicaid spending is on the state level), while total health care spending is about 16% of GDP. This means that just less than 40% of all health care spending is government spending. So who is paying doctors’ salaries? Well 40% of it is the government.
Finally, you must agree with everything I have just laid out since I am your girlfriend and all.
(30 notes / )
