Saturday, October 30, 2004

I remember that yesterday I said that I refrained from posting a random piece of lyrics, but today I can't resist.

Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
And as I climb into an empty bed
Oh well. Enough said.
I know it's over - still I cling
I don't know where else I can go
Oh ... Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head
See, the sea wants to take me
The knife wants to slit me
Do you think you can help me?

Sad veiled bride, please be happy
Handsome groom, give her room
Loud, loutish lover, treat her kindly
(Though she needs you
More than she loves you)
And I know it's over - still I cling
I don't know where else I can go
Over and over and over and over
Over and over, la ...

I know it's over
And it never really began
But in my heart it was so real
And you even spoke to me, and said:
"If you're so funny
Then why are you on your own tonight?
And if you're so clever
Then why are you on your own tonight?
If you're so very entertaining
Then why are you on your own tonight?
If you're so very good-looking
Why do you sleep alone tonight?
I know...
Because tonight is just like any other night
That's why you're on your own tonight
With your triumphs and your charms
While they're in each other's arms..."


It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes strength to be gentle and kind
Over, over, over, over
It's so easy to laugh
It's so easy to hate
It takes guts to be gentle and kind
Over, over.

Love is Natural and Real
But not for you, my love
Not tonight, my love
Love is Natural and Real
But not for such as you and I, my love
Oh Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head.

-- The Smiths, "I Know It's Over"



Ouch. This has its moments (I originally wanted to say it was good, but I don't know anymore), even if I feel sort of embarassed after reading it. In that, it makes me feel all angsty and depressed and morbid, like an average teen, and I don't want to be an average teen no more.

9 comments:

Jenny said...

so many songs seem to relate to intellectual whores. it's quite annoying how females are portrayed like that so often :(

*annoyed* I dislike ladder theory so much.. *pause* oh dear, this has little to do with your post ^_^'

Jenny said...

*pout* I posted a comment here but it doesn't seem to show up. *toddles off muttering*

AKM said...

? Does that have anything to do with my post at all?

You dislike ladder theory eh? I never knew if the author was serious or not. I always thought it was a bit of a joke (albeit not a very funny one). There are many people who think that's exactly the way it is, and maybe they're right, who knows.

Jenny said...

? Does that have anything to do with my post at all?
yes. your post (well, the lyrics you posted) reminds me so much of ladder theory that I metaphorically fell off my chair. how one metaphorically falls off a chair is still a mystery to me, however.

You dislike ladder theory eh?
I dislike it with an intense passion. *growls at ladder theory* it's almost as bad as gamblers who say "I haven't won for a long time so I will win soon".. although in my opinion it's a little worse than that because feelings are worth more to me than money. the two examples aren't analogous though, I just mean that I find both ideas (ladder theory and the gambler's fallacy) very very stupid.

I never knew if the author was serious or not. I always thought it was a bit of a joke (albeit not a very funny one).
ditto. though I think the effect on others that the author has had 'makes him serious', whether or not he is so (*pause* hmm, does this make sense? ?.?)

There are many people who think that's exactly the way it is, and maybe they're right, who knows.
that's what pisses me of so much about ladder theory; it's called "ladder theory". (*sigh* at least it's not called "Name's Theorem")

[long and angry rant]

it's so easy to spot pseudo science most of the time, because people know (or know enough about) what engineering, biological, mathematical, chemical, etc journals are like to separate them from the ..well, sites that are not. it either is or it isn't eh? *pause* whatever. but:

for some _really annoying reason_ people seem perfectly fine with the idea that pseudo psychological articles are just as valid as real ones.. =__= *dies* urgh, this may be because they think psychologists are just people who sit around on couches and talk to their clients about how their mothers were abusive to them during their childhoods or whatever... *sob* anyone who does that for a living is very likely to have never learnt any psychology in their lifetime =__=

the theory doesn't tick me off _that_ much, but the fact that the author sounds so bright and witty and knowledgable does. has he even _attempted_ to prove his first lemma? (the one about quick mental ratings based on sex?)

urgh! he calls it a LEMMA! he uses something that is popularly known to be valid enough (the job interview stories about how the first few seconds are everything to a potential employee, etc) and sticks it together quietly with his own theory (your evaluations are based on your gender). whether or not the first part is valid or not (I haven't done any research on it, have you? if we did, would our research be dodgy or not? hmm..) doesn't affect the really annoying point that he doesn't back himself up at all. in fact, not only does he provide no evidence of research or references to previous research with significant (I don't say significant to mean "impressive", I say significant to mean "p(such an effect given not true) < 0.05") results about his claim, he JUSTIFIES his claim using something else that is highly doubtful. he uses the words "concious process". might as well introduce the words "mind", "talent", "fate", and other such impossible to unprove things. psychologists have taken so much trouble to avoid relying on things which are impossible to prove or disprove to base their theories on.. and this guy just makes a big fat mockery of them and everyone who thinks lowly of them.. =__=

and the fact that people are sucked into this fallacy because the author isn't typing "I think all girls in the world are bitches and my opinion is that everything comes down to a sexual level and no girls are attracted to me and I'm a nice guy so no girl is attracted to nice guys because we're whores of the mind"

he uses buzzwords/sentences that sound really intellectual. like: "I think that everyone has heard this or something like it enough times for us to accept it as axiomatic and move on"

argh! he presents a theory, doesn't back up the reasons for his claim/association, justifies, and then uses scientific jargon like axiomatic in a really painful way; to justify his theory again!

if I had said: "I have guess [X] about an area of physics. I won't back my hypothesis up with any evidence because it's a lemma which I have not (and no one has) proven. Here is a couple of pie charts drawn from ficticious data based on subjective contructs. Here is an example. This example is what always occurs, because you can't disprove it. I claim that this example is a form of evidence for my guess. Since things don't disprove my hypothesis, everything must obviously prove it to be true. (even though my hypothesis is a claim which is so vague and dodgy that no real acedemic has bothered to waste their time looking at it, perhaps I'm claiming that the law of conservation of momentum doesn't apply to people wearing pink hats, etc.. (though that can be disproven quite easily.. physicists are such lucky bastards to have such an easy area to work in)) So what I am claiming should be taken as an axiom. I've constructed a theory based on this hypothesis (which I _still_ haven't tested), here it is: blah blah blah"...

I wouldn't be taken seriously at all, in fact, I'd be dismissed as a complete moron, and had I been a spanish migrant to america during the 1910s I would have been castrated and sent to work in salt mines because of my very inferior level of intelligence.. *cough* I'm getting into another topic that annoys me now. back to ladder theory..

but what if my claim was about some field in psychology (intra and inter personal relationships between men and women, mate selection and attraction(attraction is more of a physiological area though).. *pause* bah, that's so overly specific, I guess I should use terms that everyone else uses like "psychology" *pout*)? I don't understand! why does the word/'concept' "psychology" make people accept the sort of rubbish ladder theory is 'proposing' by not dismissing it as invalid rubbish proposed by someone who has no basis for his claims?? perhaps it's the 'psycho' prefix ;) =__=

maybe it's not just that people's attitudes towards this field is so disgustingly irrational (or are they scared because psychologists question and research the fundamental ways in which we view our own personal worlds?), it might also be the psuedo scienceness. bah, people believe in astrology and craniology and scientology and lotteries too.

*pause* urgh, I give up. I've only complained about the first page of ladder theory and there's so much more to go. I'm not going to waste my breath/keyboard on such a stupid topic anymore, I've got practice exams to do and mark.

piffle. I really hate ladder theory. and I really really hate that some of my friends *cough* zhe *cough* have let it's ridiculous claims get to them and lessen the happiness they can experience in their lives.

*twirls away in grumpy mood*

AKM said...

Why do the lyrics remind you of ladder theory? Am I missing something, or is it a desperate plea of a grown man, calling out to his mother as he feels himself dying in the ways of life and love? I didn't see anything related to ladder-theory at all in the lyrics even on a re-read.. Do explain.

I'll respond to the rest of the rant a bit later.

Jenny said...

Why do the lyrics remind you of ladder theory?

the song didn't remind me of the theory, but it reminded me of the writer, if that makes sense. prolly doesn't. I make no sense.. *is nonsensical*

Am I missing something, or is it a desperate plea of a grown man, calling out to his mother as he feels himself dying in the ways of life and love?

seems to me ladder theory is a desperate plea of a large boy calling out to cause other boys to feel as bad as he does because he thinks he's dying in the ways of life and love. or something like that. I was probably insane when I was typing that, sorry for spamming your blog ^^'

xiaodai said...

Gender, must we differentiate between them? Can't we just integrate the two using Lebesgue's theory?

AKM said...

"seems to me ladder theory is a desperate plea of a large boy calling out to cause other boys to feel as bad as he does because he thinks he's dying in the ways of life and love"

But the song lyricist isn't at all insinuating anything about women being intellectual strumpets and the like, so I don't see how there's anything more than a surface-level connection between the two. This guy is talking about being buried alive, while the ladder theory guy is spewing on about how he thinks a woman's mind works. I don't see the connection.

Jenny said...

This guy is talking about being buried alive, while the ladder theory guy is spewing on about how he thinks a woman's mind works. I don't see the connection.

I interpreted the being buried alive (plus the comments about it being hard to be gentle and kind over and over etc) as an indication that the speaker in the song felt like doors were being closed to him/her 'unfairly' (e.g. life taken away before he/she dies), almost as if they felt like an intellectual whore.

maybe that website just really pisses me off and stays on my mind too much. *pause* ok, that's it, I've referred to the concept 'mind' probably more than 10 times in one week, and I haven't even worked out whether I believe I have a 'mind' or not. >____< my brain hurts. well actually it's got more of a fuzzy tired feeling, but that could just be my period.

*goes away muttering*