i just watched the final episode to "six feet under" this weekend. it was a long time coming because i don't have cable now that i'm a grad student...which, in some ways sucks but in other ways kind of nice in that i've rid myself of an addiction (for now anyways...i'm sure it will come back). in any event, anyone who is into metaphor will appreciate this show's final scene...probably the best icongraphic framing sequence ever. what a great show, smart and way ahead of its time. my friend m was asking me the other day if i had any ideas on why the show only ran for five years. i had to think about it for a little bit but i have some ideas. this show more than any other disrupted our notions of narrative...it questioned the way in which we structure our-selves in culture...how we come to know ourselves and others. in this way the show was subversive. but i have observed that subversiveness can only last a certain amount of time before it becomes assimilated. this is where i am in 100% agreement with dick hebridge. we've seen it with the punk culture, the goth culture, and other counter cultures...its the work of ideology. i respect alan poul and alan ball for stopping the show before it became assimilated...before it stopped being subversive and just controversial...because those are two different things. this was one of the very, very few shows that resonated on an epistemological register and that can only go so far...the shelf life for subversion then is probably five years. i just hope something else comes along to continue the work.
here are the lyrics of the song that was playing at the end of the episode. the song is called "breathe me" by sia. it is as beautiful as it is haunting. ususally, and i think that i have said this before, contemporary music and artists don't touch me the way music used to touch me when i was younger...probably because i feel like i have heard it all before.... but this song touched me, it described me on many different levels that i cannot enunciate...it just is. Maybe it was this semester but my suspicions tell me that it probably runs much deeper than that...so here are the lyrics i wish i had the brains to link it to the music and image.
Breathe Me
by Sia
Help, I have done it again
I have been here many times before
I Hurt myself again today
And, the worst part is there's no-one else to blame
Be my friend
Hold me, wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
I'm needy
Warm me up
And breathe me
Ouch I have lost myself again
Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found,
Yeah I think that I might break
Lost myself again and I feel unsafe
Be my friend
Hold me, wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
I'm needy
Warm me up
And breathe me
Be my friend
Hold me, wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
I'm needy
Warm me up
And breathe me
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"You can never predict what will happen when the body moves from dimension to dimension--sometimes it merges sometimes it shatters sometimes it dons overdetermined eye make-up and mimics Liza Minnelli." Dodie Bellamy, _The Letters of Mina Harker_, 139
About Me
- commodifiedqueer
- i am a professor, i teach rhetoric and writing, exploring queer spaces, cultural studies, feminism, race, ethnicity, animal rights, afro cuban art, diasopora, african amercian women writers, middle passage, slave narrative but to be quite honest i am always in a constant space of grief, oh and i should be trying to publish something, whatevs
1 comment:
Your analysis of the narrative of SFU is interesting. And I think you're right about the disruption of how we view our selves, especially how we view dying, our bodies, etc.
And the song, well, what you can say... poetry.
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