Author Topic: GOD IN THREE PERSONS (Project of the Week for 13th of February)  (Read 770 times)

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moleshow

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Re: PROJECT OF THE WEEK (13th of February): GOD IN THREE PERSONS
« on: February 16, 2017, 11:02:46 pm »
(part 1)

God in Three Persons. What a concept. What a project. What a wonderful, delicious, frightening, sad, lovely, horrific tale. I adore every second of it.


My primary experience of this album was one of confusion and slight repulsion. The end was so utterly jarring that I felt that to some extent, the album had attacked me. The violence of Kiss of Flesh followed by the gentle realization explained in the dreamy Pain and Pleasure made me want to avoid the album as a whole for a while - it was harsh and a difficult to wrap my head around. I was very genuinely confused by what I had experienced.

Needless to say, I went and listened to the Commercial Album a couple of times to cope with the confusion of the work. I can say that while I have not recovered from the confusion as a whole, I have learned to embrace the confusion as a fundamental part of the work and I have recognized how the overlapping themes of the work are what make it so, so good.

Song by Song

Main Titles (God in Three Persons)

Even the beginning of the album is entirely unafraid to tell us that it is going to be unlike any previous work from The Residents. From the sound of it, one could easily assume it was by another group entirely. Make no mistake - atypicality is set as the norm. Anything is possible.

The presence of credits being shown up front is sort of strange for a Residents album - we often go by not knowing who did what. The shift is wonderfully jarring.

Hard and Tenderly

This track sets us off on the winding trail of the album. Mr. X, our narrator encounters the twins for the first time. His first impression seems to be that the twins are not only deviant in fundamental nature, but also pure and knowing… more so than anyone around them. Mr. X sees them as equally aware and knowing to himself, and thus has the braveness to meet them.

The encounter brings out the first duality. The twins are a duality in his eyes, and this brings out a duality in him. This first duality is a gut reaction. He both longs to touch their holy union, but also believes that to approach them would be “insane”. The twins, all the while, seem to have seen this encounter coming from a mile away. They realize from the beginning that Mr. X is not above lying to them for his own sake, calling himself any name other than Ed. They know that he recognizes their hyper-awareness, but he cannot conceptualize to what extent this ability could put them above him in terms of the ability to recognize one’s surroundings. So they laugh.

They know, as far as they can tell, who and what he is.

Devotion?


And here is where the unsureness of his interactions with the twins arises for the first time. He has a conflict in perception, in mindset. Since the album is told looking back, he sees now what he may not have seen then. He was growing quite attached to the twins. He realized that, already, they had the upper hand over him (although it did not seem as if he wanted to recognize the weight of such a thing). The chorus sings at us, from an objective perspective. They watch and commentate, speaking the obvious. But yes, something is coming.

Mr. X is rendered vulnerable by the twins’ immediate distaste for his rejection of those he perceives as below him. So they enforce a feeling upon him. A feeling of being less than them. While they reconcile immediately after, they struck a blow upon him where he was most vulnerable. They show to him that they can reject him at any time. How dangerous.

The Thing About Them

Here, Mr. X confronts, in a very hesitant way, the unclear nature of the perceived duality of the twins. He simply cannot wrap his mind around who and what they are. He also begins to fixate upon and develop some strange, complicated feelings for who he perceives to be the “female” twin. The fatal mistake in his mindset relating to the twins becomes enforced very deeply in him. So early on, too. He refuses to accept that the twins are just as much two people as they are one. Inseparable. He has not yet become angry about this, but his disappointment is clear. He dreams about what the wants, and wonders why he, the powerful, strong Mr. X, cannot have what he most desires. He desires the part of the twins that he sees as easier to manipulate. The parts that won’t bite back. And he fixates upon some, if any, solution to his issue.


Their Early Years

We know very little about our narrator’s past at this point, but we must look to the twins. Who are they? Are they really as capable and mystical as we assume? How? Why?

Not all of these questions are answered in any complicated, satisfying way. They simply are. The way in which they were raised gives us a view into their mindset. They learned that people were surely made with no particular idea of “normal” embedded in them. If people were a certain way, nothing was to be done about that.

But when put into an environment where such comforting thoughts and beliefs were not held by everyone around them, the only people the twins had were each other. But we must question - are they truly two people?

They draw back from a world that hurts and rejects them, but they are forcibly called back to it when they can do something for others. They do not heal the dog simply to be seen as powerful or worth respecting. They do something because they can. They have the capability, and so they use it to help. And it changes how they are viewed. Mr. X is not this type of person.

Loss of Loved One

Now we can learn about Mr. X. We do not hear about his childhood, but we do hear about his isolation, and what caused him to attach so quickly to the twins.

Yes, he had lost his wife. He believed himself more capable than her sickness. Specifically, his love for her. He views the unfortunate event of her death as being partially due to the fact that she did not try to fight it. And in his despair, he takes from others… until he has no one left. He faces a situation that he cannot manipulate.

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This is the sad. Oh, it’s such a sad part.

Very, very sad.

But he sees salvation in the twins. They offer something to him, even if they are not aware that they ever directly did so. He sees an opportunity in them to escape his despair. Something will fill that void. And it will be the part of the twins that he longs for, even if they force him to realize things that he was simply too attached to see.

Quote
All her life she was a dancer, but no one ever played the song she knew.

Not even he could give his true love what she needed.

The Touch

We focus back on the desires of Mr. X, and his need to reach toward them. To hold and to control. He wants to have what they have kept away from him.

It is not hard to see how he is not particularly kind, no matter how much he loves the twins. Calling anyone a freak, especially a pair of freaks in this case, is simply not something one says with sweetness… even as a joke.

The twins remain playful, innocent. They speak words that imply a certain maturity that Mr. X doesn’t desire in them, jokingly warning him to act his age. But through carelessness, they allow him to touch the “holy union” that binds them. This was not in their plan, but Ed gets the upper hand because they let their guard down. This will not be the last time that this happens. They cannot predict the results of chaos meeting uncertain circumstance. This puts them at risk, more so than any other aspect of their cautious relationship with this manipulative, cruel man. (Although, he’s got that bangin’ jacket and hat combo. So those bits can be excused.)

The Service

Quote
He really loved them. He really cared.

He is not being intentionally manipulative towards the twins, but simply expressing his personality. He loves them, but only the parts that he wants, the parts that they show him out of kindness.

The exploitation of the holy, mystical powers of the twins is not as cruel as it could be. It is not done with the hatefulness of a freak show, but shares the twins’ kindness on a larger scale.

A ritual is explained to us. It is a performative affair, Mr. X playing a role that he believes extends beyond these healing events. He shows himself as a controller, manager, manipulator, holder of the twins. He takes great satisfaction in seeing his work come to fruition. Or, at least, work he perceives as his own. Displaying himself as a mysterious, powerful man, capable of handling the power of such strange individuals is something he takes pleasure in this.

He enjoys this a little too much, in my opinion. Chill out, ya creep.

Confused (by What I Felt Inside)

Now, he is not performing for people in need. He is confronting the confusion of his desire. The duality of his need for two that he sees as the source of this begins to manifest with a tangible presence.

The twins actively attempt to grab their power back. His reach for the “she-thing” (gross, Mr. X.) inevitably brings both of them. He cannot have one without the other. It is awkward, disorienting, and fundamentally an unsure event. There is no going back from here. Even though he tries to manipulate the situation, there is nothing to be done. He has shown an unkind facet of his desire to himself. Does he long for the twins as a whole? Does he have a choice? Where does his longing stem from? Is his infatuation a signal of a character flaw? (Probably.)

This is a point at which i can say, with certainty, that his inability to accept the twins as they are (a sort of singular being presenting as two, with many dualities contained within them) begins to gnaw on him. It chews its way out of him. It presents as confusion and shifts violently into rage. But not yet.

Fine Fat Flies

Desperately, he now attempts to shed all confusion by boldly knowing what he wants or pretending to do so. He recognizes, to some degree, that the pursuit of his desire would be, on some level, a death sentence. No matter how appealing the twins seemed to him, their complexity made it all so much more difficult. He moves on impulse, as not to get caught up in whether or not he knows anything in his situation at all. The twins decide to play a role, just as he has with them. The main difference lies in the fact that Mr. X is unable to see that they are presenting themselves as something they are not.

Quote
”Hold me tight and be my master.”

The game has truly begun. The “female” twin is toying with him, in a manner that is almost inhumane. The twins target him by conforming to what he wants. They devalue the power of their union, playing the role of two individuals, connected only physically. For this is the reality that Mr. X sees. They know their power is diminishing, since they are associating with, on a personal level, a man who seizes all that is not already seized. He grabs all that he can take, because he can take it. He worries not about who or what these actions could affect.

Psychological control is not the only method that they must use, though. Once their “master” (insert laugh track) becomes physical in his desperate grabs for power, they must take advantage of their tangible presences in the world. Finally, the “masculine” aspect of the twins acts out, having been aware of the unpleasant situation as it escalated. To choke him is fitting. But Mr. X seems kind of… well, turned on by this? Yuck, y’all. Yuck.

Anyways, he tries to end the encounter off with less hurt feelings. There are so many, though. Hurt feelings are unavoidable, especially if you believe you deserve to have everything you want.

Silver, Sharp, and Could Not Care

The fear of having his control taken away begins to blend in with the confusion about who and what the twins are. He has been denied something. That is no irrelevant act, to him. He believes he is entitled to all that is around him. He now sees the power of physical control. And to know power that he does not fully have control over is unpleasant. He wants to believe that what he wants is the best thing to want. To keep things the way he wants them to be, he must become violent in some way or another. The twins being aggressive in standing their ground is an enormous threat to him.

He realizes what he wants. He wants to separate the twins, to confine what he wants to one part, and that which he detests (and that which rejects him) to another. Even the thought of being able to get what he has wanted since the beginning is too tempting for him to resist. He knows what he wants, and he believes that what he wants is the best for everyone, since it is the best for him.

Quote
Lies can often give you power like a coffin filled with flowers gives life to the living, but not to the dead.

Kiss of Flesh

The chorus warns us that the story is reaching its peak.

It rises to the peak with a hesitant gentleness. Both in the structure of the lyrics, and in the music. Mr. X has created a room, strange in its description… and in its purpose. He shows his adoration for them with wild displays.

But he is here for his desire. He may say “we”, but to be in the same space does not mean to share a motivation or want to be in that shared space. The twins are mentally elevated so far above him that they can hardly ever be said to be in the same space.

Mr. X longs to claim his control. He does not believe that the twins could ever act out against him. No, never. Not again. He objectifies them with the mindset that they could do him no harm. The twins obey his commands… but as his satisfaction becomes greater, they strip him of it entirely. They can play this game no more

They mock him. They hurt him. He has been so foolish as to believe their lies. They have known more than him for the whole time.

Quote
Don’t you see there is no ‘she’ now?

The duality falls apart before his eyes. His control is stripped away from him. He is no longer their ally. They have become people before him, people above him. So he claims physical and sexual control. A disgusting act of splitting them physically and violating the wound. The lyrics overlap, becoming difficult to follow. (insert nut joke)

Even then, the twins toy with him. He ‘sees’ the “she” twin, but his doubt has become so strong that he doubts the reality of it. He still cannot hate the aspects that he desires, even if that desire is targeted at something that does not exist.

Pain and Pleasure

Finally, we reach Mr. X at a point in time after what has happened. He has realized that there was no control to be seized. The violent, sexual act did nothing to create his desired “trinity” of sorts, but incorporated him into a duality, and incorporated dualities into himself. He recognizes that his desire for control brought nothing to him.

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...then I guess I could be crooked, evil, bent, and twisted, looking down at the strings I tried to pull.”

He is at peace with his situation. His passion tore them apart, and it is impossible to deny that his satisfaction is in part due to his visible, lasting effect upon them.

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Everything that gives us pleasure also gives us pain to measure it by. And I also realize that all our lives, we love illusion - neatly caught between confusion and the need to know we are alive.

(such good lyrics, ugh) The twins are not mentally disconnected. Only one aspect of their connection is no longer present, and even that allows itself to be simulated. Their bond is made of leather. Is this about bondage or just a belt or something? I don’t know. The transition from flesh to leather is only done through an extraction of flesh, and subsequent treatment of it. It is still, to some extent, flesh. It cannot return to its previous state, though.

They are all changed by what they did to each other. But they hold no contempt over it. They simply accept it.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2017, 11:53:05 am by moleshow »
"All our lives we love illusion, neatly caught between confusion and the need to know we are alive."