----- Original Message -----
From: Mark or Travis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Megan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 10:09 PM
Subject: Re: Covert complicity;notches
> > Maybe you or someone out there could help me with " Petrified
> wood
> > process tall timber down to rock".
>
> I've never been really sure what she's getting at here, either, Megan.
> She refers to Anima as a 'vengeful little goddess' earlier in the song
> so maybe she's talking about a wooden or stone idol. I don't know,
> but I've always gotten the sense that the man is somehow saying that
> her independence & strength do nothing but emasculate him - they
> change his stature & strength into something broken down & useless -
> process tall timber down to rock.
>
> Just speculating here. Anyone else care to weigh in? I agree that
> this song is one of her most puzzling. To me this one reads more like
> a poem than almost any of her other lyrics. I wonder if she would
> 'smell a rat' if someone else had written it? ;-)
>
> Mark in Seattle
>
> Hi Mark,
I really like your interpretation of" petrified wood process tall
timber down to rock"--it makes the most sense of any explanation of this
line I've heard to date, probably having something to do with viewing this
from the male perspective. But "Anima rising" to me is not an idol, but
rather she is speaking about a woman's consciousness being raised ( another
definition of "anima" is "consciousness" or
"soul"). So when she says,
> Anima rising
>Uprising in me tonight
>She's a vengeful little goddess
>With an ancient crown to fight
I believe here she's referring to that when a woman is in a demeaning
relationship with a man who makes her feel subjugated and inferior, & then
slowly has her 'consciousness' raised, that woman then
becomes not only empowered by this knowledge,but can become 'vengeful'
towards the man who's subjugating her, knocking down her self-esteem,
causing her to 'fight' for her 'crown' (her independence).
This also has meaning because 'the goddess' has great significance in the
women's liberation movement
& has for many years. We have to keep in mind,too, that this song was
written in ' 75,
only a few short years after the movement's inception, when 'women's lib'
was still at a fever pitch, unlike the complacency that's overtaken it
nowadays.The whole song is filled with this sense of a woman being
empowered( perhaps even for the first time in a relationship). Yet, it is
also rife with sorrow and guilt,
and I believe she is appealing to the Madonna herself (as she also refers
to her at the end of the song) when she says,
> Queen of Queens
>Wash my guilt of Eden
>Wash and balance me
Women since the beginning of time have felt guilt over the 'original sin'
referring to the temptation of Eve
in the Garden of Eden); I can remember feeling shame myself as a child being
taught in Catholic school
that mankind lost Paradise through the fault of a woman(Eve).Women have
felt guilty for a long time over a variety of things in society, and the
need to be washed & cleansed of our sense of guilt is important to us all,
and helps us in starting over,or starting anew.
Thanks again, Mark for your interpretation of that line--for me, you
really nailed it( a tough thing to do-that's the most ambiguous line in the
whole song!) Now, if only I could figure out,
<In flames our prophet witches>
I'd really have it made!
Best wishes,
Megan :~)
NP: JM-Second Fret Sets Vol I- "Carnival in Kenora"
