Sonic Youth Gossip - j'accuse ted hughes

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j'accuse ted hughes

Something elusive and gorgeous about this music. Like a jagged sketch of a princess. What I mean to say is that its primitive in its depiction of elegance.
Anyone else dig to wax poetic about this shit?

I dnt have any awesome Plath-like words, but I do love the piece.

That's good enough for me baby

haha, thanks.

No but seriously, it is an amazing piece. I guess it's slightly rooted in Thurston and Lee's formative years spent with Branca. I've always closely associated SY with the study of the almighty drone. So I think this performance is incredible. Definitely one of my favorite SYR's... up there with SYR1, 2 and 8.

The Minotaur was a fabulous beast, half man half bull, which was fed with human flesh and kept in a labyrinth in King Minos of Crete’s cellar. Theseus, the son of the King of Athens, enters the labyrinth to kill the Minotaur and Ariadne, Minos’ daughter, gives Theseus a skein of string to help him find his way out of the labyrinth if he should manage to kill the Minotaur. He succeeds.

Hughes, as well as Plath, used mythology quite extensively in their poetry. In this poem, Hughes refers to Plath’s father as “The Minotaur”. He is the “horned, bellowing” beast that she is locked in combat with.

One of the aspects of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’s relationship was a mentor student relationship. Plath had an immense respect for Hughes’ intellect and valued his advice. They often worked together, sometimes sitting back to back and writing poetry. Hughes would give her a line or a topic to write about and they would then analyse and discuss her efforts. Hughes has written that her poems written before the Ariel poems were “thin and brittle, the lines cold”.

The first stanza of “The Minotaur” describes one of Sylvia Plath’s violent rages, and sets the violent and ultimately tragic tone of the entire poem. Hughes believes it is this release of physical energy that she needs for her poetry to be expressive of her inner or real self. He seems to be suggesting that he was responsible for showing her how to show her real self in her writing. It was at his insistence that,

“Deep in the cave of your ear

The goblin snapped his fingers.

What had I given him?”

The last two stanzas provide the tangible answer to that question. Hughes constructs an image of Plath’s descent into isolation, despair and eventual suicide by employing the metaphor of the descent into the Minotaur’s lair.

The Minotaur

The mahogany table-top you smashed
Had been the broad plank top
Of my mother's heirloom sideboard-
Mapped with the scars of my whole life.

That came under the hammer.
That high stool you swung that day
Demented by my being
Twenty minutes late for baby-minding.

'Marvellous!' I shouted, 'Go on,
Smash it into kindling.
That's the stuff you're keeping out of your poems!'
And later, considered and calmer,

'Get that shoulder under your stanzas
And we'll be away.' Deep in the cave of your ear
The goblin snapped his fingers.
So what had I given him?

The bloody end of the skein
That unravelled your marriage,
Left your children echoing
Like tunnels in a labyrinth.

Left your mother a dead-end,
Brought you to the horned, bellowing
Grave of your risen father
And your own corpse in it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by noisereductions

exactly
1,2,7 and 8 the first and the last 2 are my favourites too. 4 is great too, but nothing for everytime at the day.
unfortunately the third one with jim doesnt join that row, cause I dig jim, but its still good, I even like 5.

and to close this thing, 6 is really a nice theme, but it doesnt work as a record as it might have worked as a live thing

SYR 3 is my favorite one
SYR 7 is the only one I do not own (though I've heard it), because it's LP only...

you should buy a turntable. some good ones are really cheap ish.
I'm buying a new one for Christmas cuz the old one is knackered. It's nice to buy a cool LP once in a while. Nice and rewarding .
just sayin'

i'm always right young padawan

I don't know anything about this music that doesn't completely kick ass.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nefeli

i will listen to this again. i dont remember how polished it sounded in the album, but a more raw recording that was leaked in the net before the release, had been one of my favourate listenings of all times.
just for that, 6 is in my top 3. 4-6-3.

ps. i have no idea why i havent yet bought syr8.

damn everybody I like 8??? hahaha) likes 3...I really need to relistn I think...

SYR8 is a blast really. I listened to the leak of it, and just wanted it as a real copy as fast as it can get

Quote:

Originally Posted by greedrex

yeah but there's a few things that bother me with LPs

1) LPs are generally a lot more expansive than CDs...
2) Turntables are cheap, but if you want something good you have to pay a bit more... I know someone who bought a turntable and is really happy with it, but he always has to buy something to improve it (first the sound was always bugging, then the electric system had a problem, then the amp broke, etc) - and he's not the only one I know with turntable that suffer from the same problem... so if you want something cool you have to get the money out, and I don't have that much money myself :/
3) You can't scrobble vinyls :p:D

So for the moment, as I don't have a lot of money, I'd rather buy a CD than a turntable... I can sometimes buy 3 or 4 CDs for the same price as only one LP, so I'm still CDs all the way for the moment...

Quote:

Originally Posted by SYRFox

3) You can't scrobble vinyls :p:D

i beg to differ :D

Quote:

Originally Posted by SYRFox

yeah but there's a few things that bother me with LPs

1) LPs are generally a lot more expansive than CDs...

not in good physical shops.
On mailorders, i agree yes.

yep, in shops they are sometimes even cheaper here. so I go for vinyl for the cover art etc.
I buy both
I am always broke

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nefeli

you describe it very well.
i cant help but thinking that it is like a relaxed, controlled feeling of vague lust.
not necessarely sexual lust, maybe lust for the music.
its not the lyrics, i m thinking about the sounds while i type this, but kim has to do smth with this too, because she always managed to create such feelings when she sings like this.

Yeah, totally. A sort of dreamy, philosophical lust. Something mesmeric and undulating flashing across the fringes of articulation. Whatever the hell that means.