A Veritable Cure for the Vulnerable at Heart

For over thirty years, The Cure has been producing music that appeals to a broad audience of listeners: from the lovesick teenager to the soulful young person to the experienced adult, all can find a song by this English band that suits any particular emotion felt at any one moment. The Cure has a distinct sound that is all its own and very difficult, if not impossible to imitate well. The band employs a variety of special effects, unique instruments, and the soulful voice of its lead singer, Robert Smith, to achieve this distinction. Smith himself describes the band as “not categorizable” due to the wide variety of genres--and integration of such--covered by their music. Spin magazine has even stated that "The Cure have always been an either/or sort of band: either [. . .] Robert Smith is wallowing in gothic sadness or he's licking sticky-sweet cotton-candy pop off his lipstick-stained fingers.” However, the “gothic” label has long been associated with The Cure due to the more melancholy nature of many of their songs. This quality goes hand in hand with a recurrent theme present in much of the band’s work, early and contemporary: love. The Cure has influenced other bands such as My Chemical Romance and Interpol, which many would argue have a darker sound as well; however, there is more to music than that which is immediately apparent, as can be made clear by thinking about a song by The Cure for any length of time. The very complexity of the music, its content, its contributions to listeners, and the eccentricity of the band itself make The Cure, in my opinion, worthy of being distinguished as one of the most important bands of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

Some of the more well-known songs by The Cure, such as “Pictures of You” (featured in a printer commercial a few years ago) and “Friday I’m In Love” are deserving of this popularity in their own right, but some of their best work can be found in their more obscure, older recordings, such as “Close to Me” and “The Love Cats”. The latter of those two songs was released by The Cure in 1983 as a single and can today be found on several compilations, including greatest hits collections, released by the band. Its ever-effective lyrics follow; the original music video has been included in order to share its infectious melody with readers.
Ah
We move like cagey tigers
We couldn't get closer than this
The way we walk
The way we talk
The way we stalk
The way we kiss
We slip through the streets
While everyone sleeps
Getting bigger and sleeker
And wider and brighter
We bite and scratch and scream all night
Let's go and throw
All the songs we know...

Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats

We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully
Wonderfully pretty!
Oh you know that I'd do anything for you...
We should have each other to tea huh?
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up by the fire
And sleep for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream

Into the sea
You and me
All these years and no one heard
I'll show you in spring
It's a treacherous thing
We missed you hissed the lovecats

We're so wonderfully wonderfully wonderfully
Wonderfully pretty!
Oh you know that I'd do anything for you...
We should have each other to dinner huh?
We should have each other with cream
Then curl up in the fire
Get up for awhile
It's the grooviest thing
It's the perfect dream

Hand in hand
Is the only way to land
And always the right way round
Not broken in pieces
Like hated little meeces...
How could we miss
Someone as dumb as this?

I love you... let's go...
Oh... solid gone...
How could we miss
Someone as dumb as this?


“The Love Cats” employs a variety of special effects to replicate the sounds of cats meowing, gnashing their teeth, hissing, and clawing; such sounds set the tone for the song, the lyrics of which emphasize the similarities and closeness of a couple in love by comparing their actions to those of two prowling wild cats. The song has much replication of the word “we”, emphasizing the couple’s relationship. Deftly do the lyrics assimilate the couple’s actions with those of cats; described as biting, scratching, screaming, stalking, and moving like "cagey tigers", one does not immediately call to mind an image of two human beings behaving like felines, but rather a couple of people who are truly in sync with each other in every way imaginable as they “slip through the streets while everyone sleeps” together. The pairing of these terms with more human ones, such as walking, talking, and kissing completes the juxtaposition of humans and cats, telling listeners that they themselves become the cats in this song; Smith crooning about curling up by a fire, having each other to tea, and landing hand in hand further makes this point about animals and humans..the point being that it’s good to think of ourselves in more carefree, happy terms at times, especially when dealing with something as potentially complicated and overwhelming as love. The emphasis of the animalistic couple sorting out dumb ones reiterates the pair's unity in action and thought. After all, it is better to land with someone, together and whole, than to land apart and shattered.

As shown by the lyrics of “The Love Cats” and the ways in which the sounds of the song complement them, The Cure exhibits great skill in pairing its messages with its music. Their songs have even even been described by Tim Pope, a director who has worked with the band on many of its music videos, as “cinematic”, largely due to Smith’s personality itself and the way he conveys it to his songs. The message of the music, as previously stated, is often about love, in an either direct or indirect, implied manner. Robert Smith says that his main objective in producing music is simply to make songs that sound like The Cure, whatever that sound may be.

Personally, I feel that whatever the objective of The Cure in cutting a track, it succeeds very well. This is a band that does not bother to conform to society’s standards and, as a result, produces music that continues to be pertinent to the human condition long after it was recorded and released. While The Cure may be synonymous with Gothic rock to many, it tries to abandon those ideas by consistently mixing up its style while still retaining its own unique sound, even within the space of one studio album. The most recent release by The Cure, entitled 4:13 Dream, is a picture-perfect example of a melting pot of music with something in common throughout its thirteen tracks: the solid emotion and raw meanings that come from the music of The Cure.

If The Cure ever has one objective at least at the back of its members’ minds in putting forth new music, it must be to challenge societal expectations through the portrayal of raw emotion. As in “The Love Cats”, does it really ever hurt people to think of themselves as something so simple and even whimsical as animals in relation to complex human emotion? We oftentimes must break things down in order to see their true meaning. A reluctance to conform to expectations is not necessarily a bad or a dangerous thing; it makes people think, and it makes people question the things that they’ve long been told are right and acceptable. The Cure thinks outside of the box in a world that is all too apt to just take what comes in the box and run with it as best they can. The Cure gives something back to society when it gives us its music; it gives us the excuse to challenge ourselves and our feelings as we listen to them so eloquently and so purely set forth for us by this band. It is absolutely possible to find an emotional refuge in The Cure.

Hypnopaedia

We all too often forget ourselves in the past or even in the future, neglecting to realize what we have in the present moment. LIFE IS HERE AND NOW. Don't dwell on the things you've done. Don't worry about what's to come. Take what you've got and run with it. The pictures in this piece of visual hypnopaedia capture moments in time; you might miss them if you blink. The music talks about the importance of capturing such a moment in time so that you never forget what you had. There is no better time to make things happen than NOW. Don't let life pass you by. Don't hesitate now, you might have regrets about it in the future. But don't worry about that now. Just do it. Live in the present moment. Life is here and now.

My Ford, my mind...

For me, he’s all I see.
Not even an invitation to a feely will distract me.
I do not know what it’s like to have someone real like him--
And I desperately want to know, I do.
It’s all I think about.
This is probably a good time to take some soma
And relax. A gramme is always better than a damn!
And if I’ve ever had a damn, it can’t be worse than never having him.
Now I’ll know what to do.

The soma makes me act
And I go to him
And he comes to me
And he speaks of forever!
Forever! Together!
Do such things truly occur?
Never mind; all I want is the here and now
(After all, never put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today!)
And I’m here
And it’s now
And he’s here, and so now--

One hit from his hand and I’m down.

For all of his acting as though he does not want me,
All the others more than make up for it with their gazes and their dates.
But, really? It doesn’t matter nearly as much as when he looks at me.
I am just an object for pleasure in their eyes
(But he really sees ME! My Ford, what a thought)
I bounce back and forth between them.
I do enjoy this, I do!
All of them the very best of men.
It’s very respectable, having had more of them than I can count.
Yet something is always missing.
A gramme is always better than a damn,
But do I really deserve nothing better than this or that man?
I stay with one for some time and others begin to notice
And so I move on in search of the next best thing.

When I have found something real
In someone who is even more real
He runs from me.
My ways, they scare him.
But reality, I think it scares me, too. (Soma takes care of that.)
It’s not really my fault, it’s just a result of my conditioning.
I try to make myself available
In every way I know how
But I frighten him
If I don’t make it obvious that I love him,
How else can he see?

Will he take me back?
Will he, will he please?
I make a grand gesture and walk to him with open arms
And he brings me down again.

Since his promises of forever eventually fell...
maybe nothing is really forever, after all.
I mean, that’s what I always thought anyway.
Right?

-Lenina Crowne

Allusion Paragraph

In Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, the character Cass Mastern is representative of of the Greek legend Cassandra. Cassandra, who had the power to tell the future, is relative to Mastern as his journals serve as a startling message to his descendant Jack Burden. Mastern states that his single act of sin committed with Annabelle Trice upset the fabric of his entire world; because of it, his best friend died and the innocent slave, Phebe, was sold into an unknown future. Jack Burden feels that perhaps he did not finish his analysis of Mastern's journals "because he was afraid to understand for what might be understood there was a reproach to him." These journals serve as foresight to Burden's future as he witnessed the results of his actions in the deaths of Judge Irwin, Adam Stanton, and Willie Stark. Jack's relationship with Judge Irwin had once been fatherly, but changed when Jack uncovered the Judge's splotchy past under the orders of Willie Stark. Jack does not see Judge Irwin as a hero at all times, although the man had attempted to have a fatherly relationship with his biological son. The Greek character Telemachus is abandoned by his father and does not recognize him upon his reappearance; similarly, Jack is left behind by the Scholarly Attorney at a young age and later realizes that he must find the answer to the question, "Who is my father?" before he can answer it in regards to himself.

some slick stone (found poem)

the definitive stab of an icicle
dents the constituency, the very heart of its people
driven, needle-pointed, sent forth with a goal of hatred
it gestures like a delicate distraction--
flushing all again with a tint like blood

the human being is a very complicated contraption:
shining like clean bright gold,
treacherous like some slick stone
a person peeled skinless with the nerves laid bare
defines the narrow category of guilt versus innocence in this game

deep-set blue eyes, blazing like pale ice as he lies
are an untidy blue serge in the souls of the people
he pours upon them words like so much cold, cathartic rain
wiping them clean of all true conviction,
forming humanity into a great mass of uncreated clay

they stare, faces as smooth as marble--

and as emotionless as some slick stone.

Long Day's Journey Into Night Theme Card

QUOTES:
-“It’s the foghorn I hate. It won’t let you alone. It keeps reminding you, and warning you, and calling you back.” -Mary Tyrone, pg. 101
-“No, I know you can’t help thinking it’s a home.” -Mary Tyrone in reference to James and the Tao House, pg. 77
-“Oh, we all realize why you like him [Dr. Hardy], James! Because he’s cheap!” -Mary Tyrone, pg. 76
-”A stinking old miser. Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe I can’t help being, although all my life since I had anything I’ve thrown money over the bar to buy drinks for everyone in the house, or loaned money to sponges I knew would never pay it back--.” -James Tyrone, pg. 149
-”It would be like a curse she can’t escape if worry over Edmund--It was in her long sickness after bringing him into the world that she first--.” -James Tyrone, pg. 39
VEHICLES:
-paradox between James and Jamie in their father-son relationship, similarities
-symbolism of Tao House: representative of James’s cheapness, the tentativeness of the Tyrones’ home situation
-setting: is at root of many of Mary’s problems, family’s dysfunctions (temporary housing, darkness)
-allusion: Tyrone’s constant allusions to Shakespeare in relation to his sons shows that he thinks of them as failures and that he wishes they’d turned out differently; he thinks they are wasting their lives and becoming nothing.
CONFLICTS:
-James and Jamie constantly butt head because they are too much alike; James sees the negative aspects of his character in his son, and Jamie sees very little to live up to in his father.
-Mary is resentful towards James because falling in love with him is what kept her from achieving her dream of being either a nun or a concert pianist.
-Edmund is bitter towards James because his frugality made his mother sick and threatens to kill him if James won’t pay to send him to a good sanitorium.
SUBJECTS:
-vacillation
-blame
-regret
THEMES:
-The dysfunctions of a family as a result of inter-relational conflicts harms the members of that family and leads them down a path of uncertainty, regret, and blame.
-People who are unable to move out of the past due to regret will experience feelings of hopelessness and failure that will keep them from succeeding in life.
PLOT LINE SUMMARY:
The Tyrone family experiences much turmoil when its matriarch, Mary, becomes ill again; she is a morphine addict and has relapsed. A cycle of blame results: the family blames James, the patriarch, and his penny-pinching ways for sending Mary to a cheap sanitorium when her illness first surfaced after the birth of Edmund; the family members subconsciously blame Edmund for causing Mary’s illness, but refrain from truly allowing themselves to believe that because it is unfair; Jamie and Edmund blame their father for not setting a good example for them; and Mary blames James for keeping her from realizing her true potential in life.
TITLE SIGNIFICANCE:
The title embodies the fact that the entire story takes place over one day; the Tyrones’ hope fades into blackness as quickly as the day fades into night.
MAJOR CHARACTERS:
-James Tyrone
-Mary Tyrone
-Jamie Tyrone
-Edmund Tyrone

Long Day's Journey into Night: Setting & Paradox

In O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night, setting plays an integral role in the dynamics of the Tyrone family. James Tyrone is always too cheap to purchase a home for his family, so they travel from cheap hotel to cheap hotel, spending the summers in the Tao House. This constant sense of upheaval and temporary stays leaves Mary Tyrone feeling as if she never has a home. It creates yet another point of contention between her and James; his frugality has not only affected his family health-wise, but mentally as well. The darkness of the Tao House due to James’s constant extinguishing of the lights to save money is representative of the feelings of each member of the Tyrone family. They are depressed, trapped in a never-ending cycle of disappointment, and do not see any light at the end of the tunnel to provide them with hope. James has always been miserly, even when it comes to the health and well-being of his wife and children, and he always will be. Mary sees herself as a failure and feels that her time to change has passed her by. Jamie and Edmund do not have any example from their father to live up to and feel like failures even as young men. In these ways, the tentativeness and darkness of the Tyrone family’s housing situation are the root causes of much of their discontentment in life.

O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night contains a strong paradox between James Tyrone and his elder son, Jamie. As James’s son, and especially as his first son and namesake, Jamie feels the need to live up to his father and even exceed his success, yet he has very little to aspire to. James’s various failures and shortcomings give Jamie very little hope for his own future since he is so much like his father; it is this very similarity that causes so much disagreement and turmoil between the two. James sees his son following the same path as he did, and does not wish to see this replication of himself as it brings him shame and regret. These feelings of failure and hopelessness lead both men to see in the other what they do not want to be; even as that is their reality, they are not able to face it.