Mimeticism in Music -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 17:39:47 04/20/08 Sun
Author: JD Reed
Subject: Mimeticism in Music

I've recently been listening to a band called Thrice, and in 2 of their 4 elemental cd's I've found two songs that seems to really discern something that we see in mimetic theory.

The first song is called "The Messenger":

Mark me with fear and trembling; send someone else instead. I know my world is ending; I can't repay my debt. How can I carry such a heavy burden? How can I move when I am paralyzed? I see a fire behind a heavy curtain. I lean in closer and I close my eyes and kiss the coals; breathe in smoke, and I say, "HERE I AM, SEND ME." It lifts my soul; I'm free and so unafraid. Mark me with fire and send me among the living dead. They cannot comprehend me; I watch the sickness spread. How can they hear me when their hearts are hardened? How can they see me when they close their eyes? Still they can tell that I'm an easy target; a wooden saw is quite a way to die.

This reminds me of the Aztec myth of the "willing" sacrifice. The perspective here is obviously that of the victim, being sent to rid the community of the SICKNESS that is consuming them. I think it is intuiting the double transference of the victim: "mark me with fear and trembling; they cannot comprehend me" meaning that he is both the feared victim and perhaps now a divine figure past humanity. I think the end "still they can tell im an easy target" just continues to show the victim status of this person. Finally, I think it is funny that these lyrics are enclosed in a ring of fire in the cd booklet.

here's the second song, it's called "Child of Dust"(its God talking about Adam disobeying him):

Dear prodigal, you are my son and I supplied you not your spirit, but your shape. All Eden's wealth arrayed before your eyes; I fathomed not you wanted to escape. And though I only ever gave you love, like every child you've chosen to rebel. Uprooted flow'rs and filled the holes with blood; Ask not for whom they toll, the solemn bells. A child of dust, to mother now return; for every seed must die before it grows. And though above the world may toil and turn, no prying spades will find you here below. Now safe beneath their wisdom and their feet, here I will teach you truly how to sleep.

The parts that catch my attention here are "uprooted flowers and filled the holes with blood" and the "No prying spades will find you here below". It might be a bit of a stretch but I feel like they can be construed as the beginning of the image of the tomb that we see in the gospels. The filling of the holes with blood is planting the world with violence and death, which might not have been had Adam repented and not blamed Eve. The sleeping beneath the earth where no spades can find him is the veiling of the victim and his prosecution.

I think that through these two songs, the band Thrice is showing an inkling of discerning this scapegoat mechanism, its beginnings, and the reign it has over men.

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