Yesterday, while listening to Sigur Rós' Með suð í eyrum spilum við endalaust, the meaning of the album finally hit me. This album, like its predecessor, explores the theme of childhood, childish innocence, and loss thereof, but also deals with the theme of a lost love, like in Ágætis Byrjun. I think Jónsi had a childhood friend who became his boyfriend, and their parents found out, and it was ruined. He seems to still long for that old love, and he tells his old beloved that he wishes his son would be wiser with his love (as can be seen in All Alright, which I presume is in English as a symbol of adulthood).
Then something else hit me: the fact that I use the phrase 'it hit me' instead of 'I suddenly realised'. It's such a violent phrase, you know. I recalled and old article I'd once skimmed through about 'non-violent communication', which pointed out the Israeli idiom 'not to know who's against who / who versus who', which means 'not to have a clue about what's happening around one'. The aggression in this idiom repulses me.
Then I came to think about how Israel could never produce something like Sigur Rós. The best music Israel has ever produced was tough and often political rock music―HaBiluyim and HaMkhashefot (led by 'Inbal Perlmutter, an outstanding musician on her own right). The best poetry of this country was written by Natan Altermann, in whose poetry thick threads of patriotic passion were interwoven. (This, of course, is not true for all cases―Rona Kénan, for instance, deals with desperation and lack of meaning in life.) The best music of England was that also rock music, but it was far less political than the Israeli one―as is the case with Pink Floyd's music, or English classical music (which I adore). Yet Icelandic music... I know of no political Icelandic songs, except Björk Guðmundsdóttir's childish Declare Independence. (I'm basing my own analysis on the originality and depth of the original work, as well as, well, their ability to move me.)
You know something? Oscar Wilde was right about what tranquility of one's environment can do to one's creativity. I really didn't see it before, but now I understand. And oh Kot, I don't want to raise my children in a place where the finest art is about aggression.
I don't like it here. I don't like it here at all. Take me away.
Unum diem...
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