All We Have Is Now - The Flaming Lips
Reactionary citation.
"As logic stands you couldn't meet a man who's from the future,
But logic broke. As he appeared, he spoke about the future.
We're not going to make it.
He explained how the end will come.
You and me were never meant to be part of the future."
This song was stolen from Track 2 of Distancing The Wind because I didn’t know quite how to interpret it on that mix. She told me that the tracks were chronological, but didn’t tell me the endpoints. I assume, but do not know, that this song was picked as a reaction to discussions of the "Mythology Paradox," or the problems with acknowledging a planned future relationship while you are in a different, present one. "You couldn't meet a man from the future".
It’s possible that her intended meaning was in the chorus "All we have is now. All we've ever had is now," which would make sense chronologically.
My intention with this track was to undo, completely, the work of the previous few months. If we imagine that I am both in the present and the future--that I am both the narrator of the song, and the man from the future he speaks of--then I accomplish two important tasks :
1. I counter the Mythology by saying and hearing "We're not going to make it".
2. I lock away my ability to consider the future from present time; the opening of the statement of the song, "As logic stands...." holds, subconsciously, and prohibits any more prophecy on my part. I decided that attempting prophecy was trouble, and that I would be better off not making either positive or negative predictions of the future. #1 exists only to counter the damage that had already been done, before #2 puts the whole prediction mess aside for good.
"As logic stands you couldn't meet a man who's from the future,
But logic broke. As he appeared, he spoke about the future.
We're not going to make it.
He explained how the end will come.
You and me were never meant to be part of the future."
This song was stolen from Track 2 of Distancing The Wind because I didn’t know quite how to interpret it on that mix. She told me that the tracks were chronological, but didn’t tell me the endpoints. I assume, but do not know, that this song was picked as a reaction to discussions of the "Mythology Paradox," or the problems with acknowledging a planned future relationship while you are in a different, present one. "You couldn't meet a man from the future".
It’s possible that her intended meaning was in the chorus "All we have is now. All we've ever had is now," which would make sense chronologically.
My intention with this track was to undo, completely, the work of the previous few months. If we imagine that I am both in the present and the future--that I am both the narrator of the song, and the man from the future he speaks of--then I accomplish two important tasks :
1. I counter the Mythology by saying and hearing "We're not going to make it".
2. I lock away my ability to consider the future from present time; the opening of the statement of the song, "As logic stands...." holds, subconsciously, and prohibits any more prophecy on my part. I decided that attempting prophecy was trouble, and that I would be better off not making either positive or negative predictions of the future. #1 exists only to counter the damage that had already been done, before #2 puts the whole prediction mess aside for good.
posted by Alan Orlanski at 12:00 AM
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