When I first heard the song by Panic at the Disco, I thought the lyrics were "it's much better to face these kind of things with a sense of poisoned rationality". And because of that, I liked the song a lot. But I went to look up the lyrics, and realised that the actual words are actually "poise and rationality", and that changed my entire interpretation of the lyrics.
Oh, well imagine; as I'm pacing the pews in a church corridor,
and I can't help but to hear, no I can't help
but to hear an exchanging of words:
"What a beautiful wedding, what a beautiful wedding!"
says a bridesmaid to a waiter.
"Yes, but what a shame,
what a shame, the poor groom's bride is a whore."
I just realised I threw all my literature skills down the drain when I fiercely dotted the last dot on my last essay, which was also the last 'A' Level paper. So you'll have to forgive me if I don't use the appropriate technical terms to verbalise my analysis.
So the persona is in the midst of a wedding. He's probably a passerby, an inadvertent eavesdropper. He overhears the bridesmaid bitching to a waiter about the bride's apparent unsavoury history. She mightn't have been a literal whore; maybe she was a cheater - which could be backed up by a later scene in the music video where she makes out with a guest. Notice how it is the bridesmaid who does the tattling. Typically, bridesmaids are handpicked by the bride - they are typically the bride's most trusted friends. A great deal of hypocrisy is going on here, and the fact that the bridesmaid is condescending to gossip to a waiter is befitting of her self-degradation.
Well, I'd chime in with a "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the god damn door?!"
No, it's much better to face these kinds of things with a sense of poise and rationality.
Then the persona thinks of barging into a wedding which he isn't invited to, interrupting a conversation he wasn't a part of to chip in his two cents' worth. "Closing the god damn door" can be interpreted a few ways: he wishes that he didn't have to be privy to such outrageous betrayal and that they'd at least grant him the bliss of ignorance, or he wishes that the gossipers let sleeping dogs lie.
If the lyrics were "poisoned rationality", the first interpretation would make a lot more sense. He'd be a victim to this entire mess playing out in front of him, but since he can't help seeing what he is seeing, he'd have to make do with rationalising things "poisonously". He'd have to develop a warped mentality to give the moral green light to what he sees before him. He'd have to be jaded and cynical - which is exactly what poisoned rationality is all about.
But since the lyrics are "poise and rationality", the song is just your regular, humdrum, optimistic claptrap about letting bygones be bygones. And I can't be bothered with the song anymore. Ugh.
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2 comments:
In my opinion, the narrator is the bridegroom, and he's heard the bridesmaid and waiter's conversation of the woman he's about to marry. That's why he tells that to close the door, cos he's about to marry her but found out the truth about her cheating ways right before. If the door was closed, he wouldnt have heard the conversation and could go through the wedding with 'poise and rationality'. Now he's panicking cos he'll have to sit through the wedding with the knowledge that his future wife is a 'whore'.
Just my opinion :) Panic is my favourite band (although they just split up recently..) so this is kinda fun to discuss.
Haha I can discuss songs/books/movies all day long. Well, your interpretation wouldn't hold much water if you take the video into account. How can the groom be pacing the pews if the wedding is proceeding as he speaks? i.e. How can the observed be observing?
I didn't know they split... Unfortunately I don't have favourite bands/artistes. I tend to fall in love with specific songs and play them over and over again until the novelty wears off >.<
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