No one who has been to a four-year liberal arts university could possibly have failed to have come across an essay purporting to deconstruct some element of pop culture from an allegedly radical point of view, arguing earnestly and for a minimum of 1,800 words that, for instance, Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” was somehow a well-disguised Marxist subversion of the cultural hegemony imposed upon society by its corporate oppressors. All it takes is a really deep understanding of Focault to see it. In fact, the degree of overwrought rationalization and ill-advised intellectual shoehorning going on in such essays reaches a point of self-parody.
Such is the case with a specimen of this genre that this sociosexual “analysis” of the quite awful video “Friday” by some random white chick I’ve never heard of before. I was for quite some time utterly at a loss to determine whether the author is offering deadpan parody or is earnest when he looks at a late shot in the video and comes up with this:
An onanistic recursion, at once Siren and Cassandra, she heralds a new chapter in the Homeric tradition. … [¶] A phallic tree trunk behind her marks the completion of the anarcho-sexual odyssey, cock as axis mundi, Moses as Lolita. Then, to further highlight the doneness of the deed, she’s suddenly in a red-lit room, a private space, sustaining a single note at once suggestive of childish tantrums, orgasmic ecstasy and Taliban ululation.
Breathtaking, isn’t it? Not since the Cliffs Notes analysis of Mystikal have I seen such deadpan humor executed so well. It’s Onion-like in its verisimlitude.
“Mr. Likko, you clearly never really understood Derrida,” I can hear the semiotics professor declaiming now, “or you’d understand that indeed Ms. Black’s apparent vapidity is, in fact, a scathing critique of the very capitalistic society and profit structure which has sponsored her. Clever girl.” The truth is, I only ever encountered one such pretentious turtlenecked freak on faculty when I attended college. But I don’t think there’s a college anywhere that’s free from this sort of thing — and that is the real magic of deconstructing what must surely be the worst music video in years.
It’s kind of the same thing as people who insist that “Wonderful Tonight” is about spousal abuse, or that Faith No More’s “Epic” is actually about masturbation.
To some extent it seems like conspiracy theorism; like, “yeah, you think you know what it’s all about, but since I’m so smart I know what it’s really about!”
Or people who insist that Pictures of Lily is about masturbation. (Though this includes the guy who wrote it.)
When I was in school, taking literature classes, I came across such things. The professor would ask students to analyze poems and novels and present their papers in front of the class. The results would often be over-the-top.
Someone decided to read The Lord of The Rings and somehow in his analysis, Aragon’s sword had become a phallic symbol of some sort, and the rest of the ‘interpretations’ were even more-far-fetched. The problem with that of course, is that since the story is set in the days before fax machines and cruise missiles, the characters can’t shoot each other with guns; so they use swords. A sword is just a weapon the character uses, and a mountain is just a pile of rocks.
Human beings are hardwired for pattern recognition, and as a result, will tend to imagine patterns to make sense of randomness. This is compounded by the fact that when the professor is actually asking students to make a conscious effort to look for symbolism, the students will often just imagine symbols where there are none.
“I’m telling you, if you look close enough, you’ll see the Virgin’s face appear on this piece of toast.”
Or even a visage of Jesus, the Christ!
http://www.eyetricks.com/jesus.htm
This has to be a joke. I can’t live in a world where this was written sincerely. “Cock as axis mundi” is hilarious if it’s meant to be, and soul-crushing if it’s not.
It was Moses as Lolita that got me. A vision of Charlton Heston in a jersey and white knee socks flashed before my eyes …