The Annotated Ten Stories

The Annotated ‘Ten Stories’
The Annotated
‘Ten Stories’
an exploration of the religious, philosophical, historical, and literary references
in the lyrics of Aaron Weiss on the album ‘Ten Stories’ by mewithoutYou
by David Daugherty
author’s note: This is a work composed of pre-existing material sourced from the internet. While some editing and
commentary has been added by my hand, no portion of this work should be considered an original, least of all the lyrics. I
have done my best to cite sources, and am making this available as a service to fans of mewithoutYou. I have made no profit
and intend no harm to any party. Please enjoy this pamphlet. - Dave 
1
1. February 1878
February 8th, 1878

South of Trout Creek, west of Cedar Lake [1]
On a winding mountain trail of the North Pacific Union Rail [2]
The snow arrived on time, the circus train was running late
Rip spot’s [3] past and all the knuckles [4] worn,
Firebox [5] bursting to the running boards [6]
A pounding in his chest, crushing like a cider press [7]
The hogger [8] rode the throttle ‘round the bender like a flank-strapped horse
As Elephant addressed the frightened animal car:

"Let’s return now to the dust as the dust we are [9];
tonight, our bridal fate, the hour’s come to consummate [10]!”
And drove her massive body like a truck into the iron bars
Limestone thrown from out the hopper’s [11] back
Ash Cat [12] tossed against the diamond stack [13]
from cradle to caboose, the frozen bolts broke loose,
sent that cage spinning like a dreidel [14] off the icy tracks.
Run on, Rabbit, run!

Before the East sky wakes the sun!
Sails set to the dreadful cold,
Until your anchor-heart [15] [16] takes hold
Run on, Fox & Bear,
From this dismal dream’s despair!
Cast thoughts to the open ocean of air
Until your thread catch somewhere [17]
[ANIMALS:] "Mother, please come along!"

[ELEPHANT (from inside her cage):]
"My tusks are dull, my eyes, half-blind,
too old to run, too big to hide,
and have neither friend nor enemy,
nor that phantom, ‘self’-identity [18]
nor concern for what ‘they’ll’ do to ‘me’
now, my children, run free!"
But Tiger, why sit still [19],

As the officers climb the hill?
What stars cast down their spears,
cooled your fire with their tears? [20]
[TIGER:] "Gone that siren’s sound [21],

it’s a silence now pours down
Gone, my next of kin,
and all once without now lives within"
[FOX & RABBIT:] “Topiary [22] Tiger, once burned bright

save your tales of gnostic sight [23]
and take heed on this (most) auspicious night!
Topiary Tiger, once burned bright!”
2
2. Grist For The Malady Mill

Rabbit fled, best guess, toward home
Fox & Bear toward Yellowstone [1]
Walrus, north to the border towns [2]
Peacock swayed like a reed on the fence a while
(with a stalwart sense of style!)
as the policemen’s nets came down
Word of the crash had spread fast and spread far
From Clark’s Fork to Blackfoot Reservoir [3]
more grist for the malady mill [4]
Shepherd the Southwest wind,

"Railspikes [5] ripped like the seam of a wineskin!”
Shepherd the Northwest rain,
"Brass Hat [6] slept at the helm of that woeful train…
Ain’t it an awful shame!
And don’t it just break your heart to hear of so much pain?"
Casey Jones [7] walked slow to the prison cell

His face held hard as a scallop shell
[CONDUCTOR:] "Well, I wish I wished you well,

but your last friend on Earth now calls
from the silent side of the cemetery walls
your great cause to the moths and the rust [8]!”
[ELEPHANT (Fanning her ears with a calm in her eyes):]
"It’s the laws of cause and effect that you criticize [9]
But sir, criticize them you must"
Three miles more ‘til Flagstaff [10]

Follow behind signs toward Badger Pass [11]
Wound like clocks around fretboards [12]
Carved our hands in our basswood body guitars [13] -
borrowed guitars (borrowed hands!)
I’m clearly not as handsome or caring as what you seem to want [14],
but I’d gladly walk you home,
‘cause those streets can be dangerous
Shepherd the Southwest wind,

"Railspikes ripped like the seam of a wineskin!”
Shepherd the Northwest rain,
"Frog switch slipped [15] and that reckless beast [16] is to blame!
Ain’t it an awful shame!
And don’t it just break your heart to hear of so much pain?"
3
3. East Enders Wives
We met by chance along the Roe River side. [1]

Our salt fires [2] danced as our tea leaves [3] dried.
She hatched our plans in the atmospheric tides. [4]
Fortune Teller: “Let's give up 'sacrifice' next Lent [5].”

Rabbit: “Eh, that joke's long since been spent!"
But as the Fool on the bagpipes played [6],

we kept cool in the parasol [7] shade-
your thumb on my page at my tender age,
East Enders’ wives. [8]
Then hidden in the boxthorn vines, [9]

we grew old as the foxtail pine, [10]
sheep in the fold [11], gilding our gold, [12]
sipping our milk and water lives. [13]
She packed our bags some arbitrary time.

(By the time he wakes up I'll be gone.)
Then waved like a flag from the White Star Line. [14]
(Queensland [15] our next stop, he'll be gone.)
Unmoored, unwell, though I seldom elegize. [16]
(You still see who I once was.)
We've both been untrue but I'm still counting on you like an invisible rosary. [17]
And as the past and all plans are undone,
slowly sank like the shipwrecked sun.
Bridges and boats, burning them both,
burned up the sky. [18]
Choir sang as the Black Birch [19] fell,

sorrow rang like a church yard bell.
F. Teller: “An axe to the trees, smoke for the bees- [20]
all our dads die.” [21]
4
4. Cardiff Giant
Peacock:
Ragged Robins for the curtain call,
wrapped in ribbons on the trailer door [1].
Carved initials in a concrete footstall,
on the imitation marble floor [2].
We’re the boxtop admissions [3] and their throwaways [4],
Strewn across tobacco roads [5].
With their wormwood shots [6] and their snake oil plots [7],
drunk sheepshank con-men [8] and their sycophants [9].
And I often wonder if I've already died! [10]
Tiger:
Out at elbows by the encore [11],
but there’s a citadel inside [12]
where I’ll go and shape my heart like yours,
As you shape yours like mine [13].
Where we’re the spiraling arms of all galaxies
And we’re the microscopic sand [14].
Suffering from delusions of un-grandeur [15] on middling display
beside the Cardiff Giant [16] with the alabaster eyes.
I often wonder if I've already died,

or if the 'I' is an unintelligible lie [17]!
Off we flew like swarms of hornets,

'woken up' from winter’s rest,
To colonize with plastic pulp
our neighbor’s perfect paper nest [18].
While all year round, Potter Wasp [19]
has buzzed her unhinged song:
You can hear its creaking in our floorboards:
“Megalomania’s only mania if you’re wrong! [20]”
5
5. Elephant In The Dock [1]
Pillory [2] and stocks at the gallows tree dock

the crowd grew impatient, the clouds threatened rain
Elephant arrived at the Constable's side,
with her trunk locked in shackles, and her ankles in chains
[Bailiff:]
"All rise, all rise, his Honor presides!”
The Judge took the bench to the village brass cavalcade [3],
Elephant refused to swear the oath.
[Elephant:]
"I don't know anything about truth,
but I know falsehood when I see it,
and it looks like this whole world you've made. [4]
Good of our chaplain to sail Kalispell Bay
And now down on his marrow for this old fool to pray [5],
"Lord, for sixty-so years I've surrendered my love,
to emblems of kindness, and not the kindness they were emblems of [6],
Trammels and rings, with the strength of old strings [7],
and some hobble skirt spring [8], by the old problem [9] caught,
Children, sometimes I think all our thoughts are just things,
and then sometimes think things are just thoughts [10],”
and the rabble rang:
[Crowd:]
“Hang the elephant! The elephant must hang! [11]”
[Elephant:]
"A thirteen coil knot [12] for the samovar pot [13]!
Scottish Oatcakes in haversacks [14] each to its grave [15],
This mock trial [16] can no more determine my lot,
than can driftwood determine the ocean's waves,
Brandish your ropes and your boards, and your basket-hilt swords [17],
but what is there can punish like a conscience ignored?
Yes, my body did just as you implied,
while some ghost we'll call 'I'
idly watched through its eyes, [18]”
and the jury sang:
“Hang the elephant! The elephant must hang!”
[Elephant:]
“I feel it stealing now
All adrift
fathoms
down [20]”
6
6. Aubergine
Sugar down [1] the syrup in the Queen Anne's lace [2]
Shining in the light of nightshade [3]
Cultivating unsophistication in my face [4]
Trying to think of nothing to say
Grapes gone sour [5] and the spinach went to seed [6]
(it was spindly and sick from the outset)
Waiting for the hour with a wherewithal to leave
Patient as a dog for its master
Aubergine [7]
The Labrador [8] was locked to the promontory rock

She called down, said “time is an illusion” [9]
An inconsequential shift as the continents drift [10]
But my confidence was crushed and I miss you regardless
Aubergine
[Aubergine:]
“You can be your body but please don't mind
if I don't fancy myself mine [11] - you at 32 still tied to your poor mother's apron strings [12]!”
Sorrel in the gravel [13] and the saffron robe [14]

Sleeping like a shark in the cord grass [15]
until I saw how far I traveled down the solipsistic [16] road
I climbed out to ask for directions
There was not a pond in sight and here I'm gasping like a fish [17]
In the desert with a basket full of eggplants [18]
who asked about the passage of the Bible on my wrists [19]
But I couldn't catch my breath enough to answer.
7
7. Fox's Dream Of The Log Flume
Provisionally 'I' practically alive

Mistook signs for signified [1]
And so since I’ve often tried
To run them off a cliff like Gadarene swine [2]
and tied my thought [word]-ropes in anchor bends [3]
wondering whether we were someone better then,
or maybe just better able to pretend
(and what better means to our inevitable end!) [4]
[Bear:]
“No, I don't know if I know
though some, with certainty insist
'no certainty exists’ [5]
well I'm certain enough of this:
in the past 14 years, there's only one girl I've kissed
In the blistering heat of the Asbury [6] pier
we sat quiet as monks on the Ferris wheel
Until looking down at the waltzer [7]
and out at the sea,
I asked her, “Do you ever have that recurring fantasy
where you push little kids
from the tops of the ride?"
She shook her head no
I said “Oh… neither do I.”
and with my grandma’s ring
I went down on one knee
and the subsequent catastrophe
has since haunted me
like a fiberglass ghost [8] in the attic
my inconveniently selective memory.
as provisionally 'You' mercifully withdrew
all the bearing points [9] we thought we knew
Day's run, days set plot [10]
our compass shot
we sailed waywardly on
singing out midnight archer songs [11]
until well past dawn
it's still dark on the deck of our boat
haphazardly blown broken bows
our aimless arrow-words
don't mean a thing.
So by now I think
it's pretty obvious that there's no God
and there's definitely a God! [12]”
[Fox:]
“I dreamt of the rocks at the Asbury dunes,
and that you jumped from the top [13]
of the Log Flume, [14]
and they gather like wolves
on the boardwalk below
and they're howling for answers
8
no wolf can know!

I charged at the waves
With a glass in my hand [15]
I was tossed like a ball
at the bottle stand [16]
and I landed beside your
remains on the stones
where your cold fingers
wrapped around my ankle bone,
while maybe ten feet away was a star [17]
thousands of times the size of our sun [18]
exploding like the tiny balloons
you'd throw darts at…”
[Bear:]
“I slept until our chest was full
of yarn we spun from Shetland [19] wool
in socks from where the Dorset [20] grows
sheared and scoured hours before
the rooster crows.”
[Fox:]
“The price of German silver fell
threw this disused thalers [21]
down the superstition well [22].”
9
8. Nine Stories
[Half-mast land grants, Homesteading Law] [1]

Tracks in the tall toadflax [2] where he crawled,
Past Dodge Summit [3] toward Athabasca falls [4],
Practicing his [our] Avocets [5] and Gnatcatcher [6] calls
Walrus trudged along
While low in a lodgepole [7] branch nearby
[Lovesick] Barnyard Owl [8] watched with an amorous [9] eye
[OWL:]
“What unprecedented gift does this afternoon provide?”
“I’ve flown across the sea [laid down our guns] [10] where the soldierfish [11] swam,
I’ve slept inside the shoe of the world’s tallest man [12],
I saw Charlotte Corday [13] with the knife in her hand;
It was nothing new.
I’ve perched on Steele, Dakota’s sandhill crane [14]
I flew among the Paiutes [15] before the Mormon rain [16],
I was in Virginia City [17] for the stringing up of Clubfoot Lane [18]
But I’ve never seen anything like you before.
All untied, by and by! [19]
But I’d pour the matrimony wine [20]
All untied, by and by!
so if you’re ever so inclined…”
[WALRUS:]
“What from the air now calls to water on the land?
What from my seclusion does this charlatan [21] demand?
What to do now with my best-laid eremetic [22] plans?
I’ve been to the Arfaks [23] where the Sicklebills [24] fly,
seen Tangier’s acrobatics nine stories high [25],
I was there at Appomattox back in ’65 when the General arrived [26].
But I’ve never been in this room before!”
[aside]
“All untied, by and by!
That same old dream’s trapped in my mind
I’m bound in ropes and on the firing line [27]
well, I wake up disappointed every time.”
[to OWL]:
“If the weather ever withers up your vine [28]
Jacob knows a ladder you can climb [29]
If that old thorn is still buried in your side [30],
Jacob knows a ladder you can climb…”
[OWL:]
“Well, if your Pacific rivers all run dry
their clouds will fill my loud, corrupted sky
And if the pleasures of your heavens (should) ever end
That very ladder just as well descends!”
10
9. Fiji Mermaid
Stitch up the nets but the patch won't stay [1]

As the nail beds [2] rest in the calico hay [3]
The Fiji Mermaid dressed in macrame’s [4]
Wading road in the fork [5] and a bend
In the spoon [6] tern cut short [7] as a shadow at noon
Melting like wax as that once full moon's
Now waning ersatz acts [8] an insufferable bore
'Sharp Shots' [9] dull as a harlequin's sword [10]
When doing as you please doesn't please you anymore.
Stick of the match [11] as the paraffin [12] show

Drop a nickel to watch the asparagus grow
'The stone in what shell?’ [13]
You sure like to know now don't you?
A loom in the heir [14] as the medicine came [15]

To the nest of the mare [16] of the mystery claims [17]
But you'll miss having someone to blame
For your sadness, now won't you? [18]
Well maybe there'll be a bakery hiring

We'll knead a little dough to get by
(Groan!)
Did you come knocking on my door

Or did I come to yours? [19]
Whose ship came washed up on whose shore?
And from what ocean floor?
There wasn't much to her dress

and I felt stuck in my body like a horse in quicksand… [20]
Didn't you come knocking on my door?
11
10. Bear's Vision Of St. Agnes
Barren rocks and sand, [our wooden sculpture hands] [1] Bear & Fox held hands,
held like a timber hitch [2], held candles to the sun [3].
Both faint and fading fast, they walked on, windward
kept time with a pocket mouse [4], mouths kept mostly shut.
Thought broke the silence like a bone-
[FOX:]
[half-moaning]
“You’ve worn me like an albatross [5],
I’ve only slowed you down.
You could’ve long traded in your braided crown [6] by now
you could’ve found that Anabaptist [7] girl you always used to go on about
as we rode in circles on our bicycles;
we walked on balance beams
as the audience cheered for us.
We burned like fevers [8] under carriage hats [9]
hid behind Venetian masks [10]
In our human costumes
We stood like statues once in shepherd’s check [11]
we’ll both be decked in herringbone [12],
wrapped border drab around already broken ironstone [13].”
[BEAR:]
“But I’ve seen these cliffs before [14],
St. Agnes brought her palm branch [15] to the hospital
looked upward lest the charm had fled [16]
from my brother’s breathing bed [17].
And when he died I shut his dogtooth violet [18] eyes:
He looked just like me,
climb on down and see.
They laid him on the rocks below
there’ll be enough to fill your cup for days;
I’ll stay up here and rest. [19]
[aside] We’ll fly in straight lines as from carronades [20]
we’ll crash like tidal waves, decimate the islands
As our hollowed lumber falls like water [21], ends where I start
In that tattered rag shop [22] back in Asbury Park [23]
Look how soon my hands won’t move

but if you’ll improve, we’ll all improve [24]
Sixty feet and my feet won’t move
but if you’ll improve, we’ll all improve
Forty feet, my legs won’t move
but as you improve, we all improve
Fill our den with acorn mast [25],
I’ll wake before the salmon pass [26]
Ten foot more and nothing moves…”
12
11. All Circles
All circles presuppose they'll end where they begin

But only in their leaving can they ever come back around
All circles presuppose they'll end where they begin…
All circles begin with an end,

They come back around-
They come back around again!

But only in their leaving can they ever come back around!
(All circles presuppose they'll end where they begin
But only in their leaving can they ever come back around) [1]
13
“Other Stories”
Julian the Onion
Logger Days [1], Savannah [2], the menagerie packed its trains
left Bitter Root, Montana [3] for those old Nebraska plains.
Ticket sales were suffering now, with half the animals gone
but the circus kept its course somehow and the show continued on.
Pitched their tents in Battle Creek [4] on a makeshift flatbed stage
with a draytop shotgun rhino's peak [5] and a black wrought iron cage
The barker [6] sprung to action as the band began to play
to introduce the new attraction who they'd picked up on the way…
Julian the Onion who they'd picked up on the way.
[BARKER:]
"Cleanse your minds and palates [7], as I seldom mince [8] my words,
This poor boy's a walking shallot [9]; yes, it's shocking as you've heard!
From his lonesome, yellow [10] childhood, so fantastically deformed,
He was battered [11] by his classmates and sautéed [12] like bantam corn [13]
'Red Vidalias!’ [14] 'Valley Sweets!’ [15] for twelve long, rotten years;
if he so much as skinned his knee, the entire schoolhouse moved to tears [16]!
We found him where he'd sprouted [17], plotting a garden coup d'etat [18]
in a carrot stick and celery stalk manage-a-mirepoix [19].
Now, feast your caramel [20] eyes on the most savory [21] sight in town!"
All his joking well-evoking peals of laughter from the crowd

But Julian the Onion was not laughing with the crowd.
His jaundiced [22] face was trembling, beads of sweat began to fall
Down his oblong gooseback forehead [23] to his snuffed-out lantern jaw [24].
His cut-shoot [25] sprig [26] of hair disheveled, tiny fists impearled [27].
[JULIAN:]
"No I am not this misshaped body, and I'm not long for this world [28]
Wooden dimes [29] and quiet fears, come curl your lips at me,
but all perceptions are as mirrors [30], it's your own reflections that you see.
So hide behind your laughs a while, look handsome though you may,
oh, do enjoy that saccharine [31] smile, as there comes for you a day [32].”
14
Four Fires
Dear seven sisters [1], all is distance here all look into never out
of every face [2]. I’ll let you be my belief if I can be your doubt [3]
signed from Persia [4]: Kind subversions of a kind I couldn’t say
as our blessed lack of conversation has kept me alive so far today. [5]
All my savings soon were spent,

so in the vales [6] of early Fall
under tables covered rent [7]
by packing bales of barely straw
with efforts held to circumvent
the watchful eye of federal law [8].
And mama though I’ve been so alone,

my faith in love is still devout! [9]
With solemn sounds and the potter’s ground [10]

beneath our bare wandering feet [11]
our crooked hearts [12] in Sacred Harp [13]
sang out the dark inside us deep.
Their shapes of sorrow fell like shadows
on the farm-to-market [14] roads
that led my stumbling steps back home.
But mama why four fires [15] burning?

Why so quiet Father’s room?
Has he not heard his son returning [16]?
Or has he gone to gather food?
Or is he off stomping 'round the forest?
Or has he wandered into town?
"Son, I think it’s best that you sit down—

His faith in love was still devout."
[Choir]:
(Ein kelohenu, ein kadonenu, ein kemalkenu, ein kemoshi`enu!) [17]
Mama sing my favorite hymn

as I sink deep into the grass
and the night birds beat me with their wings
with a horrid laughter as they pass [18]!
the stage goes dim its pageants finished [19];
fleeting worlds to which I’ve clung
with a now extinguished longing [20].
Mama sing my favorite hymn

where we make ploughshares from our swords [21]
and the mason’s barber [22] trims
our Christmas tree in the oneness of our Lord!
What grace surrounds! What strange perfection! [23]
15
Mama sing my favorite hymn,

and remind me:
everyone is Him [24].
16
Annotations
February 1878
[1] Both locations are in Montana, U.S.
[2] A railroad run by the Union Pacific company, beginning operations in 1862.
[3] A “rip spot” is a repair track used for minor repair of train cars, and thus the train is past any hope of
“pulling over” as it were.
[4] A “knuckle” is the pivoting hook like casting that fits into the head of a coupler and rotates about a
vertical pin to either the open position (to engage a mating coupler) or to the closed position (when fully
engaged). Essentially, these are what is holding the train together, and they have worn down.
[5] In a steam engine, the “firebox” is the area where the fuel is burned, producing heat to boil the water
in the boiler.
[6] A “running board” is a walkway along the locomotive to facilitate inspection and maintenance. Thus
the fuel is overflowing from the firebox, in an effort to increase the engine’s power and the locomotive’s
speed.
[7] A “cider press” is a press for crushing fruit, typically apples, to make cider.
[8] “Hogger” is a slang term for a locomotive engineer.
[9] Multiple Biblical references.
“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were
taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” - Genesis 3:19
“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.” - Ecclesiastes 3:20
More can be found here, most similarly themed:
(61 Bible Verses about Dust. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://www.openbible.info/topics/dust)
[10] The “Bridal Fate” here is referring to the possibility of their death metaphorically, comparing it to the
consummation of a marriage. In eastern Christian tradition, marriage and the sexual union that
accompanies it are seen as a sacrament, and a physical symbol of the relationship between Christ and the
Church. The Christian Church is even referred to as “The Bride of Christ”.
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the
church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and
without blemish.” - Ephesians 5:25-27
More here:
(27 Bible Verses about The Bride Of Christ. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2015, from http://
www.openbible.info/topics/the_bride_of_christ)
17
[11] An ashpan “hopper” is an open top car with hinged trap doors and inclined floors which permits
quick unloading of bulk commodities; it collects the unburnable ash from spent fuel.
[12] “Ash Cat” is a slang term for the crew member whose job it is to keep the fire and steam up in a
steam locomotive, and who is responsible for the operating condition of power units on diesel and electric
engines.
[13] A “diamond stack” is a diamond-shaped smoke stack, usually associated with 19th Century
locomotives. In the crash, the “ash cat” is thrown out of the engine and somehow collides with the stack.
[14] A “dreidel” is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
[15] While most likely a coincidence, it is interesting to note the role of the anchor in early Christian
symbolism, and it’s connection with the sign of the cross (and thus a sacrifice similar to the one Mother
Elephant makes here).
"When the early Christians did represent the sign of the cross on their monuments, nearly all sepulchral
in character, they felt obliged to disguise it in some artistic and symbolical way. One of the oldest of the
symbols of the cross is the anchor. Originally a symbol of hope in general, the anchor takes on in this way
a much higher meaning: that of hope based on the Cross of Christ. The similarity of the anchor to the
cross made the former an admirable Christian symbol."
(Orazio Marucchi, "Archaeology of the Cross and Crucifix," Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), Vol. 4)
[16][17] Both “Until your anchor-heart take hold” and “Cast thoughts to the open ocean of air,
until your thread catch somewhere” lines find their origin in Walt Whitman’s Noiseless Patient
Spider.
“I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;

Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.”
(Whitman, W. (1959). Complete poetry and selected prose. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.)
[18] A common theme on Ten Stories is that of the “self”, and the identity thereof. While no
specific reference seems to be made with this line, it should be noted that much of the “denying
of self” that goes on throughout the album finds it’s origins not only in the teachings of early
Christianity, Sufism, and Buddhism (and many others), but also in the complex philosophy of
G.W.F. Hegel. Specifically referenced thematically throughout the album is Hegel’s 1807 work
Phenomenology of Spirit, from which the final track takes it’s lyrics, almost in their entirety.
18
[19] Of special note is that the idea of a tiger that refuses to leave an open cage out of fear is
inspired by a story related in William James’ Habit.
“Riderless cavalry-horses at many a battle have been seem to come together and go through
their customary evolutions at the sound of a bugle-call. Most trained domestic animals, dogs and
oxen, and omnibus- and car-horses, seem to be machines almost pure and simple, undoubtingly,
unhesitatingly doing from minute to minute the duties they have been taught, and giving no sign
that the possibility of an alternative ever suggests itself to their mind. Men grown old in prison
have asked to be readmitted after being once set free. In a railroad accident to a traveling
menagerie in the United States some time in 1884 a tiger, who's cage had broken open, is said to
have emerged, but presently crept back again, as if too much bewildered by his new
responsibilities so that he was without difficulty secured.” - William James, Habit
(James, W. (1914). Habit,. New York: H. Holt and.)
[20] The lament for Tiger culls it’s phrasing from William Blake’s The Tyger.
“Tyger! Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies  
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?  
On what wings dare he aspire?  
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art.  

Could twist the sinews of thy heart?  
And when thy heart began to beat,  
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain?  

In what furnace was thy brain?  
What the anvil? what dread grasp  
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,  

And watered heaven with their tears,  
Did he smile his work to see?  
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
19
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright  

In the forests of the night,  
What immortal hand or eye  
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?”
(Blake, W., & Waldman, N. (1993). The Tyger. San Diego: Harcourt Brace &.)
[21] The “siren’s sound” here is an obvious allusion to the sirens of Greek mythology and their
song that lures sailors to their demise. What Tiger is referring to as a “siren’s sound” is up to
interpretation, but one possibility is that it conveys his feelings as to his past glory, and the
escape to freedom he would need to regain it.
[22] While this is likely another coincidence, I have found one interesting article that may have
some bearing on the use of “topiary” here (thought it likely has a simpler meaning, perhaps
referencing Tiger’s petrified fear). Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial
plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain
clearly defined shapes. An excerpt from the article The Ethics and Aesthetics of Topiary by Isis
Brook and Emily Brady:
The Aesthetics of Imperfection
We would like to conclude by suggesting a useful way to approach topiary as an aesthetic

category. The aesthetics of topiary could be articulated as an ‘aesthetics of imperfection’, where
imperfection is viewed as a positive aesthetic quality. This category has been used to describe
the Japanese aesthetic taste for imperfection, humbleness, and natural forces, such as
weathering and organic qualities, as opposed to showiness and flashiness.
(Brook, I., & Brady, E. (2003). Topiary: Ethics and Aesthetics. Ethics & the Environment,
127-142.)
[23] Tiger is a practicing Gnostic it seems (confirmed not merely from my own interpretation
and the lyrics, but as described in promotional material and interviews). Gnosticism describes a
collection of ancient religions whose adherents shunned the material world and embraced the
spiritual world. Possibly of note for Tiger’s particular point of view:
“All religious traditions acknowledge that the world is imperfect. Where they differ is in the
explanations which they offer to account for this imperfection and in what they suggest might be
done about it. Gnostics have their own -- perhaps quite startling -- view of these matters: they
hold that the world is flawed because it was created in a flawed manner.
Like Buddhism, Gnosticism begins with the fundamental recognition that earthly life is filled with
suffering. In order to nourish themselves, all forms of life consume each other, thereby visiting
20
pain, fear, and death upon one another (even herbivorous animals live by destroying the life of
plants). In addition, so-called natural catastrophes -- earthquakes, floods, fires, drought,
volcanic eruptions -- bring further suffering and death in their wake. Human beings, with their
complex physiology and psychology, are aware not only of these painful features of earthly
existence. They also suffer from the frequent recognition that they are strangers living in a world
that is flawed and absurd.
Many religions advocate that humans are to be blamed for the imperfections of the world.
Supporting this view, they interpret the Genesis myth as declaring that transgressions committed
by the first human pair brought about a “fall” of creation resulting in the present corrupt state of
the world. Gnostics respond that this interpretation of the myth is false. The blame for the
world’s failings lies not with humans, but with the creator. Since -- especially in the monotheistic
religions -- the creator is God, this Gnostic position appears blasphemous, and is often viewed
with dismay even by non-believers.
Ways of evading the recognition of the flawed creation and its flawed creator have been devised
over and over, but none of these arguments have impressed Gnostics. The ancient Greeks,
especially the Platonists, advised people to look to the harmony of the universe, so that by
venerating its grandeur they might forget their immediate afflictions. But since this harmony still
contains the cruel flaws, forlornness and alienation of existence, this advice is considered of
little value by Gnostics. Nor is the Eastern idea of Karma regarded by Gnostics as an adequate
explanation of creation’s imperfection and suffering. Karma at best can only explain how the
chain of suffering and imperfection works. It does not inform us in the first place why such a
sorrowful and malign system should exist.”
-Tau Stephanus, Gnostic Bishop
More on Gnosticism and it’s possible bearing for Tiger’s character may be explored here:
(Hoeller, S. (n.d.). The Gnostic World View: A Brief Summary of Gnosticism. Retrieved April
15, 2015, from http://gnosis.org/gnintro.htm)
21
Grist For the Malady Mill
[1] Yellowstone is a national park in Montana.
[2] It is likely that the “border towns” referred to are the towns on the US/Canadian border.
[3] This line describes a span between two rivers, the Clark Fork and the Blackfoot River, which
includes parts of Montana and Idaho.
[4] “Grist for the mill” is a phrase originating in the 1500s that refers to something that can be
used to an advantage, as in “This seemingly useless data will be grist for the mill when he lodges
a complaint”. This expression alludes to grist, the amount of grain that can be ground at one
time. However, adding the word “malady” flips the meaning, making it mean, roughly,
“something that contributes to the malady (problem/ailment/sickness)”. It is likely that this
refers to the spreading of the news of the train crash.
[5] A “railspike” is a large nail with an offset head that is used to secure rails and base plates to
railroad ties in the track. The quotes around this line and others like it in this song are not
attributed to any single character, and thus are probably meant to indicate this as the spreading
news of the crash, perhaps even newspaper headlines.
[6] A “Brass Hat” is a slang term for a person in a high position, especially a top-ranking army or
navy officer. This line seems to indicate that someone in authority is at least partially to blame,
having “fallen asleep at the wheel” as it were (perhaps the circus train’s conductor).
[7] John Luther ("Casey") Jones was an American railroad engineer from Jackson, Tennessee,
who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad. His dramatic death, trying to stop his train and
save lives, made him an American folk hero, popularized in The Ballad of Casey Jones:
“Come all you rounders that want to hear

The story of a brave engineer.
Casey Jones was the rounder's name,
On a six eight wheeler, boys, he won his fame.
The caller called Casey at half past four,
He kissed his wife at the station door,
He mounted to the cabin with the orders in his hand,
And he took his farewell trip to that promised land.
Casey Jones mounted to his cabin,
Casey Jones with his orders in his hand
22
Casey Jones mounted to his cabin,

And he took his farewell trip to that promised land.
When he pulled up that Reno hill,

He whistled for the crossing with an awful shrill;
The switchman knew by the engine's moan
That the man at the throttle was Casey Jones.
He looked at his water and his water was low;
He looked at his watch and his watch was slow;
He turned to his fireman and this is what he said,
Boy, we're going to reach Frisco, but we'll all be dead.
Casey Jones - going to reach Frisco
Casey Jones - but we'll all be dead,
Casey Jones - going to reach Frisco,
We're going to reach Frisco, but we'll all be dead.
So turn on your water and shovel in your coal,

Stick you head out the window, watch those drivers roll;
I'll drive her till she leaves the rail,
For I'm eight hours late by that Western Mail.
When he was within six miles of the place,
There number four stared him straight in the face.
He turned to his fireman, said Jim you'd better jump,
For there're two locomotives that are going to bump.
Casey Jones - two locomotives,
Casey Jones - going to bump,
Casey Jones - two locomotives,
There're two locomotives that are going to bump.
Casey said just before he died,

There're two more roads I would like to ride.
The fireman said, Which ones can they be?
Oh the Northern Pacific and the Santa Fe.
23
Mrs. Jones sat at her bed a-sighing

Just to hear the news that her Casey was dying.
Hush up children, and quit your cryin',
For you've got another poppa on the Salt Lake Line.
Casey Jones - got another poppa.
Casey Jones - on the Salt Lake Line.
Casey Jones - got another poppa.
For you've got another poppa on the Salt Lake Line.”
(Boni, M. (1952). The Fireside Book of Favorite American Songs. New York: Simon and
Schuster.)
More stories about Casey Jones can be found in Botkin’s Treasury of American Folklore:
(Botkin, B. (1944). A Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads, and Traditions of the
People. New York: Crown.)
[8] The person speaking, identified as “Conductor”, seems to be Casey Jones. He references the
biblical gospel of Matthew here, speaking of death (or decay):
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves
break in and steal.” - Matthew 6:19
[9] The criticism of “cause and effect” possibly refers to the works of David Hume, especially
his An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. From the spark notes thereof:
“Relations of ideas are usually mathematical truths, so we cannot negate them without creating a
contradiction. Matters of fact are the more common truths we learn through our experiences. We
understand matters of fact according to causation, or cause and effect, such that our experience
of one event leads us to assume an unobserved cause. But Hume argues that assumptions of
cause and effect between two events are not necessarily real or true. It is possible to deny causal
connections without contradiction because causal connections are assumptions not subject to
reason.
We cannot justify our assumptions about the future based on past experience unless there is a law
that the future will always resemble the past. No such law exists. We can deny the relationship
without contradiction and we cannot justify it with experience. Therefore, we have no rational
support for believing in causation. Hume suggests that our assumptions are based on habit, not
reason, and that, ultimately, our assumptions about matters of fact are based in probability. If
experience teaches us that two events occur together repeatedly, we will assume a link between
24
them. So, Hume explains, we must be able to reduce all meaningful concepts to the simple
impressions on which they are built. Since no simple impression of causation or necessary
connection exists, these concepts might appear meaningless. Rather than dismiss these assumed
connections entirely, however, Hume acknowledges their usefulness and limits them to being
nothing more than simple observations of repeated conjunction between two events. Further, he
concludes that if there is no cause and effect, then our actions are not predetermined, and we
enjoy true free will.”
((n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hume/

section4.rhtml)
[10] Flagstaff likely refers to the city in Arizona.
[11] Badger Pass is a ski area located in Yosemite National Park in California. Exactly what
these locations convey is unclear, although one possibility is the continued spreading of the news
of the crash.
[12] The “fretboard” is a part of most stringed instruments. It is a thin, long strip of material,
usually wood, that is laminated to the front of the neck of an instrument and above which the
strings run. Being “wound like clocks” around the fretboard suggests a metaphor in the
tightening of guitar strings, possibly to indicate extreme tension.
[13] Carving hands into the basswood (a common material in guitar making) is imagery that
bears some similarities to that used later in Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes, suggesting that this portion
of Grist for the Malady Mill and the aforementioned song are in some way linked. Perhaps these
lines refer to Fox and Bear.
[14] The line about walking someone home could also refer to Fox and Bear, although without
quotations or character dialogue markers, it is impossible to be certain. It is possible that this
line is another reference to the state of tension in the area caused by the news of the crashed train
and escaped circus animals.
[15] The “frog switch”, also known as the “common crossing”, refers to the crossing point of two
rails. It seems one cause of the circus train’s predicament was that it went onto the wrong track
due to a flipped frog switch.
[16] Here, the “reckless beast” Elephant bears the brunt of the population’s blame and ire over
the train derailment.
25
East Enders’ Wives
[1] The Roe River runs between Giant Springs and the Missouri River in Great Falls, Montana.
Described in this line is that chance meeting between a still fleeing Rabbit, and the Fortune
Teller.
[2] A “salt fire” is a colored fire commonly used as a pyrotechnic effect in stage productions,
fireworks and by fire performers the world over. In this context, probably a reference to the art
of causimancy: foretelling the future by reading the movements of flames in a fire or the
differences in the speed of various objects burning in a fire.
[3] Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy or tassology) is a divination or fortune-telling

method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.
[4] Likely a reference to many fortune telling practices that involve reading movements and
patterns in the atmosphere.
[5] “Lent” is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar of many Christian
denominations that begins on Ash Wednesday and covers a period of approximately six weeks
before Easter Sunday (note: dates specifically used in Catholicism). The traditional purpose of
Lent is the preparation of the believer through prayer, penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving,
atonement and self-denial. Note that the Fortune Teller’s joke insists on the very opposite of the
act of self-denial that will be a recurring theme on Ten Stories (such as the traditional Lenten fast
from certain foods - meat, cheese, dairy, wine, and oil in the oldest traditions).
[6] “The Fool” is a tarot card character, often seen playing bagpipes.
“The Fool Tarot card meaning deals with that youthful exuberance we feel when starting out on a
new adventure or taking a journey of faith. We feel anticipation, butterflies flutter in our
stomach, and our skin prickles with excitement...our journey is underway - we're unstoppable!
However, along with this passion comes impetuousness. The Fool makes no plans, or gives no
thought to possible complications along the way. Happy to be doing something different, the
Fool blindly sets out where all else may fear to tread.
When contemplating the Fool Tarot card meaning, I think of Joseph Campbell's landslide
statement: "Follow your bliss." We can see this attitude in this card, which is wonderful. But, we
must also note the lack of care about consequences - blind faith is the Fool's only guide.”
(The Fool Tarot Card Meaning. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://
www.tarotteachings.com/fool-tarot-card-meaning.html)
26
[7] A “parasol” is a small light umbrella used as protection from the sun.
[8] The purpose of the use of the term “East Enders’ wives” is decidedly unclear, but the most
likely explanation is that is refers to the East End of London, possibly identifying the Fortune
Teller as a former resident of the area. Use of the term “East End” in a pejorative sense began in
the late 19th century, as the expansion of the population of London led to extreme overcrowding
throughout the area and a concentration of poor people and immigrants. The problems were
exacerbated with the construction of St Katharine Docks and the central London railway termini
that caused the clearance of former slums and rookeries, with many of the displaced people
moving into the East End. Over the course of a century, the East End became synonymous with
poverty, overcrowding, disease and criminality. The Fortune Teller’s character fits some of these
qualities.
[9] The reference to hiding in the “boxthorn vines” is a pointed one. There is some indication
that this is a biblical reference, as the boxthorn vine is mentioned in Proverbs:
“Thorns and snares are in the way of the perverse; He who guards himself will be far from
them.” - Proverbs 22:5
Another note of interest is that in the Muslim text Sahih Muslim, the boxthorn vine is referred to
as the “tree of the Jews”.
“The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims
would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a
tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but
the tree Gharqad (boxthorn) would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews." - Sahih Muslim, Book
041, Number 6985
This is perhaps merely a coincidental link, but the fact that in Rabbit’s concluding story, Four
Fires, Jewish prayers and songs are referenced, makes it an intriguing possibility.
[10] The “foxtail pine” is a rare pine endemic to California. It is thought that the foxtail can live
up to 3000 years in the Sierra Nevada, although the highest currently proven age is 2110 years.
In the Klamath Mountains, ages are only known to about 1000 years.
[11] “Sheep in the fold” possibly refers to a parable told by Christ in the Gospel of John.
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs
in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of
the sheep. 3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his
own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead
of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a
27
stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
6Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8All who have
come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9I am the gate;
whoever enters through me will be saved.a They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10The
thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to
the full.
11“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired
hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he
abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man
runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15just as the Father
knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16I have other sheep that
are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall
be one flock and one shepherd. 17The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only
to take it up again. 18No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have
authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my
Father.” - John 10:1-18
[12] “Gilding our gold” essentially means to add superfluous attributes to something, much like
the phrase “gilding the lily”, which is itself a mistranslation of the same source text from which
we get both phrases:
"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw a perfume on the violet, to smooth the ice, or add
another hue unto the rainbow, or with taper-light to seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” - Williams Shakespeare, King John, iv.2
[13] “Milk-and-water” is a phrase that means insipid, weak, or wishy-washy.
[14] The Oceanic Steam Navigation Company or “White Star Line” of Boston Packets, more
commonly known as just White Star Line, was a highly prominent British shipping company,
most notable for backing the Titanic’s disastrous maiden voyage. Of note here regarding the
song: the Fortune Teller is the character speaking in parenthetical lines of her abandoning Rabbit.
[15] “Queensland” is a northeastern state of Australia, apparently the ultimate destination of the
escaping Fortune Teller.
28
[16] To “elegize” is to write in a wistfully mournful way about someone or something, in this
case referring to Rabbit’s rather emotional reaction to being abandoned by the Fortune Teller
(and thus becoming “unmoored” and “unwell”).
[17] The term "rosary" denotes the prayer beads used to count the series of prayers that make up
the Catholic rosary, as well as the sequence of prayers itself.
[18] “Burning the bridge” is an idiom meaning to do something that makes it impossible for you
to change your plans and go back to the situation you were in before. “Burning your boat” is a
variant of the idiom used in Great Britain and Australia; it’s placement here is possibly due to the
earlier reference to the Fortune Teller’s Australian destination, or her origin as an “East Ender”.
[19] The “black birch” is a species of birch tree native to eastern North America, from southern
Maine west to southernmost Ontario, and south in the Appalachian Mountains to northern
Georgia. It is known for containing an oil similar to wintergreen oil that can be used in
medications. It’s purpose here in the song perhaps refers to the distant home to which Rabbit is
fleeing, as it native to the eastern U.S. as opposed to the Northwestern U.S. where the action is
currently taking place. There is also the vague notion that this is a reference to the way in which
Rabbit’s father dies, while chopping down a black birch tree, perhaps in order to make medicine.
This is, however, a highly theoretical notion and should only be taken as such.
[20] The final lines of the song come in the form of a note that the Fortune Teller has left for
Rabbit. Both phrases in this line seem to be emblematic of death and dying. It is possible,
however unlikely, that the phrase “axe to the tree” is a biblical reference.
“The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire.” - Matthew 3:10
[21] “All our dads die” is a direct reference to Rabbit’s father dying, the ramifications of which
are explored on the b-side Four Fires.
29
Cardiff Giant
[1] Ragged-Robin is a perennial flower that is likely to be growing in wetter areas such as
marshes, fens and wet meadows. It has much-divided, pink flowers (hence the name 'Ragged')
and narrow, grass-like leaves. The context of the line is that these are given as gifts to the
animals after their performance, gift wrapped on their trailer door.
[2] The imagery here invokes the fact that the animals are on display as objects, as in the
negative connotations of having initials carved into the concrete base of a pedestal. Also of note
is that the floor is specifically called “imitation marble”, a subtle image of deceit or trickery that
will become emblematic of events and imagery surrounding the circus in Ten Stories.
[3] “Boxtop admissions” is likely referring to some sort of special voucher for admission to the
performance.
[4] The descriptor of the animals as throwaways is emblematic of the state of mind that Peacock
and Tiger seem to be struggling with throughout the song; i.e. that of their worthlessness in the
eyes of the humans.
[5] A “tobacco road” is a squalid poverty-stricken rural area or community. It is a term that
originates in a novel of the same name from 1932 by Erskine Caldwell, which dramatizes life in
rural Georgia during the Great Depression.
[6] “Wormwood shots” here refers to the consuming of the alcoholic beverage absinthe, a drink
commonly seen as mysterious, addictive, and mind-altering.
[7] “Snake oil” is an expression that originally referred to fraudulent health products or unproven
medicine but has come to refer to any product with questionable or unverifiable quality or
benefit. By extension, a snake oil salesman is someone who knowingly sells fraudulent goods or
who is themselves a fraud, quack, charlatan, or the like. This is another of the images of fraud or
fakery found throughout the song.
[8] A “sheepshank” is Scottish slang for something of no worth or importance. Those who run
the circus are those of no worth, despite the impression they give Tiger and Peacock of being
themselves worthless.
[9] A “sycophant” is a person who uses flattery to win favor from individuals wielding influence,
in this case the conmen running the circus.
[10] This line is likely, in some sense, a reference to Hegelian philosophy, with underlying dual
meanings. At a basic level, Peacock’s lament could simply be an acknowledgment of their
30
hellish predicament, but the saturation of Hegel across this entire album makes me think
otherwise. From the preface to his Phenomenology of Spirit:
“Death, as we may call that unreality, is the most terrible thing, and to keep and hold fast what
is dead demands the greatest force of all. Beauty, powerless and helpless, hates understanding,
because the latter exacts from it what it cannot perform. But the life of mind is not one that shuns
death, and keeps clear of destruction; it endures death and in death maintains its being. It only
wins to its truth when it finds itself utterly torn asunder. It is this mighty power, not by being a
positive which turns away from the negative, as when we say of anything it is nothing or it is
false, and, being then done with it, pass off to something else: on the contrary, mind is this power
only by looking the negative in the face, and dwelling with it.”
(Hegel, G., & Miller, A. (1977). Phenomenology of Spirit. Oxford [England: Clarendon Press.)
[11] “Out at elbows” is an idiom meaning poorly dressed, shabby, or impoverished. In the
context of the song, it would appear that Tiger and Peacock are performing until they are tattered
and worn out.
[12] This line contains elements of Derridean philosophy, specifically in the idea of an inner
citadel or fortress to which one can withdraw. In Simon Glendinning’s Derrida: A Very Short
Introduction, Derrida is said to resist the idea that a person can be:
“…the sole resident, as it were, of an inner fortress … Jacque Derrida wanted to withdraw from
a certain mode of publicness and of the model of the public intellectual, but for reasons we will
see in due course, the withdrawal does not disclose the singularity of his being-there as an
individual resident of a secure and impenetrable inner fortress, but, rather, as a singular point of
confluence, a point of remarkable hospitality to the other, a generous gathering place.”
(Glendinning, S. (2011). Derrida: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.)
[13] The wording of these lines comes from the poem Too In Love To Chat by St. Teresa of
Avila:
“I have a lovely habit:

At night in my prayers I touch everyone
I have seen that
day
I shape my heart like theirs

and theirs like
mine.”
31
(Ladinsky, D. (2002). Love Poems From God: Twelve Sacred Voices From the East and West.
New York: Penguin Compass.)
The concepts of the lines, rather, seem to spring from Hegelian concepts of self-consciousness.
From the spark notes summary of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit:
“Hegel moves from the discussion of consciousness in general to a discussion of self-

consciousness. Like the idealist philosophers before him, Hegel believes that consciousness of
objects necessarily implies some awareness of self, as a subject, which is separate from the
perceived object. But Hegel takes this idea of self-consciousness a step further and asserts that
subjects are also objects to other subjects. Self-consciousness is thus the awareness of another’s
awareness of oneself. To put it another way, one becomes aware of oneself by seeing oneself
through the eyes of another. Hegel speaks of the “struggle for recognition” implied in self-
consciousness. This struggle is between two opposing tendencies arising in self-consciousness—
between, on one hand, the moment when the self and the other come together, which makes self-
consciousness possible, and, on the other hand, the moment of difference arising when one is
conscious of the “otherness” of other selves vis-à-vis oneself, and vice versa. Otherness and
pure self-consciousness are mutually opposed moments in a “life and death struggle” for
recognition. This tension between selves and others, between mutual identification and
estrangement, plays out in the fields of social relations.”
((n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hegel/

section2.rhtml)
Thus the shaping of hearts in the inner fortress seems to allude to Tiger and Peacock struggling
to find worth and identity in the view they hold of each other rather than that of their cruel
masters. A quote of some value for this concept, from Roger Scruton’s German Philosophers:
“As Richard Norma has suggested, we can take the work of existential psychiatrists like R.D.
Laing as an elaboration of this idea. If the worth of one person is systematically denied
recognition by all those on whom he or she depends - as can happen in a family in which one
member has become a scapegoat for everyone’s problems - that person’s sense of identity can be
utterly destroyed.”
(Scruton, R. (2001). German Philosophers: Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche. Oxford u.a.:
Oxford Paperbacks.)
And further, from Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion:
“...this is love. I have my self-consciousness not in myself but in the other. I am satisfied and
have peace with myself only in this other and I AM only because I have peace with myself; if I
did not have it then I would be a contradiction that falls to pieces. This other, because it likewise
exists outside itself, has its self-consciousness only in me; and both the other and I are only this
32
consciousness of being-outside-ourselves and of our identity; we are only this intuition, feeling,
and knowledge of our unity. This is love, and without knowing that love is both a distinguishing
and the sublation of this distinction, one speaks emptily of it.”
(Hegel, G. (1962). Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion: together with a work on the proofs of
the existence of God. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.)
[14] The allusion here to stars and sand comes from an old question, that is, “Which is greater,
the number of sand grains on earth or stars in the sky?” For the most part, this is an
unanswerable and unknowable question, but for the purposes of this song, these seem to be
phrases that denote limitlessness and magnificence, perhaps in opposing relation to what
Peacock and Tiger are being told their worth is. This is supported by the fact that this
identification of themselves as galaxies and sands takes place in the inner fortress where they
find their self-identity and worth in their communal relationship to one another.
Possibly this line also takes it’s imagery from biblical scripture, as in this passage from Hebrews,
although the likelihood of this notion is debatable:
“And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars
in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” - Hebrews 11:12
[15] A “delusion of grandeur” is the fixed, false belief that one possesses superior qualities such
as genius, fame, omnipotence, or wealth. Thus a delusion of “un-grandeur” would be the exact
opposite: a false sense of inferiority or worthlessness.
[16] Here we have the central metaphor of fraud and imposing worthlessness in the song. The
“Cardiff Giant” was one of the most famous hoaxes in United States history. It was a 10-foot tall
purported "petrified man" uncovered on October 16, 1869, by workers digging a well behind the
barn of William C. "Stub" Newell in Cardiff, New York. The giant was the creation of a New
York tobacconist named George Hull. Hull, an atheist, decided to create the giant after an
argument at a Methodist revival meeting about Genesis 6:4 stating that there were giants who
once lived on Earth. Newell set up a tent over the giant and charged 25 cents for people who
wanted to see it. Two days later he increased the price to 50 cents. Archaeological scholars
pronounced the giant a fake, and some geologists even noticed that there was no good reason to
try to dig a well in the exact spot the giant had been found. Yale paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh
called it "a most decided humbug". Some Christian fundamentalists and preachers, however,
defended its authenticity.
[17] The “lie” here harkens back to the concepts of self-identity found in the writings of Hegel
mentioned above. Self-identity, without an “other” off of which to define itself, becomes an
unintelligible falsity.
33
[18] The imagery here seems to be of a realization of truth; a “waking up” from a state of
hibernation. Some clues to this realization can be found in Weiss’ description of the character of
Potter Wasp as “ego-annihilated”:
“…[an] indecisive Peacock & gnostic Tiger learning the virtues of megalomania from an ego-
annihilated Potter Wasp.”
(MewithoutYou. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from https://www.facebook.com/

mewithoutyou/info?tab=page_info)
“Ego death” is a "complete loss of subjective self-identity." The term is being used in various
intertwined contexts, with related meanings. In the death and rebirth mythology ego death is a
phase of self-surrender and transition. An interesting passage concerning ego death from Daniel
Merkur’s Crucified With Christ sheds some light on the concept as seen in mysticism:
“By ego death, Cousins and other contemporary writers refer to an imageless experience in
which there is no sense of personal identity. It is the experience that remains possible in a state
of extremely deep trance when the ego-functions of reality-testing, sense-perception, memory,
reason, fantasy and self-representation are repressed… During mystical death, the ego functions
normally, but consciousness is filled with vivid, emotionally gripping fantasies that portray the
self-representation as dying… Muslim Sufis call it fana (annihilation), and medieval Jewish
kabbalists termed it "the kiss of death”. the sufi term was promoted by Marguerite Porete,
whose Mirror of Simple Souls speaks of the soul’s “annihilation” through “three entire deaths…
the death of sin… the death of nature… [and] the death of spirit.”
(Merkur, D. (2007). Crucified with Christ: Meditation on the Passion, Mystical Death, and the
Medieval Invention of Psychotherapy. Albany: State University of New York Press.)
The idea of replacing a “perfect paper nest” with plastic is one of which the meaning is relatively
fleeting, but a possibility lies once again in Hegel’s dense Phenomenology of Spirit. I have
bolded the relevant line:
“There is a difficulty which might well be avoided. It consists in mixing up the methods of
procedure followed by speculation and ratiocination, when what is said of the subject has at one
time the significance of its conceptual principle, and at another time the meaning of its predicate
or accidental quality. The one mode of thinking invalidates the other; and only that philosophical
exposition can manage to become plastic in character which resolutely sets aside and has
nothing to do with the ordinary way of relating the parts of a proposition.”
34
[19] The choice of a Potter Wasp as the character teaching Peacock and Tiger the virtues of ego-
annihilation may find it’s roots in what a wasp symbolizes in various cultures.
“In some African traditions, the wasp is a symbol of evolution, and control over our life
circumstances. Some Native American Indian tribal myth indicates the wasp as the creator of
the earth, and was a symbol of order, organization as well as productivity… The prime season of
the wasp is spring, and so it is symbolic of new beginnings, and starting new projects.”
(Venefica, A. (n.d.). Wasp Animal Symbolism - Symbolic Wasp Meanings. Retrieved April 22,
2015, from http://www.whats-your-sign.com/wasp-animal-symbolism.html)
[20] Megalomania is a delusion about one's own power or importance. Much like with
“delusions of un-grandeur”, the meaning here is flipped slightly. That is, for Peacock and Tiger,
megalomania is a positive realization of their importance in light of their revelation of self-
consciousness, the very opposite of inferiority, as Carl Jung describes it in The Nature of Psyche.
35
Elephant in the Dock
[1] There are conflicting reports as to the sources of the title of this song. The most obvious
inspiration, at least thematically, is from a collection of essays called God in the Dock by C.S.
Lewis:
“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his
judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed, He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is
quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war,
poverty and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the
important thing is that Man is on the Bench and God in the Dock.”
(Lewis, C. (1979). God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (W. Hooper, Ed.). London:
Collins.)
While this seems like a sound enough resource for the choice of title, Aaron Weiss has reportedly
claimed that it is actually taken from a song by Steven Morrissey entitled I’ve Changed My Plea
To Guilty:
“I'm standing in the dock

With my innocent hand on my heart
I've changed my plea
I've changed my plea to guilty
Because freedom is wasted on me
See how your rules spoil the game …”
Both options seem like good ones, and it is entirely possible that they are both legitimate.
[2] A “pillory” is a wooden framework with holes for the head and hands, in which an offender
was imprisoned and exposed to public abuse. Alternatively “to be pilloried” is to be attacked or
ridiculed publicly. Both seem relevant here, although the former is more likely the intended
usage.
[3] A “cavalcade” is a procession, in this case of a band playing brass instruments. It seems an
image of showiness unbecoming at a serious trial.
[4] It is possible that the idea of the human-constructed world being seen by Elephant as “false”
comes from the philosophical concept of “mithyatva”, which means "false belief", an important
concept in Jainism and Hinduism. Disappearance (nivrtti) is the necessary presupposition of
mithyatva because what is falsely perceived ceases to exist with the dawn of right knowledge.
Mithya or 'falsity', or mithyatva or 'falsity of the world', cannot be easily defined as 'indefinable',
'non-existent', 'something other than real', 'which cannot be proved, produced by avidya or as its
effect', or as 'the nature of being perceived in the same locus along with its own absolute non-
36
existence’. Mithyatva is a concept in Jainism distinguishing right knowledge from false

knowledge, and parallels the concepts of Avidya in the Vedanta school of Hinduism, Aviveka in
its Samkhya school, and Maya in Buddhism. Mithyatva, meaning false or wrong belief, is the
soul’s original and beginning less state of deluded world-view, at which stage the soul is in a
spiritual slumber, unaware of its own bondage. The opposite of Mithyatva (false belief) is
Samyaktva (right belief).
[5] Much of these lines are lifted almost verbatim from Herman Melville’s Billy Budd. The
relevant excerpt from a poem toward the end of the novella:
“Good of the Chaplain to enter Lone Bay

And down on his marrow-bones here and pray
For the likes just o' me, Billy Budd. -- But look:
Through the port comes the moon-shine astray!
It tips the guard's cutlas and silvers this nook;
But 'twill die in the dawning of Billy's last day.”
(Melville, H., & Busch, F. (1986). Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.:
Penguin Books.)
[6] The “emblems” phrasing is lifted from W.B. Yeats epic poem entitled (appropriately enough)
The Circus Animals’ Desertion:
“And when the Fool and Blind Man stole the bread
Cuchulain fought the ungovernable sea;
Heart-mysteries there, and yet when all is said
It was the dream itself enchanted me:
Character isolated by a deed
To engross the present and dominate memory.
Players and painted stage took all my love,
And not those things that they were emblems of.”
(Yeats, W. (1956). The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats (Definitive ed.). New York: Macmillan.)
[7] “Trammel” usually refers to a hindrance or impediment to free action, although an alternate
but no less relevant definition is that of a fetter or shackle, especially one used in training a horse
to amble. In the end, either definition amounts to the same idea: Elephant is restrained, although
the descriptor “with the strength of old strings” suggests that she could at any time free herself.
Although perhaps not a direct correlation, the idea of a restrained (and innocent) individual that
could at any time free themselves does call to mind certain events in the Christian gospels
concerning Christ’s trial. Christ tells Peter, after Peter has attempted to fight off His captors:
37
“Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than
twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen
in this way?” - Matthew 26:53-54
And also, when being questioned by Pontius Pilate moments before being condemned to
crucifixion:
“Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.
Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.” - John 19:11
[8] A “hobble skirt” was a skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer's
stride, and was a short-lived fashion trend around the turn of the twentieth century and the early
1910s. The name was given in reference to the device used to restrain, or hobble, horses. The
latter application, that of hobbling horses, is the most likely usage in this instance.
[9] The “old problem” is a generic enough term that it could merely be referring to, say, human
nature or evil as a general concept. One intriguing possibility, considering the over saturation of
philosophical reasoning of various origin in this song and others is the “problem of induction”
often referred to as “the old problem”. The problem of induction is the philosophical question of
whether inductive reasoning leads to knowledge understood in the classic philosophical sense,
since it focuses on the lack of justification for either: generalizing about the properties of a class
of objects based on some number of observations of particular instances of that class (for
example, the inference that "all swans we have seen are white, and therefore all swans are
white", before the discovery of black swans) or presupposing that a sequence of events in the
future will occur as it always has in the past (for example, that the laws of physics will hold as
they have always been observed to hold). Hume called this the principle of uniformity of nature.
The problem calls into question all empirical claims made in everyday life or through the
scientific method and for that reason the philosopher C. D. Broad said that "induction is the glory
of science and the scandal of philosophy". Although the problem arguably dates back to the
Pyrrhonism of ancient philosophy, as well as the Carvaka school of Indian philosophy, David
Hume introduced it in the mid-18th century, with the most notable response provided by Karl
Popper two centuries later.
Considering that “cause and effect” has already been mentioned previously by Elephant lends
some credibility to this idea, though the foundation is admittedly flimsy.
[10] The idea of “thoughts” and “things” finds its source once again in Hegel’s Phenomenology
of Spirit. From the Sparknotes summary thereof:
“Hegel attempts to outline the fundamental nature and conditions of human knowledge in these
first three chapters. He asserts that the mind does not immediately grasp the objects in the world,
concurring with Kant, who said that knowledge is not knowledge of “things-in-themselves,” or
of pure inputs from the senses. A long-standing debate raged in philosophy between those who
38
believed that “matter” was the most important part of knowledge and those who privileged
“mind.” Rationalists, such as Descartes (and before him, Plato), believed that we can only trust
the truths that the mind arrives at on its own, while Empiricists, such as Locke, argued that all of
our knowledge comes from our perceptions of actual objects, through our senses. Kant had
sought to put this debate to rest by arguing that the meaning of objects derives from ideas, or
“concepts,” that stand between mind and matter. The information entering the mind via the
senses is always “mediated” by concepts. In the first part of the Phenomenology, Hegel
demonstrates that though concepts do in fact mediate matter, as Kant maintains, Hegel’s own
understanding of the way concepts come into being implies a certain instability or insecurity in
knowledge, which Kant overlooks.
Whereas Kant seems to imply that an individual’s mind controls thought, Hegel argues that a
collective component to knowledge also exists. In fact, according to Hegel, tension always exists
between an individual’s unique knowledge of things and the need for universal concepts—two
movements that represent the first and second of the three so-called modes of consciousness. The
first mode of consciousness—meaning, or “sense certainty”—is the mind’s initial attempt to
grasp the nature of a thing. This primary impulse runs up against the requirement that concepts
have a “universal” quality, which means that different people must also be able to comprehend
these concepts. This requirement leads to the second mode of consciousness, perception. With
perception, consciousness, in its search for certainty, appeals to categories of thought worked
out between individuals through some kind of communicative process at the level of common
language. Expressed more simply, the ideas we have of the world around us are shaped by the
language we speak, so that the names and meanings that other people have worked out before us
(throughout the history of language) shape our perceptions.
Consciousness is always pulled in two different directions. Our senses give us a certain kind of
evidence about the world, and the categories through which we make sense of the world,
categories that we learned when we learned language, tell us what the input of our senses
means. The fact that a difference exists between perceptions and the meanings we give to them
gives rise to a feeling of uncertainty or skepticism that is built into the very mechanism by which
minds come to know objects. That is, to the extent that consciousness can grasp categories of
thought, it is at the same time aware of the inadequacy of these categories and thus moved to find
new ground for sense certainty, generating new concepts that smooth over the contradictions.
This striving is constantly frustrated, the categories of thought reveal their inner contradictions,
and consciousness is moved to posit more adequate categories. Although sense certainty is in
some ways always elusive, this process of moving from less satisfactory to more satisfactory
categories entails a kind learning process. Hegel calls this process understanding, the third and
highest mode of consciousness.”
((n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2015, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/hegel/

section1.rhtml)
39
[11] Like the notion of a tiger refusing to leave an open cage, the hanging of an elephant as
punishment for its “crimes” is also inspired by historical events. From wikipedia:
“Mary was a five-ton Asian elephant, also known as "Murderous Mary", who performed in the
Sparks World Famous Shows circus. After killing a trainer, she was hanged in 1916. Her death is
sometimes interpreted as a cautionary tale of circus animal abuse during the early 20th century.
On September 11, 1916, a hotel worker named Red Eldridge was hired as an assistant elephant
trainer by the Sparks World Famous Shows circus. He was killed by Mary in Kingsport,
Tennessee, on the evening of September 12. Eldridge led the elephant parade, although he was
not qualified, riding on the top of Mary's back; Mary was the star of the show, riding at the front.
There have been several accounts of his death. One, recounted by W.H. Coleman who claimed to
be a witness, is that he prodded her behind the ear with a hook after she reached down to nibble
on a watermelon rind. She went into a rage, snatched Eldridge with her trunk, threw him against
a drink stand and stepped on his head, crushing it. A contemporary newspaper account, from
the Johnson City Staff, said that Mary "collided its trunk vice-like [sic] about [Eldridge's] body,
lifted him 10 feet in the air, then dashed him with fury to the ground... and with the full force of
her beastly [sic] fury is said to have sunk her giant tusks entirely through his body. The animal
then trampled the dying form of Eldridge as if seeking a murderous triumph, then with a
sudden... swing of her massive foot hurled his body into the crowd.” (It should be kept in mind
that female Asian elephants are tuskless.)
The details of the aftermath are confused in a maze of sensationalist newspaper stories and
folklore. Most accounts indicate that she calmed down afterward and didn't charge the
onlookers, who began chanting, "Kill the elephant! Let's kill it." Within minutes, local
blacksmith Hench Cox tried to kill Mary, firing five rounds with little effect. Meanwhile, the
leaders of several nearby towns threatened not to allow the circus to visit if Mary was included.
The circus owner, Charlie Sparks, reluctantly decided that the only way to quickly resolve the
potentially ruinous situation was to kill the elephant in public. On the following day, a foggy and
rainy September 13, 1916, Mary was transported by rail to Erwin, Tennessee, where a crowd of
over 2,500 people (including most of the town's children) assembled in the Clinchfield Railroad
yard.
The elephant was hanged by the neck from a railcar-mounted industrial crane between four
o'clock and five o'clock that evening. The first attempt resulted in a snapped chain, causing Mary
to fall and break her hip as dozens of children fled in terror. The severely wounded elephant died
during a second attempt and was buried beside the tracks. A veterinarian examined Mary after
the hanging and determined that she had a severely infected tooth in the precise spot where Red
Eldridge had prodded her. Although the authenticity of a widely distributed (and heavily
retouched) photo of her death was disputed years later by Argosy magazine, other photographs
taken during the incident confirm its provenance.”
40
It must be noted that a crowd shouting for the death of an innocent bears some similarities once
again to elements of the trial of Christ in the Christian gospels:
“‘What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked them.
‘Crucify him!’ they shouted.
‘Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’”
- Mark 15:12-14
[12] The “thirteen coil knot” is an obvious allusion to the hangman's knot or hangman's noose
(also known as a collar during the Elizabethan era), a well-known knot most often associated
with its use in hanging a person.
[13] A “samovar pot” is a heated metal container traditionally used to heat and boil water in and
around Russia, as well as in other Central, South-Eastern, Eastern European countries, Kashmir
and in the Middle-East.
[14] A “haversack” is a bag carried over one shoulder to transport supplies, as on a hike.
[15] Identifying the “Scottish oatcakes in haversacks” as being bound for the “grave”, as well as
in the preceding line with the same for a samovar pot, seems to be Elephant restating, in a way,
the words of Casey Jones in Grist for the Malady Mill. As Casey Jones claimed her cause was
“to the moths and the rust” here Elephant uses a similar illustration that means essentially the
same: everything rots away and “dies”.
[16] A “mock trial” is an act or imitation trial, though in this case the consequences are all too
real for Elephant. Earlier mentions of a “brass cavalcade” also seemed to lend credence to the
idea that the trial is a sham.
[17] A “basket-hilted sword” is the name of a group of early modern sword types characterized
by a basket-shaped guard that protects the hand.
[18] As with Potter Wasp in Cardiff Giant, this is likely in some way a reference to ego-death, or
the death to self consciousness. An example of the concept as it may pertain to this particular
line:
“Ego death is the cessation, in the intense mystic altered state, of the sense and feeling of being a
control-wielding agent moving through time and space. The sensation of wielding control is
replaced by the experience of being helplessly, powerlessly embedded in spacetime as purely a
product of spacetime, with control-thoughts being perceptibly inserted or set into the stream of
thought by a hidden, uncontrollable source.”
41
(Hoffman, M. (2006, January 1). The Entheogen Theory of Religion and Ego Death. Retrieved
April 25, 2015, from http://www.egodeath.com/EntheogenTheoryOfReligion.htm)
Another intriguing possibility lies in Rene Descartes’ concept of dualism, and also bears some
ideas on “thoughts versus things”. From wikipedia:
“In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes embarked upon a quest in which he called all
his previous beliefs into doubt, in order to find out of what he could be certain.[7] In so doing, he
discovered that he could doubt whether he had a body (it could be that he was dreaming of it or
that it was an illusion created by an evil demon), but he could not doubt whether he had a mind.
This gave Descartes his first inkling that the mind and body were different things. The mind,
according to Descartes, was a "thinking thing" (lat. res cogitans), and an immaterial substance.
This "thing" was the essence of himself, that which doubts, believes, hopes, and thinks. The
distinction between mind and body is argued in Meditation VI as follows: I have a clear and
distinct idea of myself as a thinking, non-extended thing, and a clear and distinct idea of body as
an extended and non-thinking thing. Whatever I can conceive clearly and distinctly, God can so
create. So, Descartes argues, the mind, a thinking thing, can exist apart from its extended body.
And therefore, the mind is a substance distinct from the body, a substance whose essence is
thought.”
[19] These final lines, describing Elephant’s thoughts upon her death, are once again lifted from
Melville’s Billy Budd:
[continued from earlier annotation [5]]

“[…]A jewel-block they'll make of me to-morrow,
Pendant pearl from the yard-arm-end
Like the ear-drop I gave to Bristol Molly --
O, 'tis me, not the sentence they'll suspend.
Ay, Ay, Ay, all is up; and I must up to
Early in the morning, aloft from alow.
On an empty stomach, now, never it would do.
They'll give me a nibble -- bit o' biscuit ere I go.
Sure, a messmate will reach me the last parting cup;
But, turning heads away from the hoist and the belay,
Heaven knows who will have the running of me up!
No pipe to those halyards. -- But aren't it all sham?
A blur's in my eyes; it is dreaming that I am.
A hatchet to my hawser? all adrift to go?
The drum roll to grog, and Billy never know?
But Donald he has promised to stand by the plank;
So I'll shake a friendly hand ere I sink.
But -- no! It is dead then I'll be, come to think.
I remember Taff the Welshman when he sank.
42
And his cheek it was like the budding pink.

But me they'll lash me in hammock, drop me deep.
Fathoms down, fathoms down, how I'll dream fast asleep.
I feel it stealing now. Sentry, are you there?
Just ease this darbies at the wrist, and roll me over fair,
I am sleepy, and the oozy weeds about me twist.”
(Melville, H., & Busch, F. (1986). Billy Budd, Sailor and Other Stories. New York, N.Y., U.S.A.:
Penguin Books.)
43
Aubergine
[note: despite widespread debate as to the nature of this song, Aaron Weiss confirms that it is a
one off song, something of an intermission from the circus narrative, and deals with a fish falling
in love with an eggplant growing near the water’s edge.]
[1] “Sugaring down” is a term used by the colonial America Pilgrims for the process of making
maple syrup.
[2] “Queen Anne’s Lace” is a wild variant of a common carrot, and it has many medicinal uses,
even as a contraceptive. It bares a close resemblance to Poison Hemlock, which is deadly. This
aspect possibly bears some meaning for the relationship in this song, but it is unclear. These
opening lines are perhaps just poetic terms denoting a sort of love poem from Fish to Aubergine,
albeit one fraught with vegetable terms.
[3] The “nightshade” vegetables are a plant family that includes eggplant, peppers, potatoes and
tomatoes. The term “nightshade” may have been coined because some of these plants prefer to
grow in shady areas, and some flower at night. Once again we have a plant that could either be
edible or poisonous, depending on how careful one is.
[4] “Cultivating unsophistication” and “trying to think of nothing to say” seem to indicate that
Fish is putting on a false air of humility. This theme is common to mewithoutYou lyrics.
[5] When somebody expresses “sour grapes”, it means that they put down something simply
because they can't have it. The term finds its origins in the fable The Fox and the Grapes by
Aesop:
ONE hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes
just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. “Just the things to quench my
thirst,” quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just missed the
bunch. Turning round again with a One, Two, Three, he jumped up, but with no greater success.
Again and again he tried after the tempting morsel, but at last had to give it up, and walked
away with his nose in the air, saying: “I am sure they are sour.”
“IT IS EASY TO DESPISE WHAT YOU CANNOT GET.”
(Aesop’s Fables. (1981). New York: Viking Press.)
[6] When spinach starts to “go to seed” it's best to pick anything that's salvageable right away
and pull the plant, because the edible parts that are on the spinach will deteriorate rapidly.
Placed side by side, these two phrases (“sours grapes” and “spinach going to seed”) seem to have
great bearing on the relationship in question. Thus, Fish can’t have Aubergine, and is bitter
about it; he should get out while there is something still left to salvage in the relationship.
44
[7] “Aubergine” is another name for an eggplant. In this case it seems to be the proper name of
the eggplant for whom Fish is lamenting.
[8] In this context “Labrador” probably refers to a large peninsula of northeast Canada, on the
Atlantic, the Gulf of St Lawrence, Hudson Strait, and Hudson Bay. Being “locked to the
promontory rock” probably refers to the act of “locking” a ship; moving it by means of a lock or
locks, as in a canal. In this case, up to the highest point of land. As with the song’s opening
lines, the exact purpose is unclear. It could once again be poetic place setting for the romance
going on, or it could have a deeper meaning.
[9] The notion of “time as an illusion” is marked in many sciences and philosophies, and by the
likes of Albert Einstein. The most popular philosophical work on the subject (and considering
the weight of philosophical ideas in Ten Stories, likely the most relevant) is John Mactaggart’s
1908 book The Unreality of Time. In the work for which he is best known today, McTaggart
argued that our perception of time is an illusion, and that time itself is merely ideal. He
introduced the notions of the "A series" and "B series" interpretations of time, representing two
different ways that events in time can be arranged. The A series corresponds to our everyday
notions of past, present, and future. The A series is "the series of positions running from the far
past through the near past to the present, and then from the present to the near future and the far
future". This is contrasted with the B series, in which positions are ordered from earlier-than to
later-than relations. Thus the A series represent the events in time in a moving relation (from
future to present to past) to the temporally moving observer, whereas the B series orders the time
events as in firm and fixed relations to other time events. McTaggart argued that the A series was
a necessary component of any full theory of time since change only occurs in the A series, but
that it was also self-contradictory and that our perception of time was, therefore, ultimately an
incoherent illusion.
As it applies to the narrative of Fish and Aubergine, it seems that this notion is Aubergine’s
response to Fish’s lament to their past relationship. Fish longs for how things were, and he wants
what he can’t have.
This concept also brings to mind a quote from C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet, in which
earth-man Ransom is confronted by an alien philosopher over his skewed perception of the
importance of time:
“And how could we endure to live and let time pass if we were always crying for one day or one
year to come back--if we did not know that every day in a life fills the whole life with expectation
and memory and that these are that day?” - C.S. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet
(Lewis, C. (1996). Out of the Silent Planet. New York: Scribner Classics.)
45
[10] The reference to the drifting of continents seems to be another way of illustrating the
meaninglessness of the passage of time.
[11] Aubergine’s rebuttal to Fish here suggests that he is still more concerned for fleeting earthly
pleasures than of any spiritual growth. This is, in a sense, another image of ego death, in that
Aubergine smothers her own body’s desires.
[12] Being “tied to her apron strings” is a phrase that means to be wholly dependent on or
controlled by a woman, especially one's mother or wife. For example, “At 25, he was still too
tied to her apron strings to get an apartment of his own.” This expression, dating from the early
1800s, probably alluded to apron-string tenure, a 17th-century law that allowed a husband to
control his wife's and her family's property during her lifetime.
As it applies to this song: at the time of its writing, Aaron Weiss indeed was still living with his
mother. It seems that much of this relationship, and the criticisms of Fish’s behavior and
mindset, come from a deeply personal place, the same personal place regarding a singular past
relationship that runs through much of mewithoutYou’s catalogue. Even the album artwork for
this track contains a a fish that bears a remarkable resemblance to Weiss in its anthropomorphous
face. There will be another direct indication that Fish is, in some ways, a cypher for Weiss (note:
this can probably be said of many of the characters in Ten Stories, but in Aubergine we see at
least two direct references to Aaron Weiss that causes this to stand out enough to be mentioned;
here the age of “32” is a perfect example - his age at the time of the recording of the album).
[13] The sorrel here is possibly referring to the hibiscus plant. Hibiscus has always been
considered a medicinal and symbolic plant and spiritual plant. The Sanskrit name for hibiscus,
japa, literally means “mantra repetition” and it is said to strengthen the effects of prayers,
devotions and the repetition of mantras. It is said to “strengthen devotion in Japa, help make
mantras fruitful, and enhance attention in meditation.” It is also used by Sufi Muslims during the
fast of Ramadan. To quote an article on herbs in Ramadan, “In the Middle East and Africa,
hibiscus is readily served to guests, especially during Ramadan. However, for so many Ramadan
traditions like the kunafa (a Ramadan sweet) and the musaharati (the man who wakes people for
suhur), few look beyond the tradition for its benefit.
[14] The “saffron robe” most likely refers to the robes worn by Buddhist monks upon ordination,
although there is also a specific reference to a saffron colored robe in Homer’s Iliad, concerning
the goddess Eros.
Now when Dawn in robe of saffron was hastening from the streams of Oceanus, to bring light to
mortals and immortals, Thetis reached the ships with the armor that the god had given her.
- Iliad xix.1
(Bloom, H. (1996). Homer's Iliad. New York: Chelsea House.)
46
[15] Spartina, commonly known as “cordgrass”, is grass frequently found in coastal salt marches.
[16] Solipsism, (from Latin solus, meaning "alone", and ipse, meaning “self") is the
philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position,
solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world
and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind. As a metaphysical
position, solipsism goes further to the conclusion that the world and other minds do not exist.
Note that solipsism, at least on the surface, flies in the face of much of the “positive” philosophy
found throughout the album so far, and even extending to other mewithoutYou album. Thus
“Only I exist” is the antithesis of “I do not exist, only You exist.”
[17] The imagery of a Fish emerging from water only to find himself gasping for air bears a
strong resemblance to a story by M.R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, though possibly in imagery alone.
The fish foolishly searches for water (explained as symbolic for God), and through ignorance
will not believe that land and air will harm him, nor that he is already in what humans call
“water”.
“Is it not a great wonder that a fish would go around searching for water, even though it is living
in that very water? If one who has pure wisdom should try to tell a fish who has such a strange
kind of wisdom, “Look! This is water!” will it listen? Will such a fish accept the truth if you
speak the truth? It will never accept it, for its wisdom is incapable of analyzing itself and judging
it's own state. It is not even aware that, being a fish, water is the only place it can survive, and
that it would die on land, where there is no water. If you tell the truth to a fish in the state, it will
not understand. Worse than this are those in this world who speak such wisdom and do not
realize they are in danger. You must analyze this thoroughly and reflect on it with your wisdom.
Even if you brought the fish to the shore to show it the difference, it still would not except what
you say. However if you picked it up and actually threw it on the sand - once it was struggling
there gasping for breath - maybe at that stage, if you said to the fish, “Do you see now? This is
land. The place you have been living in all this time was water. You could never have survived
out of the water, and if you stay in this place where there is no water, you will die”, then, maybe
at that stage the fish might say, “Oho! Is that so? Is this land?” and try hard to agree with what
you say. But, in fact, it will not accept even what it has seen with its own eyes. Only because it
feared losing its life did it pretend to agree, saying, “Oho! Is that so? Is this the truth?”
However, the minute you return that fish to the water, it will go right back to wandering around
in search of water, saying, “What he told me was not true, it was a bunch of lies. He was trying
to kill me.” Accusing you and reproaching you in this way, it will probably go round and round
again, searching for water, and keep doing that for the rest of its life. You must understand this
well and explain it to those of wisdom.”
(Muhaiyaddeen, M. (2001). The Resonance of Allah: Resplendent Explanations Arising from the
Nūr, Allāh's Wisdom of Grace. Philadelphia, PA: Fellowship Press.)
47
[18] Note that Fish’s almost mystical view of his love, Aubergine, is now a rote image of a
basket of eggplants. Perhaps this denotes a shift in perspective on his relationship, much like his
emergence from the ocean.
[19] Aaron Weiss reportedly has a verse from Matthew tattooed on his wrists.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” - Matthew 5:3
To be “poor in spirit” is to recognize your utter spiritual bankruptcy before God. It is

understanding that you have absolutely nothing of worth to offer God. Being poor in spirit is
admitting that, because of your sin, you are completely destitute spiritually and can do nothing to
deliver yourself from your dire situation. Jesus is saying that, no matter your status in life, you
must recognize your spiritual poverty before you can come to God in faith to receive the
salvation He offers.
48
Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume
[1] The concepts of “Signs versus Signifiers” is an old philosophical one expounded on by
Jacques Derrida. A short summary:
“The signifier is the pointing finger, the word, the sound-image. A word is simply a jumble of
letters. The pointing finger is not the star. It is in the interpretation of the signifier that meaning
is created. The signified is the concept, the meaning, the thing indicated by the signifier. It need
not be a 'real object' but is some referent to which the signifier refers. The thing signified is
created in the perceiver and is internal to them. Whilst we share concepts, we do so via
signifiers. Whilst the signifier is more stable, the signified varies between people and contexts.
The signified does stabilize with habit, as the signifier cues thoughts and images.
The signifier and signified, whilst superficially simple, form a core element of semiotics.
Saussure's ideas are contrary to Plato's notion of ideas being eternally stable. Plato saw ideas as
the root concept that was implemented in individual instances. A signifier without signified has
no meaning, and the signified changes with person and context. For Saussure, even the root
concept is malleable.
The relationship between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary (Saussure called this
'unmotivated'). A real object need not actually exist 'out there'. Whilst the letters 'c-a-t' spell cat,
they do not embody 'catness'. The French 'chat' is not identical to the English 'cat' in the
signified that it creates (to the French, 'chat' has differences of meaning). In French, 'mouton'
means both 'mutton' and a living 'sheep', whilst the English does not differentiate.
Saussure inverts the usual reflectionist view that the signifier reflects the signified: the signifier
creates the signified in terms of the meaning it triggers for us. The meaning of a sign needs both
the signifier and the signified as created by an interpreter. A signifier without a signified is noise.
A signified without a signifier is impossible. Language is a series of 'negative' values in that
each sign marks a divergence of meaning betweens signs. Words have meaning in the difference
and relationships with other words. The language forms a 'conceptual grid', as defined by
structural anthropologist Edmund Leach, which we impose on the world in order to make sense.
Lacan defined the unconscious as being structured like language and dealing with a shifting set
of signifiers. When we think in words and images, these still signify: they are not the final
signified, which appears as a more abstract sensation. In that we can never know the Real, the
external signified can neither be truly known. Jaques Derrida criticized the neat simplicity of
signs. The signifier-signified is stable only if one term is final and incapable of referring beyond
itself, which is not true. Meaning is deferred as you slide between signs.”
(Signifier and Signified. (n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://changingminds.org/

explanations/critical_theory/concepts/signifier_signified.htm)
49
Note the emphasis on knowledge, perception, context, and language. This song deals heavily in
those concepts as they relate to the ability of any human to “know” God.
[2] “Gadarene Swine” is actually two references: one to Christian scripture and one to
philosophy. First the biblical:
“When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-
possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no
one could pass by that way. 29 And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each
other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” 30 Now there was a herd
of many swine feeding at a distance from them. 31 The demons began to entreat Him, saying, “If
You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.” 32 And He said to them, “Go!” And
they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the
sea and perished in the waters. 33 The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported
everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. 34 And behold, the whole city came
out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region.”
-Matthew 8:28-34
(other versions of the same account, with varying amounts of detail, can be found in Mark 5:1-20
and Luke 8:26-39)
The Philosophy reference, from R.D. Laing’s Politics of Experience:
“From an ideal vantage point on the ground, a formation of planes may be observed in the air.
One plane may be out of formation. But the whole formation may be off course. The plane that is
'out of formation' may be abnormal, bad or 'mad,' from the point of view of the formation. But
the formation itself may be bad or mad from the point of view of the ideal observer. The plane
that is out of formation may also be more or less off course than the formation itself is.
The 'out of formation' criterion is the clinical positivist criterion.
The 'off course' criterion is the ontological. One needs to make two judgements along these
different parameters. In particular, it is of fundamental importance not to confuse the person who
may be 'out of formation' by telling him he is 'off course' if he is not. It is of fundamental
importance not to make the positivist mistake of assuming that, because a group are 'in
formation,' this means they are necessarily 'on course.' This is the Gadarene swine fallacy.”
(Laing, R. (1967). The Politics of Experience. New York: Pantheon Books.)
Once again, note that this concept is, essentially, the crux of the dilemma between Fox and Bear
as they struggle to understand knowledge and the meaning thereof.
50
[3] [note: here is the first difference between liner notes and recorded vocals on the album worth
mentioning; “thought” is replaced with “word” in the final version of the song]
An “anchor bend” is a knot used for attaching a rope to a ring or similar termination. Its name
originates from the time when "bend" was understood to mean "tie to", and not restricted to knots
that join rope ends. It is possible that tying a word/thought into knots comes from the idiom “tie
into knots”, which means to confuse, upset, or bewilder, as in “He tied himself into knots when
he tried to explain how the engine works”. This metaphoric idiom transfers a knotted tangle to
mental confusion. However another intriguing possibility comes from Claudio Ferreira Costa’s
The Philosophical Inquiry:
“The therapeutic view of philosophy maintains that much of philosophy (especially traditional
philosophy) is a result of linguistic confusion. Philosophers are people possessed by a
metaphysical craving for generality, which disposes them in an irresistible way to be misled by
the superficial structures of our language, leading them to the construction of theoretical
“castles of cards”, when not turning them into hopeless prisoners of their own “knots of
thought”. In face of this, a sound philosophy must be therapeutic: the aim of the therapeutic
philosopher is to undo the theoretical castles of cards of the speculative metaphysician and to
unknot the knots of thought into which more austere thinkers have knitted themselves. And the
way of doing this is not by constructing any theory, nor by explaining anything, but only by
describing the real ways we use our words – by bringing these words, as Wittgenstein says, from
their metaphysical uses back to their ordinary ones. Hence, philosophy must be a purely
destructive undertaking, only succeeding when the philosopher is liberated from his
metaphysical preoccupations and, like a patient liberated from his neurotic fixations, becomes
able to forget philosophy.”
(Costa, C. (2002). The Philosophical Inquiry: Towards a Global Account. Lanham, MD:
University Press of America.)
[4] In philosophy, the term “means to an end” refers to any action (the means) carried out for the
sole purpose of achieving something else (an end). It can be thought of as a metaphysical
distinction, as no empirical information differentiates actions that are means to ends from those
that are not—that are "ends in themselves." It has been incurred that all actions are means to
other ends; this is relevant when considering the meaning of life. A means to an end is also an
idiom. It often refers to an activity (such as an undesirable job) that is not as important as the
goal you hope to achieve (monetary gains for example).
[5] The existence of certainty is a well-trod philosophical path, most widely popularized in the
works of René Descartes.
“In order to determine whether there is anything we can know with certainty, Descartes says that
we first have to doubt everything we know. Such a radical doubt might not seem reasonable, and
Descartes certainly does not mean that we really should doubt everything. What he suggests,
51
though, is that in order to see if there is some belief that cannot be doubted, we should
temporarily pretend that everything we know is questionable. This pretence is what is called a
hypothetical doubt. To make sure that we take the pretence seriously, Descartes suggests that
there might be good arguments to think that such doubting is justified (and thus more than simply
something we should pretend to do). His arguments fall into two categories: those aimed against
our sense experiences and our supposition that we can distinguish between being awake and
dreaming, and those aimed against our reasoning abilities themselves.
Since sense experience is sometimes deceiving, it is obvious to Descartes that a posteriori claims
(e.g., that this milk tastes sour or that suit is dark blue) cannot be the basis for claims of
knowledge. We do not know that what we experience through our senses is true; at least, we are
not certain of it. And we cannot tell when our senses are correctly reporting the way things really
are and when they are not. So the best thing to do is to doubt whether any knowledge can be
based on our sense experiences.
Furthermore, how do we know that we are not dreaming some particular experience we have, or
that we are not dreaming all of our experience of the world? When we dream we imagine things
happening often with the same sense of reality as we do when we are supposedly awake. Just as
a person who has an amputated limb has real sensations and feels real pains in a hand or a foot
that no longer exists, we sense that we have a body and interact with other bodies. But isn't it
possible that we are dreaming that there are things that exist apart from our thinking or
dreaming about them?
Note, in his dreaming argument, Descartes is not saying that we are merely dreaming all that we
experience; nor is he saying that we cannot distinguish dreaming from being awake. His point is
that we cannot be sure that what we experience as being real in the world is actually real.”
((n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/Notes/

descar1.html)
As a contrast to Descartes is the idea of Hume’s Fork.
“David Hume is widely known for his skeptical attitudes to certain types of knowledge. As with
the other Empiricists, Hume disagreed with such philosophers as Descartes that the mind
contained innate ideas. He also criticized the idea that we could be certain about anything
outside of our experience that it is so. Hume divided knowledge into what he termed "relations
of ideas" and "matters of fact". Relations of ideas are what we have been calling analytic truths
or a priori knowledge. These are such things as "All bachelors are unmarried", "2 + 2 = 4", etc.
These are certain in as much as we cannot conceive of them being otherwise. Matters of fact,
however, can be falsified. I may say, "The sun will rise tomorrow" (which is extremely likely) -
but is not impossible that it will not. […] For Hume, ideas are simply weaker versions of sense
impressions. So, for instance, the idea of the Sun is not as vivid as actually looking at it.
52
Furthermore, nothing can exist in the mind without either first being experienced or formed
through the combination of other experiences.”
((n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://philosophy.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/Notes/

descar1.html)
Note that the idea of doubt being necessary for belief of knowledge has much bearing on Bear’s
mindset as it applies to his own understanding of the existence of God, and the idea of the reality
of the sun as opposed to the idea of a sun (or an ocean) will crop up in Fox’s prophetic dream
later in the song.
[6] Asbury Park is a city in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, located on the Jersey
Shore and part of the New York City Metropolitan Area. Along the waterfront was installed the
Asbury Park Boardwalk, an orchestra pavilion, public changing rooms and a pier at the south end
of that boardwalk. Such success attracted other businessmen. In 1888, Ernest Schnitzler built the
Palace Merry-Go-Round on the southwest corner of Lake Avenue and Kingsley Street, the
cornerstone of what would become the Palace Amusements complex; other attractions followed.
[7] A “waltzer” is a fairground ride that often forms the centrepiece of traditional Scottish and
English fairs. The ride consists of a number of cars which spin freely while rotating around a
central point, in much the same way as a carousel. The floor of the ride undulates over a track so
that the cars rise and fall gently as the ride spins. The offset weight of the riders causes each car
to rotate.
[8] As a term, “fiberglass ghost” may be a reference to “Pepper's Ghost”, an illusion technique
used in theatre, haunted houses, dark rides, and magic tricks. It is named after John Henry
Pepper, a scientist who popularized the effect in a famed demonstration in 1862. It has a long
history, dating into the 16th century, and remains widely performed today. The technique
involves projecting ghostly images onto sheets of fiberglass.
[9] This is likely a nod once again to the Gadarene Swine Fallacy.
[10] “Running Days” are the consecutive days occupied on a voyage under a charter party,
including Sundays and not limited to the working days. “Setting plot” refers to marking on a
plan, map, or chart, as in the course of a ship or aircraft.
[11] Note that in this line and those after, archery metaphors are used to portray the philosophical
arguments between Fox and Bear. Specifically worth mentioning is that the words they speak
are useless, as in “aimless arrows” shot in the dark from “midnight archers” holding “broken
bows”.
[12] While in the context of the song this phrase simply denotes Bear’s dual mindset, one cannot
help but find the repeated references to ideas put forth by Descartes to be an intriguing
53
framework for this song. From the SparkNotes for his Principles of Philosophy, specifically the
section entitled (appropriately enough) God’s Existence:
“Now that Descartes has found a piece of certain knowledge—that he exists as a thinking thing—
he starts to look around for more of these self- evident truths. He discovers that he has quite a
few of them, prominent among these being the truths of mathematics and logic, and he is
optimistic about his chances for developing a system of certain knowledge. Then he realizes a
kink in his plan. These clear and distinct perceptions are only indubitable so long as he is
attending to them. As soon as they fall out of awareness, the doubt can creep back in. Once
again, he can begin to wonder whether it was an evil demon who caused him to believe in the
certainty of these truths. Suddenly, things do not look too rosy for his system of certain
knowledge; if he needs to keep every truth perpetually before his mind, then he cannot expect too
make much headway in unraveling the facts of nature.
Descartes' solution is to bring God into the picture. By proving that God is the cause of our clear
and distinct perception, and that, further, God is perfect in every way and thus no deceiver, he
will be able to secure lasting certainty for clear and distinct perceptions. He, therefore, sets out
to prove that God exists.
Descartes gives at least two arguments for God's existence. The first one, found in I.14, is a
version of the ontological argument for God's existence. Descartes' ontological argument goes as
follows: (1) Our idea of God is of a perfect being, (2) it is more perfect to exist than not to exist,
(3) therefore, God must exist.
The second argument that Descartes gives for this conclusion is far more complex. This
argument rests on the distinction between two sorts of reality. Formal reality is the reality that
anything has in virtue of existing. It is just regular, garden-variety reality. Formal reality comes
in three grades: infinite, finite, and mode. God is the only existing thing with infinite formal
reality. Substances all have finite formal reality. Finally, modes have modal formal reality. An
idea, insofar as it is considered as an occurent piece of thought, has modal formal reality (since
any particular thought, as we will see later, is just a mode of mind).
Ideas, however, also have another kind of reality, unique to them. When considered in their
relation to the objects they represent, ideas can be said to have objective reality. There are three
grades of objective reality, precisely mirroring the three grades of formal reality. The amount of
objective reality contained in an idea is determined solely on the basis of the amount of formal
reality contained in the object represented by the idea.
Descartes begins the argument by making the controversial claim that we all have an idea of
God as an infinite being. (He believes that we cannot fail to have this idea because he thinks it is
innate.) Because our idea of God is of an infinite being, it must have infinite objective reality.
Next, Descartes appeals to an innate logical principle: something cannot come from nothing.
Reasoning from this principle he arrives at two other causal principles: (1) There must be as
54
much reality in a cause as in an effect, and so, (2) there must be as much formal reality in a
cause of an idea as there is objective reality in an idea. Since we have an idea with infinite
objective reality (namely, the idea of God), Descartes is able to conclude that there is a being
with infinite formal reality who caused this idea. In other words, God exists.”
((n.d.). Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/principles/

section4.rhtml)
[13] This is a reference to Bear’s eventual self-sacrificial suicide, a prophecy that will be fulfilled
in the course of Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes.
[14] “Log flumes” are amusement rides consisting of a water flume and artificial hollow logs or
boats. Passengers sit in the logs, which are propelled along the flume by the flow of water. The
ride usually culminates with a rapid descent and splashdown into a body of water, which may
happen more than once (normally the largest drop being just before the end)
[15] Much has been made of this line’s significance, but in the context of the dueling
philosophies present thus far and the concept of being certain of the existence of God, it seems
that Fox’s charge into the waves with a glass is a dream metaphor for her own mindset. That is,
she is attempting to know for a fact whether or not God exists, going so far as to draw Bear into
doubt over it. This attempt to know the unknowable, undefinable, and unmeasurable is akin to
trying to contain the entirety of the ocean in a drinking glass.
[16] The “bottle stand” is an allusion to a carnival skill-game wherein a contestant throws a ball
into a stack of bottles in order to knock them down and win a prize.
[17] Sun imagery will crop up again in Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes. It is possibly that the star/sun
here is a metaphor for God in the same way that the ocean was a few lines previous.
[18] The sun “exploding” may have it’s origin in Rumi. An excerpt from his poem, The Laziest
Son:
“Every spoken word is a covering for the inner self.

A little curtain-flick no wider than a slice
Of roast meat can reveal hundreds of exploding suns.
Even if what is being said is trivial and wrong,
The listener hears the source. One breeze comes
From across a garden. Another from across the ash-heap.
Think how different the voices of the fox
And the lion, and what they tell you!”
(Barks, C. (1995). The Essential Rumi. San Francisco, CA: Harper.)
55
Note also that the “tiny balloons” at which one throws darts is another carnival game.
[19] The “Shetland” sheep is a small, wool-producing breed of sheep originating in the Shetland
Isles, but now also kept in many other parts of the world.
[20] The “Dorset” or Dorset Horned breed of sheep is known mostly for its prolific lambing.
[21] The “Thaler” was a silver coin used throughout Europe for almost four hundred years. The
last minting of Thaler coins occurred in 1872, and the price dropped steadily until the coin was
withdrawn and demonetized in 1908, thus they are “disused”.
[22] The “superstition well” probably is meant to denote a wishing well, which is a term from
European folklore to describe wells where it was thought that any spoken wish would be granted.
The idea that a wish would be granted came from the idea that water housed deities or had been
placed there as a gift from the gods, since water was a source of life and often a scarce
commodity. The Germanic and Celtic peoples considered springs and wells sacred places.
Sometimes the places were marked with wooden statues possibly of the god associated with the
pool. Germanic peoples were known to throw the armour and weapons of defeated enemies into
bogs and other pools of water as offerings to their gods. Water was seen to have healing powers
and therefore wells became popular with many people drinking, bathing or just simply wishing
over it. Some people believe that the guardians or dwellers of the well would grant them their
wish if they paid a price. After uttering the wish, one would generally drop coins in the well.
That wish would then be granted by the guardian or dweller, based upon how the coin would
land at the bottom of the well. If the coin landed heads up, the guardian of the well would grant
the wish, but the wish of a tails up coin would be ignored. It was thus potentially lucky to throw
coins in the well, but it depended on how they landed. The tradition of dropping pennies in
ponds and fountains stems from this. Coins would be placed there as gifts for the deity to show
appreciation.
In the context of the song, the meaning this action is unclear, although one possibility is that it is
another metaphor concerning an attempt to “know” God.
56
Nine Stories
[1] [Note: the lyrics here differ greatly from liner notes to sung vocals. As the liner notes offer
an admittedly more coherent narrative I have chosen to only include differences where
significant lyrics have been added.]
The “Homestead Acts” were several United States federal laws that gave an applicant ownership
of land, typically called a "homestead", at little or no cost.
[2] Yellow “toadflax” and the Dalmatian toadflaxes are invasive, perennial weeds that are
noxious in Colorado and other western states.
[3] Dodge Summit is a town in Montana.
[4] Athabasca Falls is a waterfall in Jasper National Park on the upper Athabasca River,
approximately 30 kilometres south of the townsite of Jasper, Alberta, Canada, and just west of
the Icefields Parkway. This confirms that Walrus’ course is indeed toward the arctic regions of
Canada.
[5] Avocets are wading birds that have long legs and long, thin, upcurved bills which they sweep
from side to side when feeding in the brackish or saline wetlands they prefer.
[6] The 15 to 20 species of small passerine birds in the “gnatcatcher” family occur in North and
South America. Most species of this mainly tropical and subtropical group are resident, but the
blue-grey gnatcatcher of the United States and southern Canada migrates south in winter. They
are close relatives of the wrens.
[7] Pinus contorta, with the common names “lodgepole pine” and shore pine, and also known as
twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near
the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine, but is rare in lowland rain forests.
[8] The “barn owl” is the most widely distributed species of owl, and one of the most widespread
of all birds.
[9] To be “amorous” is to show a feeling of sensuality often relating to sexual desire.
[10] Likely refers to the idiom “laying down of arms”, meaning essentially to surrender.
[11] A “soldierfish” is a ray finned fish found in tropical parts of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic
Oceans, with the greatest species richness near reefs in the Indo-Pacific.
[12] This is the first of many allusions to human excess or achievement referred to in this song as
reasons both the hedonistic Barn Owl and the monastic Walrus have, so to speak, “seen it all”.
57
Owing to the time period of the narrative, the “world’s tallest man” may refer to Angus Mòr
MacAskill, a non-pathological giant from the early to mid 1800s, and who (appropriately enough
for this story) went to work for P.T. Barnum.
[13] Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont, known to history as “Charlotte Corday”, was a
figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed under the guillotine for the
assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was in part responsible, through his role as
a politician and journalist, for the more radical course the Revolution had taken. More
specifically, he played a substantial role in the political purge of the Girondins, with whom
Corday sympathized. His murder was memorialized in a celebrated painting by Jacques-Louis
David which shows Marat after Corday had stabbed him to death in his bathtub. In 1847, writer
Alphonse de Lamartine gave Corday the posthumous nickname l'ange de l'assassinat (the Angel
of Assassination).
[14] Steele, Dakota is a small town home to the “World’s Largest Sandhill Crane”. Known as
“Sandy,” the crane stands here on in town easily visible from the interstate. The crane was made
by James Miller, a self-taught ironworker and welder in nearby Arena, ND in 1998. While
completely displaced from the late 19th century time period, this reference is nonetheless a
similar example of human achievement and grandeur.
[15] “Paiute” refers to three closely related groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin of
the United States.
[16] “Mormon Rain” is an American colloquialism for dust storms.
[17] Virginia City here refers to the town in Montana.
[18] George Lane, better known as “Clubfoot” George, was an alleged outlaw who was hanged
on January 13, 1864, in Virginia City, Montana. Lane was later alleged to be a member of a
criminal gang known as the Gang of Innocents and sentenced to death. The execution was
carried out by the Montana Vigilantes, a committee which functioned during Montana's gold rush
in 1863 and 1864.
[19] The “untied” refrain used by both Owl and Walrus would seem to denote a certain freedom
found, to their mind, in the vastly different choices they’ve made: Owl in the pursuit of pleasure
as the highest good, and Walrus in his monasticism.
[20] A thinly veiled proposal of marriage from Owl. It would seem that in his pursuit to gather
to himself pleasure and earthly fulfillment, Owl now desires Walrus. One might expect that this
is merely because he has “never seen anything” like Walrus before, and thus his amorous eye is a
false one looking toward new experiences gained rather than any notion of romance. This is
perhaps a good point to give a brief definition of hedonism as a belief system so as to better
understand the character of Owl.
58
Hedonism is a school of thought that argues that pleasure is the primary or most important
intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure (pleasure minus
pain). Ethical hedonism is the idea that all people have the right to do everything in their power
to achieve the greatest amount of pleasure possible to them, assuming that their actions do not
infringe on the equal rights of others. It is also the idea that every person's pleasure should far
surpass their amount of pain. Ethical hedonism is said to have been started by Aristippus of
Cyrene, a student of Socrates. He held the idea that pleasure is the highest good.
Once again we have an antithesis to what are consistently portrayed on the album as positive
qualities: self-denial, ego-death, and self-sacrifice.
[21] Walrus’ mindset allows him to identify Owl as a “charlatan”, that is: a person falsely
claiming to have a special knowledge or skill. In this case the special knowledge is the pursuit of
pleasure.
[22] “Eremitism" constitutes living in seclusion from social life, as Walrus is attempting to do. It
is important to note that the song seems to indicate with this line and later with “I’ve never been
in this room before” that Walrus is facing a legitimate temptation from Owl, and is not
immediately brushing aside the idea of a pleasurable life so easily.
[23] The Arfaks are mountains found on the Bird's Head Peninsula in the Province of West
Papua, Indonesia. The term "Arfak" came the language of the coastal Biak people, meaning
“inferior."
[24] “Sicklebills” are a type of bird, most notably in the birds of paradise family.
[25] The line “Tangiers acrobatics nine stories high” is probably in reference to the act of
forming human pyramids, in this case ones roughly 90 feet tall. Note that the use of the phrase
“nine stories” is not merely a play on Ten Stories as an album title, but is yet another moment
denoting human excess of achievement.
It is also possible (however unlikely) that Weiss had a specific Tangiers acrobat in mind here:
“Morocco is home to one of the world’s oldest acrobatic traditions, and Moroccan tumbling
troupes have been seen on the European fairgrounds long before Philip Astley invented the circus
in 1770. To whatever degree they inspired Astley’s first troupe of acrobats is not known, but these
acrobats presented tumbling and human pyramids in the manner of Moroccan tumblers—and
they may very well have included Moroccans acrobats in the first place. In any event, Moroccan
tumbling troupes have been part of the circus practically since its inception, and are still seen in
circuses all over the world to this day.
Most of these troupes are assembled for the time of a contract, and disappear at the end of the
season (often scattering their members amidst other troupes), but some of them have had a
59
leader talented and enterprising enough to strongly establish their name in the business. In the
1950s, the Ifni Sahara Troupe was one of them. Its "strongman"—the acrobat who served as the
main support for the human pyramids—was Ahmed Ben Ali Zinati; this is his story.
Ahmed Ben Ali Zinati was born in Tangier, Morocco, on January 15, 1929. A tall, strong and
energetic kid, he exhausted part of his energy boxing at a local gymnasium. However, this was
not enough, and the energy he had left helped him make his first steps toward a circus career, as
he began practicing acrobatics and tumbling on the beach with a group of friends—some of
whom would also later embrace a life in the circus, and sometimes work with him.”
(Jando, D. (n.d.). Ahmed Ben Ali Zinati. Retrieved May 23, 2015, from http://
www.circopedia.org/Ahmed_Ben_Ali_Zinati)
[26] This is a clear reference to the end of the American Civil War. On April 9, 1865 after four
years of Civil War, approximately 630,000 deaths and over 1 million casualties, General Robert
E. Lee surrendered the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S.
Grant, at the home of Wilmer and Virginia McLean in the rural town of Appomattox Court
House, Virginia. General Lee arrived at the McLean home shortly after 1:00 p.m. followed a half
hour later by General Grant. The meeting lasted approximately an hour and a half.
[27] Walrus seems to long for death as much as seclusion. Many monastic traditions in various
religions have a fairly welcoming attitude toward death, but it is unclear if this line is a specific
reference to any one quote or idea.
[28] This withering vine here would seem to be a reference to the biblical book of Jonah.
“5Jonah had gone out and sat down at a place east of the city. There he made himself a shelter,
sat in its shade and waited to see what would happen to the city. 6Then the Lord God provided a
leafy planta and made it grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head to ease his discomfort,
and Jonah was very happy about the plant. 7But at dawn the next day God provided a worm,
which chewed the plant so that it withered. 8When the sun rose, God provided a scorching east
wind, and the sun blazed on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint. He wanted to die, and said, “It
would be better for me to die than to live.” - Jonah 4:5-8
[29] “Jacob’s Ladder” refers to a vision seen by the Hebrew patriarch Jacob in the Book of
Genesis.
“10Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11When he reached a certain place, he stopped
for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and
lay down to sleep. 12He had a dream in which he saw a stairway (note: ladder in many
translations) resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were
ascending and descending on it.” - Genesis 28:10-12
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One other possibility contained in the “Jacob’s Ladder” reference is as it regards to the
monasticism of Walrus. One is inclined to think of the infamous Ladder of Divine Ascent by St.
John Climacus. From Wikipedia:
“The Ladder of Divine Ascent, or Ladder of Paradise, is an important ascetical treatise for
monasticism in Eastern Christianity written by John Climacus in ca. AD 600 at the request of
John, Abbot of Raithu, a monastery situated on the shores of the Red Sea.
The Scala, which obtained an immense popularity and has made its author famous in the
Church, is addressed to anchorites and cenobites and treats of the means by which the highest
degree of religious perfection may be attained. Divided into thirty parts, or "steps", in memory of
the thirty years of the life of Christ, the Divine model of the religious, it presents a picture of all
the virtues and contains a great many parables and historical touches, drawn principally from
the monastic life, and exhibiting the practical application of the precepts.”
[30] To be a “thorn in someone’s side” is to be a constant bother or annoyance to someone.

There may also be a biblical allusion here. From St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians:
“So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to
torment me and keep me from becoming proud.” - 2 Corinthians 12:7
Within the context of the narrative, Walrus seems to be identifying Owl’s hedonistic tendencies
as a torment, rather than a virtue.
61
Fiji Mermaid
[1] The nets here likely refer to those place beneath high wire acts to catch falling trapeze artists
in the case of a falling accident.
[2] A “bed of nails” is an oblong piece of wood, the size of a bed, with nails pointing upwards
out of it. It appears to the spectator that anyone lying on this "bed" would be injured by the nails,
but this is not so. Assuming the nails are numerous enough, the weight is distributed between
them such that the pressure exerted by each nail is not enough to break the person's skin.
[3] The nails beds being stored here suggest disuse, possibly indicating a tenuous thematic
connection to the German thalers of “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume”.
[4] The Fiji mermaid (also Feejee mermaid) was an object comprising the torso and head of a
juvenile monkey sewn to the back half of a fish. It was a common feature of sideshows, where it
was presented as the mummified body of a creature that was supposedly half mammal and half
fish, a version of a mermaid.The original had fish scales with animal hair superimposed on its
body with pendulous breasts on its chest. The mouth was wide open with its teeth bared. The
right hand was against the right cheek, and the left tucked under its lower left jaw. This mermaid
was supposedly caught near the Feejee Islands in the South Pacific. Several replicas and
variations have also been made and exhibited under similar names and pretexts. The original
object was exhibited by P.T Barnum in Barnum's American Museum in New York in 1842 and
then disappeared. Here the mermaid is dressed in macramé, a form of textile-making using
knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of
"hitching": full hitch and double half hitches.
In the context of this song, the Fiji Mermaid seems to fill the same role as the Cardiff Giant; that
is, it is emblematic of the fraudulent world of falsehood presented in the circus.
[5] A play on the idiom “fork in the road”, indicative of a time when one must make a difficult
decision about something.
[6] “Spoon bending” is the apparent deformation of objects, especially metal cutlery, either
without physical force, or with less force than would normally seem necessary. It is a common
form of stage magic, and a variety of methods are used to produce the illusion.
[7] “Cut short” is probably a play on the term “shortcut”, while the most likely definition used
for the word “tern” denotes three winning numbers drawn together in a lottery. Thus a “shortcut
to easy money”.
[8] Ersatz indicates that something is serving as a substitute, is synthetic, or artificial. Yet
another indication of the fraudulent nature of the circus’ performances.
62
[9] “Sharp shots”, as confirmed by the album artwork, refers to a sharpshooting archery
performance, probably including the shooting of an apple on top of someone’s head, as in the
popular William Tell folk tale from Switzerland. That the performance has become “dull”
indicates the theme of disinterest in the circus in the wake of the animals’ escape.
[10] A Harlequin is a comic character in commedia dell'arte and the harlequinade, usually
masked, dressed in multicolored, diamond-patterned tights, and carrying a wooden sword or
magic wand.
[11] While obviously a reference to an actual matchstick, the use of the term within the theme of
the song seems to indicate a secondary definition of the word as an idiom, indicating something
that suggests a matchstick, as in thinness or fragility.
[12] The “paraffin show” seems to be a fire-breathing performance. Fire breathing is the act of
creating a plume of fire by breathing a stream of fuel over an open flame. It can be a dangerous
activity but the proper technique and the correct fuel reduces the risk of injury. The fuel here is
paraffin, a flammable, whitish, translucent, waxy solid consisting of a mixture of saturated
hydrocarbons, obtained by distillation from petroleum or shale and used in candles, cosmetics,
polishes, and sealing and waterproofing compounds.
[13] The “shell game” (also known as Thimblerig, Three shells and a pea, the old army game) is
portrayed as a gambling game, but in reality, when a wager for money is made, it is almost
always a confidence trick used to perpetrate fraud. In confidence trick slang, this swindle is
referred to as a short-con because it is quick and easy to pull off. In the shell game, three or
more identical containers (which may be cups, shells, bottle caps, or anything else) are placed
face-down on a surface. A small ball is placed beneath one of these containers so that it cannot be
seen, and they are then shuffled by the operator in plain view. One or more players are invited to
bet on which container holds the ball – typically, the operator offers to double the player's stake
if they guess correctly. Where the game is played honestly, the operator can win if he shuffles the
containers in a way which the player cannot follow. In practice, however, the shell game is
notorious for its use by confidence tricksters who will typically rig the game using sleight of
hand to move or hide the ball during play and replace it as required. Fraudulent shell games are
also known for the use of psychological tricks to convince potential players of the legitimacy of
the game – for example, by using shills or by allowing a player to win a few times before
beginning the scam. As the game is almost always played dishonestly, it is typically regarded as a
confidence trick and not as a legitimate game. There are, however, online examples of honest
shell games due to the skill involved in visually tracking the movements of the containers.
[14] A play on the word “heirloom”, a valuable object that has belonged to a family for several
generations.
63
[15] Medicine used here may be a play on the idiom “give them a taste of their own medicine” or
“take your medicine”, especially when used in the context of an heirloom of medicine coming to
the people who run the circus.
[16] Continuing the theme of falsehood, a “mare’s nest” is a false discovery, illusion, or
deliberate hoax.
[17] It is possible that the term “mystery claim” is a variation on the legal term “false claim”,
used when a person knowingly makes an untrue statement or claim to gain an benefit or reward.
[18] These lines probably indicate the use of the animals as a scapegoat for any previous
misfortunes the circus endured.
[19] Rather tenuous, but this could be a reference to the Book of Revelation:
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will
come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” - Revelation 3:20
[20] “Like a horse in quicksand” is a common saying ascribed to one who is stuck in some
situation. In this case it seems that the song’s narrator (possibly the Barker later identified in
“Julian the Onion”) is stuck in a situation in which he both wants to move on, and also feels
drawn back into the old temptations, exemplified by the scantily clad woman he mentions.
64
Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes
[1] The imagery here seems in some way connected to that of “Grist for the Malady Mill”, with
wooden carved hands appearing both places.
[2] A timber hitch is a knot used to attach a single length of rope to a cylindrical object. Secure
while tension is maintained, it is easily untied even after heavy loading. The hitch is also one of
the methods used to connect ukulele and classical guitar strings to the bridge of the instruments.
This particular usage seems to indicate yet another connection to imagery from “Grist for the
Malady Mill”.
[3] The phrasing here is probably indicative of the inequality idiom “can’t hold a candle to
someone”. The specific line here is taken from Love of Fame by Edward Young:
“How commentators each dark passage shun,

And hold their farthing candle to the sun.”
(Young, E. (1752). Love of fame, the Universal Passion. In Seven Characteristical Satires (The
5th ed.). London: Printed for J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper.)
[4] The use here of “pocket mouse” is very unclear here, but it might have something to do with
an old joke, in response to someone using the term “we” instead of “I”, to which the response is
“Have you got a mouse in your pocket?”
[5] The word “albatross” is sometimes used metaphorically to mean a psychological burden that
feels like a curse.
[6] Loosening ones hair from a braided crown is a symbol of sexual permissiveness by a maiden
in classical Russian culture. Single braided crowns mark maidens, while double braided crowns
mark wives. In this case, Bear has seemingly given up a healthy romantic (and sexual?)
relationship, to wander with Fox in the wilderness.
[7] Anabaptism is a Christian movement which traces its origins to the Radical Reformation.
Anabaptists are Christians who believe in delaying baptism until the candidate confesses his or
her faith. Although some consider this movement to be an offshoot of Protestantism, others see it
as a distinct one. The Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites are direct descendants of the
movement. Schwarzenau Brethren, Bruderhof, and the Apostolic Christian Church are
considered later developments among the Anabaptists. The girl referred to by Fox is probably
the one who sat with Bear on the Ferris wheel (and seemingly spurned his awkward advances).
[8] “Burning like a fever” is an old idiom. It’s meaning is simply to evoke a hyperbolic
description of burning, in this case from the heat of the circus lights, presumably.
65
[9] “Carriage hat” is probably referring to a top hat, sometimes also known by the nickname
"topper", is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn by men from the latter
part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century.
[10] Masks have always been an important feature of the Venetian carnival. Traditionally people
were allowed to wear them between the festival of Santo Stefano (St. Stephen's Day, December
26) and the start of the carnival season at midnight of Shrove Tuesday. As masks were also
allowed on Ascension and from October 5 to Christmas, people could spend a large portion of
the year in disguise. Maskmakers (mascherari) enjoyed a special position in society, with their
own laws and their own guild. Venetian masks can be made of leather, porcelain or using the
original glass technique. The original masks were rather simple in design, decoration, and often
had a symbolic and practical function.
[11] “Shepherd’s Check” is a pattern of small even black-and-white checks, essentially what
would be called “plaid”.
[12] Herringbone describes a distinctive V-shaped weaving pattern usually found in twill fabric.
It is distinguished from a plain chevron by the break at reversal, which makes it resemble a
broken zigzag. The pattern is called herringbone because it resembles the skeleton of a herring
fish. Herringbone-patterned fabric is usually wool, and is one of the most popular cloths used for
suits and outerwear. Tweed cloth is often woven with a herringbone pattern.
[13] Ironstone, although widespread, is a limited source of iron (Fe). Historically, most of British
iron originated from ironstone, but it is now rarely used for this purpose because it is far too
limited in quantity to be an economic source of iron ore.
[14] The following monologue is a lie told by Bear. His lie begins with a proclamation that the
cliffs they are currently traversing were the location of his brother’s burial. In some ways this is
thematically linked to the “bridal fate” line from “February, 1878” in that Bear has seen the cliff,
determined his own future death by leaping from it, and is accepting it willingly.
[15] Agnes of Rome is a virgin–martyr, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church,
Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, and Lutheranism. She is one of seven
women, who along with the Blessed Virgin, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the
Mass. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape survivors,
virgins, and the Children of Mary. She is depicted in art with a lamb, as the Latin word for
"lamb", agnus, sounds like her name. The name "Agnes" is actually derived from the feminine
Greek adjective “hagnē" meaning "chaste, pure, sacred”. Since the Middle Ages, Saint Agnes has
been represented with a lamb, both the symbol of her virginal innocence. She is also represented
as a young girl in robes, holding a palm branch in her hand with a lamb at her feet or in her arms.
[16] Saint Agnes is the patron saint of young girls. Folk custom called for them to practice rituals
on Saint Agnes' Eve with a view to discovering their future husbands. This superstition has been
66
immortalized in John Keats's poem, "The Eve of Saint Agnes”, from which this line takes it’s
phrasing:
“Anon his heart revives: her vespers done,

Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees;
Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one;
Loosens her fragrant boddice; by degrees
Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees:
Half-hidden, like a mermaid in sea-weed,
Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees,
In fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed,
But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled.”
(Keats, J., & Scudder, H. (1899). The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats
(Cambridge ed.). Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company.)
[17] Breathing bed is likely a term used to indicate one’s death bed.
[18] The “dogtooth violet” produces a solitary white, pink or lilac flower at the beginning of
spring. The petals are reflexed at the top and yellow tinted at the base. The brown spotted leaves
are ovate to lanceolate and grow in pairs. The white bulb is oblong and resembles a dog's tooth,
hence the common name "dog's tooth violet" and the Latin specific epithet dens-canis, which
translates as "dog's tooth”.
[19] The lie Bear is telling continues as he indicates to Fox that his brother’s body was laid at the
foot of the cliff where they are currently standing, and that his body is enough to feed her. This
is loosely inspired by a buddhist tale from Frescoes and Fables entitled “A Prince Gives His Life
to a Tiger”:
“One day, three princes rode out to hunt. They came upon a valley lush with trees and
fragrant flowers and with a river of sweet water. The brothers sat quite still, admiring the beauty
of the valley. Suddenly, not far from them, the princes spotted seven tiger cubs frisking in the
grass around their mother.
The tigress was thin and gaunt. She had not eaten for so long that her milk had dried up.
The mother tiger stared hungrily at her cubs as they tumbled and rolled around her trying to get
at her dry teats.
The eldest brother felt sorry for the tigers but he didn't know what to do about their
plight. The middle brother suggested they return to the palace and bring back some fresh meat
for the mother tiger.
"If the mother tiger can be saved and her milk can be made to flow again," he argued,
"then surely her cubs will also live.”
67
The princely brothers agreed to try and turned their horses back towards the palace. Just as they
started out, the youngest prince, whose name was Mahasattva, reconsidered. It would take them
half a day to get to the palace, he thought, and another half day of travel for the return trip to the
valley. In the meantime, he reasoned, the mother tiger would starve to death. There and then,
Mahasattva decided that he would give his own life in order that the tigress and her cubs could
live.
"Wait a minute," he called to his two brothers. "I really feel too ill to make the trip back
to the palace. I'll just wait here and rest until you return."
When his two elder brothers had galloped out of sight, Mahasattva removed all his
clothing and lay down in front of the big tigress. Tentatively, the tigress licked at Mahasattva's
naked body but she drew back when she discovered that he was still alive. Mahasattva lay still a
while longer but still the tigress made no attempt to eat him since she preferred dead meat.
Finally realizing his error, Mahasattva jumped up and climbed the hill above the tigress
and her cubs. Once there, he found a length of bamboo that he fashioned into a sharp knife.
Holding the splinter of bamboo in his hand he stabbed himself in the throat and, as his life's
blood drained away, he fainted and toppled over the edge of the hill, landing right in front of the
tigress and her cubs.
The tigress pounced on Mahasattva's dead body, eagerly devouring his flesh, gnawing on
his bones and lapping up his spilled blood. In moments, the tigress' breasts began to fill with milk
and her cubs suckled greedily. Revived by their meal, the tigress and her seven cubs left the
valley.
In the meantime, the two brothers were on their way back to the valley with a load of
fresh meat from the palace. When they arrived, they were surprised to find that the tigers were
not there. Nothing remained but scattered bones and a heap of clothes. They knew immediately
that the clothes belonged to their younger brother and that it was his bones strewn in the grass.
It dawned on them now what Mahasattva's real reason for not returning with them to the palace
was. He had stayed behind to sacrifice his own life so that the tigers would live.
The king and queen wept when they heard the news of their youngest son's death. Sadly,
they rode out to the valley to see where their son had given his life to the tigress and her cubs.
When they saw his clothes and bones, they were overwhelmed by grief and cried as though their
hearts would break. In memory of their son Mahasattva, the king and queen decreed that a
pagoda be built on the very spot where he had made his sacrifice. In a few days the pagoda was
completed and Mahasattva's clothes and bones were reverently stored inside.
Since that time, year after year and generation after generation, people from all around
have made the pilgrimage to Mahasattva's pagoda to burn incense and pray to Buddha.”
(Li, G. (1998). Frescoes and Fables: Mural Stories From the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang.
Beijing, China: New World Press.)
[20] A carronade is a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, which was used by the Royal Navy and
first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from
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the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and
anti-crew weapon.
[21] This line serves as a callback to the log flume ride in “Fox’s Dream of a Log Flume”. Also
it is interesting to note, in light of the following track, that the album seems to be coming “full
circle” at this point. Bear sacrifices himself for Fox, just as Mother Elephant sacrificed herself
for him at the outset.
[22] Elements of this phrasing seem to find their origin in Yeat’s Circus Animal’s Desertion:
“Those masterful images because complete

Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.”
(Yeats, W. (1956). The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats (Definitive ed.). New York: Macmillan.)
[23] Asbury Park again makes an appearance, a formative location for Bear.
[24] This narrative continues as Bear leaps to his death. The idea of improvement seems to
indicate that Bear sees his self-sacrifice as an act that elevates everyone.
[25] Mast is the fruit of beech, oak, chestnut, and other forest trees, especially as food for pigs
and wild animals.
[26] The salmon run is the time when salmon, which have migrated from the ocean, swim to the
upper reaches of rivers where they spawn on gravel beds. After spawning, all Pacific salmon and
most Atlantic salmon die, and the salmon life cycle starts over again. The annual run can be a
major event for grizzly bears, bald eagles and sport fishermen. Bear is, in essence, telling Fox
that he will hibernate until the salmon are spawning again so that he can avoid starvation.
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All Circles
[1] Thematically the most important song on the record, “All Circles” takes its lyrics almost
verbatim from, once again, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. From the preface:
“The living substance, further, is that being which is truly subject, or, what is the same thing, is
truly realised and actual (wirklich) solely in the process of positing itself, or in mediating with its
own self its transitions from one state or position to the opposite. As subject it is pure and simple
negativity, and just on that account a process of splitting up what is simple and undifferentiated,
a process of duplicating and setting factors in opposition, which [process] in turn is the negation
of this indifferent diversity and of the opposition of factors it entails. True reality is merely this
process of reinstating self-identity, of reflecting into its own self in and from its other, and is not
an original and primal unity as such, not an immediate unity as such. It is the process of its own
becoming, the circle which presupposes its end as its purpose, and has its end for its
beginning; it becomes concrete and actual only by being carried out, and by the end it
involves.”
As Hegel’s text is rather infamously dense and hard to follow, a relevant summary of his
aforementioned work is probably necessary. Bolded portions include concepts portrayed
throughout Ten Stories.
“The Phenomenology of Spirit (Die Phänomenologie des Geistes), published in 1807, is Hegel's
first major comprehensive philosophical work. Originally intended to be the first part of his
comprehensive system of science (Wissenschaft) or philosophy, Hegel eventually considered it to
be the introduction to his system. This work provides what can be called a "biography of
spirit," i.e., an account of the development of consciousness and self-consciousness in the
context of some central epistemological, anthropological and cultural themes of human
history. It has continuity with the works discussed above in examining the development of the
human mind in relation to human experience but is more wide-ranging in also addressing
fundamental questions about the meaning of perceiving, knowing, and other cognitive
activities as well as of the nature of reason and reality.
One of the most widely discussed places in the Phenomenology is the chapter on "The Truth of
Self-Certainty" which includes a subsection on "Independence and Dependence of Self-
Consciousness: Lordship and Bondage." This section treats of the (somewhat misleadingly
named) "master/slave" struggle which is taken by some, especially the Marxian-inspired, as a
paradigm of all forms of social conflict, in particular the struggle between social classes. It is
clear that Hegel intended the scenario to typify certain features of the struggle for recognition
(Anerkennung) overall, be it social, personal, etc. The conflict between master and slave
(which shall be referred to hereafter as lord and bondsman as more in keeping with Hegel's
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own terminology and the intended generic meaning) is one in which the historical themes of
dominance and obedience, dependence and independence, etc., are philosophically introduced.
Although this specific dialectic of struggle occurs only at the earliest stages of self-
consciousness, it nonetheless sets up the main problematic for achieving realized self-
consciousness–the gaining of self-recognition through the recognition of and by another,
through mutual recognition.
According to Hegel, the relationship between self and otherness is the fundamental defining
characteristic of human awareness and activity, being rooted as it is in the emotion of desire
for objects as well as in the estrangement from those objects, which is part of the primordial
human experience of the world. The otherness that consciousness experiences as a barrier to
its goal is the external reality of the natural and social world, which prevents individual
consciousness from becoming free and independent. However, that otherness cannot be
abolished or destroyed, without destroying oneself, and so ideally there must be reconciliation
between self and other such that consciousness can "universalize" itself through the other. In
the relation of dominance and subservience between two consciousnesses, say lord and
bondsman, the basic problem for consciousness is the overcoming of its otherness, or put
positively, the achieving of integration with itself. The relation between lord and bondsman leads
to a sort of provisional, incomplete resolution of the struggle for recognition between distinct
consciousnesses.
Hegel asks us to consider how a struggle between two distinct consciousnesses, let us say a
violent "life-or-death" struggle, would lead to one consciousness surrendering and submitting
to the other out of fear of death. Initially, the consciousness that becomes lord or master
proves its freedom through willingness to risk its life and not submit to the other out of fear of
death, and thus not identify simply with its desire for life and physical being. Moreover, this
consciousness is given acknowledgement of its freedom through the submission and
dependence of the other, which turns out paradoxically to be a deficient recognition in that the
dominant one fails to see a reflection of itself in the subservient one. Adequate recognition
requires a mirroring of the self through the other, which means that to be successful it must be
mutual. In the ensuing relationship of lordship and bondage, furthermore, the bondsman
through work and discipline (motivated by fear of dying at the hands of the master or lord)
transforms his subservience into a mastery over his environment, and thus achieves a measure
of independence. In objectifying himself in his environment through his labor the bondsman
in effect realizes himself, with his transformed environment serving as a reflection of his
inherently self-realizing activity. Thus, the bondsman gains a measure of independence in his
subjugation out of fear of death. In a way, the lord represents death as the absolute subjugator,
since it is through fear of this master, of the death that he can impose, that the bondsman in his
acquiescence and subservience is placed into a social context of work and discipline. Yet despite,
or more properly, because of this subjection the bondsman is able to attain a measure of
independence by internalizing and overcoming those limitations which must be dealt with if he is
to produce efficiently. However, this accomplishment, the self-determination of the bondsman, is
limited and incomplete because of the asymmetry that remains in his relation to the lord. Self-
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consciousness is still fragmented, i.e., the objectification through labor that the bondsman
experiences does not coincide with the consciousness of the lord whose sense of self is not
through labor but through power over the bondsman and enjoyment of the fruits of the
bondsman's labor. Only in a realm of ethical life can self-determination be fully self-conscious
to the extent that universal freedom is reflected in the life of each individual member of
society.
Thus, in the Phenomenology consciousness must move on through the phases of Stoicism,
Skepticism, and the Unhappy Consciousness before engaging in the self-articulation of Reason,
and it is not until the section "Objective Spirit: The Ethical Order" that the full universalization
of self-consciousness is in principle to be met with. Here we find a shape of human existence
where all men work freely, serving the needs of the whole community rather than of masters,
and subject only to the "discipline of reason." This mode of ethical life, typified in ancient
Greek democracy, also eventually disintegrates, as is expressed in the conflict between human
and divine law and the tragic fate that is the outcome of this conflict illustrated in the story of
Antigone. However, the ethical life described here is still in its immediacy and is therefore at a
level of abstractness that falls short of the mediation of subjectivity and universality which is
provided spiritually in revealed Christianity and politically in the modern state, which
purportedly provides a solution to human conflict arising from the struggle for recognition. In
any case, the rest of the Phenomenology is devoted to examinations of culture (including
enlightenment and revolution), morality, religion, and finally, Absolute Knowing.
The dialectic of self-determination is, for Hegel, inherent in the very structure of freedom, and is
the defining feature of Spirit (Geist). The full actualization of Spirit in the human community
requires the progressive development of individuality which effectively begins with the
realization in self-consciousness of the "truth of self-certainty" and culminates in the shape of
a shared common life in an integrated community of love and Reason, based upon the
realization of truths of incarnation, death, resurrection, and forgiveness as grasped in
speculative Religion. The articulation Hegel provides in the Phenomenology, however, is very
generic and is to be made concrete politically with the working out of a specific conception of the
modern nation-state with its particular configuration of social and political institutions. It is to
the latter that we must turn in order to see how these fundamental dialectical considerations take
shape in the "solution" to the struggle for recognition in self-consciousness.”
(Duquette, D. (n.d.). Hegel: Social and Political Thought. Retrieved June 16, 2015, from http://
www.iep.utm.edu/hegelsoc/)
It is interesting to note in light of the repeated themes of self-realization through interaction with
an other, that every song on the album, with the exception of “All Circles”, involves two (or
more) characters of opposing views struggling with the Truth of a situation. Be it Casey Jones
and Mother Elephant discussing cause and effect in “Grist for the Malady Mill” or Fox and Bear
tackling signs and signifiers in “Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume”, each song represents a clash of
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worldview, be they cultural, philosophical, or religious. The ultimate Truth that overrides all
debate seems to be when Bear’s own self-realization comes full circle, and he makes the decision
to lay down his life for his friend.
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Other Annotations
Julian the Onion
[1] “Logger Days” is a festival in Montana that celebrates the skill and bravery of those who
work in the tradition of logging.
[2] Based on the other geographical references in the song, the reference to Savannah is quite
possibly indicating Savannah, Minnesota. This is debatable.
[3] The “Bitterroot” Valley is located in southwestern Montana, along the Bitterroot River
between the Bitterroot Range and Sapphire Mountains, in the Northwestern United States.
[4] Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the
confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek Rivers.
[5] “Draytop” is a likely a descriptor of the vehicle hauling Julian’s cage. A “dray” is a vehicle
such as strong cart or wagon without sides used to haul goods. Used as an adjective, “shotgun”
here probably means something gained or by coercive methods. “Rhino” is old British slang for
cash money. Essentially Julian, gained by rather nefarious means, is set up on the top of a
flatbed cart as the new way for the circus to peak it’s profits.
[6] A “barker” is a person who stands before a theater, carnival sideshow, or the like, calling out
its attractions to passers-by. There is some indication that this individual is also the narrator of
“Fiji Mermaid”, but that is mostly conjecture.
[7] “Palate” in this sense means the sense of taste. Throughout the carnival barker’s monologue
we will find numerous culinary puns and the playing on of words.
[8] Not “mincing words” is an idiom indicating one who speaks directly and frankly. The play
on words here is that “mince” also means to cut or chop into very small pieces, as with onions.
[9] A “shallot” is a plant, related to the onion, having a divided bulb used for flavoring in
cookery.
[10] Referring to Julian as “yellow” may be an insult indicating that he is cowardly, but it is yet
another pun, as a “yellow” onion is a variety of dry onion with a strong flavor. White inside, its
layers of papery skin have a yellow-brown color.
[11] “Battering” here refers to physical assault, but is a pun relating to cooking batter, a mixture
of flour, milk or water, eggs, etc., beaten together. Thus “battering” Julian can also mean to coat
him in batter as you would when making fried onions.
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[12] To sauté something is to cook or brown it in a pan containing a small quantity of butter, oil,
or other fat.
[13] “Golden Bantam” is a variety of sweet corn.
[14] “Vidalia” is a variety of sweet onion.
[15] “Valley Sweets” are yet another variety of sweet onion.
[16] A play on the idea of cut onions causing the people cutting them to tear up and cry.
[17] A “sprout” is the shoot of a plant, implying that Julian grew out of the ground rather than
being born of a natural mother and father.
[18] A “coup d'etat" is a sudden violent or illegal seizure of government. In this case, the joke is
that the “government” is Julians alleged garden home.
[19] A “mirepoix” is a roughly chopped vegetable cut, usually a mixture of onions, carrots, and
celery. The addition of the prefix “ménage à” is a play on the French term “ménage à trois”, a
domestic arrangement in which three people having romantic and/or sexual relations with each
other occupy the same household. The net meaning of this line is that the barker claims that
Julian was plotting an overthrow of the garden with the celery and the carrots.
[20] “Caramelization” is the browning of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the
resulting nutty flavor and brown color.
[21] Something “savory” is full of flavor, delicious and tasty, usually something that someone
has cooked. In the world of cuisine, savory is also often used to mean the opposite of sweet, or
salty.
[22] “Jaundice” is a medical condition with yellowing of the skin or whites of the eyes.
[23] “Gooseback" here probably means some kind of backward bulge of the head.
[24] A “lantern jaw” is a distinctly protruding, often wide lower jaw. That it has been “snuffed
out”, or extinguished, seems to be a thinly veiled further insult.
[25] The usage of “shoot” is probably yet another botanical pun.
[26] A “sprig” is a small stem bearing leaves or flowers, taken from a bush or plant.
[27] To “impearl” is to form into drops resembling pearls. “Pearl” is also a type of onion, and
thus this verbiage is probably indicative of a pun, yet again.
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[28] If someone is “not long for this world”, they will die soon. Notice here, too, Julian’s
rejection of his body in phrasing similar to that in Aubergine.
[29] “Don’t take wooden nickels (in this instance, dimes)” is an old idiom that means,
essentially, don’t let yourself be cheated. This expression was first heard in the early 20th
century. Although there never were any wooden nickels as legal tender, country folk going to a
city were likely to be cheated by all manner of ruses, including obviously counterfeit coins.
Wooden nickels did exist, however, as bank promotions during and after the Great Depression;
the “coins” were redeemable for prizes. The wooden dimes here are obviously the circus
workers, or their schemes.
[30] This line refers to the idea of psychological projection, a theory in psychology in which
humans defend themselves against unpleasant impulses by denying their existence in themselves,
while attributing them to others. For example, a person who is rude may constantly accuse other
people of being rude.
[31] Saccharine here probably means exaggeratedly sweet or sentimental, as in the false smiles
of the people surrounding Julian.
[32] The “day” here seems to be a “day of reckoning”, which is an idiom based on biblical
concepts. The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of
the Lord or in Arabic Yawm al-Qiyāmah or Yawm ad-Din is part of the eschatological world
view of the Abrahamic religions and in the Frashokereti of Zoroastrianism. In Christian
theology, it is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation, and in this case, the people
watching Julian the Onion die in a cage.
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Four Fires
[1] “Seven sisters” is a callback to the song of the same name from mewithoutYou’s second full
length album, Catch For Us the Foxes. Another reference crops up later in this song. In the
context of the song’s narrative, the seven sisters likely refer to Rabbit’s siblings, from whom he
has been separated for many years. There is some discussion that the seven sisters may refer to
the creation myth of the Kiowa Indian tribe, in which seven sisters watch as their only brother
transforms into a Bear and chases them up a tree and into the sky, where they become the
Pleiades star constellation. This connection is tenuous at best, and as it seems irrelevant to the
message being conveyed here, it’s brief mention will suffice for now.
[2] The concept of “looking into and never out” of things, and the specific line “all is distance” is
lifted from Riike’s Eigth Elegy:
“And yet in the warm waking creature
is the care and burden of a great sadness.
Since it too always has within it what often
overwhelms us – a memory,
as if what one is pursuing now was once
nearer, truer, and joined to us
with infinite tenderness. Here all is distance,
there it was breath. Compared to that first home
the second one seems ambiguous and uncertain”
(Rilke, R., & Garmey, S. (1972). The Duino Elegies. New York: Harper & Row.)
[3] This line indicates something of a tradeoff. Rabbit hopes his family’s faith is enough to save
him, and in a sense seems to feel he has traded his own faith for any doubt they may have had.
[4] In the context of the other geographical locations throughout the album, this is probably the
city of Persia, Iowa.
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[5] Seemingly, Rabbit’s separation from his family has kept him going. In other words, his
longing for home, and his distance from it, is the only thing keeping him moving forward toward
his reunion with his family and not succumbing to despair (and suicide?).
[6] “Vale” is a poetic term for valley.
[7] The idiom “under the table” essentially means clandestine or secret, and is often used when
referring to payments made for work - in cash and off the books - in order to avoid taxation.
[8] This line serves to remind us that Rabbit is a fugitive from the law, which still has a long
memory concerning the circus train crash and his subsequent escape.
[9] These lines are adapted from the song “Rusholme Ruffians” by the Smiths:
“The last night of the fair

by the big wheel generator
a boy is stabbed
and his money is grabbed
and the air hangs heavy like a dulling wine
she is Famous
she is Funny
an engagement ring
doesn't mean a thing
to a mind consumed by brass (money)
and though I walk home alone
my faith in love is still devout!”
[10] A “potter's field”, is a term for a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people. The
expression potter's field derives from the Bible, referring to a field used for the extraction of
potter's clay; such land, useless for agriculture, could be used as a burial site.
The term comes from Matthew in the New Testament of the Bible, in which Jewish priests take
30 pieces of silver returned by a remorseful Judas:
“Then Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself, brought back
the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, saying: "I have sinned in betraying
innocent blood." But they said: "What is that to us? Look thou to it." And casting down the
pieces of silver in the temple, he departed, and went and hanged himself with a halter. But the
chief priests, having taken the pieces of silver, said: "It is not lawful to put them into the corbona,
because it is the price of blood." And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the
potter's field, to be a burying place for strangers. For this the field was called Haceldama, that
is, the field of blood, even to this day.” - Matthew 27: 3-8
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[11] This second callback to the song “Seven Sisters” references the opening line:
“He made the world a grassy road before our bare, wandering feet…”
[12] “Crooked heart” comes from W.H. Auden’s poem “As I Walked Out One Evening”. The
relevant stanza:
“O stand, stand at the window

As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.”
(Auden, W., & Mendelson, E. (1976). Collected Poems. New York: Random House.)
[13] “Sacred Harp” singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that originated in the American
South of the United States. The name is derived from The Sacred Harp, a ubiquitous and
historically important tunebook printed in shape notes. The work was first published in 1844 and
has reappeared in multiple editions ever since. Sacred Harp music represents one branch of an
older tradition of American music that developed over the period 1770 to 1820 from roots in
New England, with a significant, related development under the influence of "revival" services
around the 1840s. This music was included in, and became profoundly associated with, books
using the shape note style of notation popular in America in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Sacred Harp music is performed a cappella (voice only, without instruments) and originated as
Protestant Christian music.
[14] In the United States, a “farm-to-market road” or ranch-to-market road (sometimes farm road
or ranch road for short) is a state road or county road that connects rural or agricultural areas to
market towns. These are better quality roads, usually a highway, that farmers and ranchers use to
transport products to market towns or distribution centers.
[15] Of all the possible references to “four fires” in literature, Occam’s Razor suggests that the
simplest answer is some form of candle that has been lit in respect to the passing of Rabbit’s
father.
[16] The narrative arc of the song is in some ways reflective of the Prodigal Son parable. The
Prodigal Son, also known as Two Sons, Lost Son, The Running Father and The Loving Father is
one of the parables of Jesus. It appears in only one of the Canonical gospels of the New
Testament. According to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 15:11-32), a father gives his two sons his
inheritance before he dies. The younger son, after wasting his fortune (the word 'prodigal' means
'wastefully extravagant'), goes hungry during a famine. He then returns home with the intention
of begging to be employed and renouncing his kinship to his father. Regardless, the father finds
him on the road and immediately welcomes him back as his son and holds a feast to celebrate his
return. The older son refuses to participate, stating that in all the time he has worked for the
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father, he did not even receive a goat to celebrate with his friends. The father reminds the older
son that everything the father has is the older son's (his inheritance) but that they should still
celebrate the return of the younger son. It is the third and final part of a cycle on redemption,
following the Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Parable of the Lost Coin.
In Rabbit’s story, the story has a tragic twist. Instead of meeting his father on the road, Rabbit
returns to find his family in mourning.
[17] At this point in the song, the backing choir sings the Ein Keloheinu (in Hebrew: ‫אֱין כֱּאֹלהֱינוּ‬,
"there is none like our God”), a well known Jewish hymn. Translated literally, it means “There
is none like our God, There is none like our Lord, There is none like our King, There is none like
our Savior.”
[18] The phrasing here is adapted from Hector Berlioz’ La Damnation de Faust. Relevant
excerpts, all lines sung by the character of Faust:
“What a swarm of great night birds!

What terrible cries! …They strike me with their wings!
…
Look, about us, this endless line
Of dancing skeletons!
With what dreadful laughter they greet us as we pass!”
(Berlioz, H. (1889). La Damnation de Faust, légende dramatique en quatre parties. Musique de

H. Berlioz. [The text in part written by Berlioz and in part adapted by him and others from
Goethe's Faust.].)
[19] This line is emblematic of the death, end, or ruin of someone or something. Similar to the
idiom “curtains”, from the lowering or closing of the curtains at the end of a stage performance.
[20] The “extinguished longing” seems to have similar phrasing to Novalis’ Hymns to the Night:
“Once when I was shedding bitter tears, when, dissolved in pain, my hope was melting away, and
I stood alone by the barren mound which in its narrow dark bosom hid the vanished form of my
life -- lonely as never yet was lonely man, driven by anxiety unspeakable -- powerless, and no
longer anything but a conscious misery. -- As there I looked about me for help, unable to go on
or to turn back, and clung to the fleeting, extinguished life with an endless longing: -- then,
out of the blue distances -- from the hills of my ancient bliss, came a shiver of twilight -- and at
once snapt the bond of birth -- the chains of the Light. Away fled the glory of the world, and with
it my mourning -- the sadness flowed together into a new, unfathomable world -- Thou, Night-
inspiration, heavenly Slumber, didst come upon me -- the region gently upheaved itself; over it
hovered my unbound, newborn spirit. The mound became a cloud of dust -- and through the
cloud I saw the glorified face of my beloved. In her eyes eternity reposed -- I laid hold of her
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hands, and the tears became a sparkling bond that could not be broken. Into the distance swept
by, like a tempest, thousands of years. On her neck I welcomed the new life with ecstatic tears. It
was the first, the only dream -- and just since then I have held fast an eternal, unchangeable faith
in the heaven of the Night, and its Light, the Beloved.”
(Reynolds, S. (1995). Novalis and the Poets of Pessimism: With an English translation by James
Thomson ("B.V.") of Hymns to Night. Norwich: Michael Russell.)
[21] The “ploughshares” line is an Old testament biblical reference, from Isaiah:
“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their
swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword
against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” - Isaiah 2:4
[22] The barber may be an indirect reference to a scripture from Ezekiel, concerning a symbol of
Jerusalem’s judgment. In Rabbit’s narrative, a case can be made for this line to mean the end of
judgment for Rabbit as he finds redemption at his Father’s funeral pyre, as the preceding line
would indicate that the battle is over for him (or at the very least that a hymn sung by his mother
on the subject would be a great comfort).
"Now, son of man, take a sharp sword and use it as a barber's razor to shave your head and your
beard. Then take a set of scales and divide up the hair.” - Ezekiel 5:1
The use of the term “mason” is mysterious here. Perhaps this is referring to a straight razor,
some of which have been known at the turn of the century to have been engraved with symbols
of Freemasonry, but this is a very illusory explanation and should be treated as such. In any
case, the net meaning is the same, as it’s origin is in the scripture from Isaiah included above for
note [21].
[23] “Grace” here is specifically the Christian biblical concept, the free and unmerited favor of
God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. The “strange
perfection” is probably a descriptor thereof, or of God Himself. It is interesting to read the
“perfection” as referring to the Methodist concept of “Christian perfection”, especially in light of
the climax of the song. Christian perfection (also known as perfect love; heart purity; the
baptism of the Holy Spirit; the fullness of the blessing; Christian holiness; the second blessing;
the second work of grace; and entire sanctification) is a doctrine of Methodism and its emerging
Holiness movement. It holds that the heart of the regenerate (born-again) Christian may attain a
state of holiness in which believers are made free from original sin, or depravity, and where there
is a total love for God and others wrought by the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
[24] “Everyone is him” is reminiscent of “Allah, Allah, Allah” from mewithoutYou’s previous
album, It's All Crazy! It's All False! It's All a Dream! It's Alright.
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“In everyone we meet

Allah, Allah, Allah
In everyone we meet…”
This concept also brings to mind a quote from Mother Teresa that, while probably not a direct
source for this line, is nonetheless indicative of such a worldview in light of Christian teachings.
“I see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is
sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve becuase I
love Jesus.”
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Ten Stories: The Narrative in Brief
February, 1878
On February 8th, 1878, somewhere in Montana, a circus train carrying a large number of
imprisoned animals is racing a blizzard to it’s destination. While traveling at full speed along a
mountain pass, Mother Elephant addresses the animals from her cage in a car of the train. She
announces that the time has come for their escape, and derails the train by her sheer strength.
The crash is tremendous, and the animals are free to escape if they so choose. Among the
animals present is Walrus, Fox, Bear, Rabbit, Peacock, and Tiger. When the authorities descend
on the scene in order to recapture the animals and restore order, Mother Elephant sacrifices
herself by staying behind. Tiger also stays behind in his cage, afraid to leave because of his
pessimistic view of the outside world. The other animals flee into the night.
Grist for the Malady Mill
In the aftermath of the crash, news of the destruction is spreading through the human
communities and the authorities are hunting down the animals. Peacock is captured after an
indecisive moment on a fence post leads to him displaying his plumage and subsequently finding
himself in the net of a policeman. Rabbit flees in the direction of his home, Walrus wanders
north toward the Canadian border, and Fox and Bear head toward Yellowstone National Park.
Meanwhile, Mother Elephant awaits her fate in a jail cell as the ire of the townsfolk increases.
She is confronted by legendary railway engineer Casey Jones, who tells her that she has failed
and that her friends have likely died. Mother Elephant remains unfazed.
East Ender’s Wives
Rabbit is distracted from his journey when he meets, and begins a relationship with, a footloose
fortune teller. Her debauchery and prophetic powers quickly lead Rabbit astray as he falls ever
more deeply in love. The relationship comes to an abrupt end when the fortune teller runs off in
the night, boarding a boat bound for Australia. Rabbit is devastated, focusing on what the
relationship was for a short time rather than what it had obviously become. Before moving on
with his journey, he finds a cryptic note left for him by the fortune teller warning him that “All
our dad’s die.”
Cardiff Giant
The circus is devastated with much of the animal acts missing. Thus they work their two
remaining prisoners, Tiger and Peacock, to the bone, forcing them to perform endless shows for
the con-men who run the circus and their audiences. Overcome with despair as they are put on
display with oddities like the fraudulent Cardiff Giant, Tiger and Peacock attempt to regain some
semblance of their self-worth in the two-person community they share among enemies. Their
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solution comes in a lesson in self-denial as taught to them by Potter Wasp, who sings to them
from the floorboards in their trailer.
Elephant in the Dock
The day has come for Mother Elephant’s trial. The trial proves to be a sham, with a death
sentence pre-determined due to the ever-growing anger of the crowds. Elephant calmly
approaches the gallows without a fight, and addresses the crowd, telling them that they have no
real power over her. She is hung as the crowd jeers.
Aubergine
Meanwhile, somewhere near the seashore, a fish has an existential crisis of perspective when he
realizes that the woman on the shore named Aubergine, for whom he has been pining, is merely
an eggplant.
Fox’s Dream of the Log Flume
Fox and Bear are wandering through the wilderness while having a philosophical debate about
how exactly one can know God. Fox’s mind is ever changing and she is beginning to push
Bear’s mind in many different directions, as he concludes simultaneously that there is no God,
while also being determined that He exists. During the course of their conversation, Bear
recounts an embarrassing story from his past: Romancing a young Anabaptist girl on the Asbury
Park Pier in New Jersey, Bear awkwardly confesses to fantasizing about push children from the
top of the log flume ride. He then attempts to propose marriage to her and is immediately
rejected. This prompts Fox to recount a dream she has had the night before in which Bear jumps
from the top of a log flume ride and dies on the shore while Fox and a gathering crowd looks on.
Bear’s dreams are less prophetic, full of warm woolen socks. The two continue on into the
wilderness, penniless and hungry.
Nine Stories
Walrus is attempting to remove himself from society entirely, becoming something of a monk in
the northern tundra. A short distance away, a hedonistic barn owl looks on. As Owl has never
seen anything like Walrus before, Owl determines that he must have Walrus for himself by any
means necessary, even if it means marriage. Owl approaches Walrus with the proposal, but is
rebuffed by Walrus’ eremitic determination. They then trade tales of their own varied
experiences that have led them to their own idea of fulfillment. Owl mentions nesting in
amazing places and flying with Paiute Indians. Walrus recounts his involvement in the end of
the American Civil War and the time he witnessed a human pyramid formed by acrobats that
reached nine stories into the sky. Realizing that they are at something of a stalemate in this
debate, Walrus warns Owl that if his life of excess ever falls short of true fulfillment, a spiritual
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life is available to him. Owl counters with a standing invitation for the monastic creature to
abandon his ideals for the pursuit in pleasure.
Fiji Mermaid
The circus is failing in the wake of the animals’ desertion. Once a thriving business, the circus
has become little more than a sideshow, with lame attractions failing to bring in new customers.
The centerpiece of the show is now a taxidermic fraud, a monkey sewn to a fish and displayed as
a Mermaid from Fiji. Faced with the possibility of bankruptcy, the carnival folk confront their
own base nature, but ultimately fail to change their ways.
Bear’s Vision of St. Agnes
Fox and Bear are starving in the wilderness. Fox bemoans the fact that Bear has followed her
into exile rather than seek out his former love in his newfound freedom. As they approach the
edge of a cliff, Bear has a vision of St. Agnes and is inspired to tell Fox a very important lie. He
claims that he recognizes this cliff, and that his twin brother recently died and was laid to rest at
its base. Bear suggests that Fox make the descent to the bottom and use his “brother” as a food
source, while he remains at the top and hibernates. As she obeys, Bear leaps from the cliff to his
death, providing the body needed for Fox’s food. The story has come full circle, Bear’s sacrifice
for a friend mirroring Mother Elephant’s. As he falls, Bear considers this act victorious, and
wonders if perhaps his death will bring him back to the Asbury Pier where, for a fleeting
moment, he was happy and free.
Epilogue: Other Stories
Julian the Onion
The circus has re-railed its train and continued it’s journey. Along the way, they kidnap a new
attraction: a small deformed boy named Julian whose onion-shaped head makes him the star of a
freak show. Mistreated and mocked by a jeering crowd, Julian warns them that they will soon
face eternal judgment, before himself dying as they look on.
Four Fires
Rabbit has been slowly making his way home in the wake of his disastrous relationship.
Between odd-jobs he performs while also evading the law, he sends a letter to his seven sisters
that announces his imminent return to his family farm. Eager to once again take part in the
hymns sung by his family, and greet his estranged father, Rabbit instead finds four funereal
candles lit in honor of his father’s untimely demise. At first racked with despair, Rabbit seeks
comfort in his mother’s arms and in the idea that his father went to his grave standing firm in the
idea that love would prevail in the end. This proves to be the cure for his own mistrust of the
85
concept of love. As his mother sings to him, Rabbit resolves to focus his love not on things
fleeting, but onto his eternal Creator.
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The Annotated Ten Stories

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The Annotated ‘Ten Stories’

February 8th, 1878

As Elephant addressed the frightened animal car:

Run on, Rabbit, run!

[ANIMALS:] "Mother, please come along!"

But Tiger, why sit still [19],

[TIGER:] "Gone that siren’s sound [21],

[FOX & RABBIT:] “Topiary [22] Tiger, once burned bright

2. Grist For The Malady Mill

Shepherd the Southwest wind,

Casey Jones [7] walked slow to the prison cell

[CONDUCTOR:] "Well, I wish I wished you well,

Three miles more ‘til Flagstaff [10]

Shepherd the Southwest wind,

3. East Enders Wives

We met by chance along the Roe River side. [1]

Fortune Teller: “Let's give up 'sacrifice' next Lent [5].”

But as the Fool on the bagpipes played [6],

Then hidden in the boxthorn vines, [9]

She packed our bags some arbitrary time.

Choir sang as the Black Birch [19] fell,

And I often wonder if I've already died! [10]

I often wonder if I've already died,

Off we flew like swarms of hornets,

“Megalomania’s only mania if you’re wrong! [20]”

5. Elephant In The Dock [1]

Pillory [2] and stocks at the gallows tree dock

and the rabble rang:

and the jury sang:

“Hang the elephant! The elephant must hang!”

The Labrador [8] was locked to the promontory rock

Sorrel in the gravel [13] and the saffron robe [14]

7. Fox's Dream Of The Log Flume

Provisionally 'I' practically alive

no wolf can know!

[Half-mast land grants, Homesteading Law] [1]

Stitch up the nets but the patch won't stay [1]

Stick of the match [11] as the paraffin [12] show

A loom in the heir [14] as the medicine came [15]

Well maybe there'll be a bakery hiring

Did you come knocking on my door

There wasn't much to her dress

Didn't you come knocking on my door?

10. Bear's Vision Of St. Agnes

Look how soon my hands won’t move

11. All Circles

All circles presuppose they'll end where they begin

All circles begin with an end,

All circles presuppose they'll end where they begin

Julian the Onion who they'd picked up on the way.

All his joking well-evoking peals of laughter from the crowd

All my savings soon were spent,

And mama though I’ve been so alone,

With solemn sounds and the potter’s ground [10]

But mama why four fires [15] burning?

"Son, I think it’s best that you sit down—

Mama sing my favorite hymn

Mama sing my favorite hymn

Mama sing my favorite hymn,

And what shoulder, & what art.  

What the hammer? what the chain?  

When the stars threw down their spears,  

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright  