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From: jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: I am Doug! (Long, detailed discussion on "The Dreaming")
Message-ID: <1435@peora.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 13:07:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: peora.1435
Posted: Mon Aug  5 13:07:08 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 10-Aug-85 23:39:47 EDT
References: <1365@peora.UUCP> <4781@mit-eddie.UUCP> <1412@peora.UUCP> <4847@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Organization: Perkin-Elmer SDC, Orlando, Fl.
Lines: 47
Keywords: Probably of interest only to Kate Bush fans

> Yes, it's very clear that in "Get Out of My House" she has somehow
> become the house, or equates herself with the house, but what is the
> biblical allusion involved?  What does the Bible have to say about
> houses being human bodies or vice versa?

The Bible just describes the body as a "house" or "temple" on occasion.

Incidentally, I guess you are aware that another song on that album (I think
Suspended in Gaffa) also alludes to Biblical symbols.  I don't have the
lyrics here, but there is a line there that says something like

	There's a plank in me eye,
	And a camel trying to get through it.

This is a reference to two separate New Testament passages.  The first
says something like "Remove first the log that is in your own eye, so that
you may see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye."
This refers to working on your own problems before criticizing others (or
something along those lines).  (I think the King James Version says "beam"
instead of "log"; I don't know if any version says "plank".)  The second
passage says "It is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle [some
scholars read "the Eye of the Needle", the name of a narrow gateway in
Jerusalem] than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven."

These two passages are tied together, of course, by the word "eye" in her
song.  Their presence also makes me doubt somewhat whether she is really
as atheistic as you suggest; although she has a strange ecumenical view
of (atonement, enlightenment, salvation), she does seem to express a concern
for attaining it in this song.

>       Why show your love for me now, when it's too late?  I'm dying.
>       Why didn't you do it while I was still alive,
>         when it would have done some good?

I guess that makes sense; i.e., "it" might mean "show your love for me."
However, I would interpret it as meaning that she doesn't pay as much
attention now as she once did; perhaps that due to the flood of fans, she
finds it impossible to listen to them all, all the time.
-- 
Shyy-Anzr:  J. Eric Roskos
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