Quick Straw Poll
Hey all, I am looking for some help with a paper I am revising. I am holding out hope that enough of you read blogs on the weekends to let me get a few answers before tomorrow at noon.
The first verse of David Bowie's "Life on Mars?" goes:
It's a God-awful small affair
To the girl with the mousy hair
But her mummy is yelling “No”
And her daddy has told her to go
But her friend is nowhere to be seen
Now she walks through her sunken dream
To the seats with the clearest view
And she's hooked to the silver screen
...etc. etc....
To those of you who know the song (and if you don't, I urge you to listen to it, because it's one of his best in my opinion) I ask the following question:
What is the "God-awful small affair" that the girl's parents are fighting over? "We have no way to know" is a perfectly acceptable answer, but I have had a few people offer, unsolicited, identical interpretations, so I am testing to see who else has the same response.
If you know my email address, drop me a line. Otherwise, go ahead and post a comment here (although I will most likely delete them all as soon as I have read them, so as not to skew anyone else's response).
Many thanks in advance to all!
posted by Alison @ 1:54 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
-
At 4:07 PM,
held forth...
- I THINK I just e-mailed you a response, but if you don't get it let me know. (Not 100% sure I have your e-mail right)
-
At 3:00 PM,
Alison held forth...
- Thanks to the folks who responded. The general consensus of this terribly un-scientific poll was that one parent was cheating on the other (which parent was in the wrong is yet up for debate). This came pretty close to matching what I had heard in my initial interpretation.
The interpretations that inspired this post in the first place involved the girl being pregnant, and her father kicking her out of the house. Basically, in this version the "God-awful small affair" is a baby. I am still not 100% sure I buy it, but it's an interesting twist.
In any case, the paper is in. I don't like it quite as much as the presentation it was based on, but it's not half bad.
One more presentation and one more paper to go.