Here we go.

Cool! From now on my LJ will have the little crossposty link thing at the bottom, but no worries, I have comments emailed from both sites and I'm still paying attention to you lovely friendlist peoples. :D

If it's true what they say

Tonight, for my dad's birthday, we will be having dinner with my folks! I will go forth bearing gifts for my folks' birthdays, as I forgot to get anything for my mom back when it was hers.

I post about this because I'm giving my dad Hadestown for his birthday, and happen to be listening to it right now. I don't often talk about how much I like the lyrics of things (okay, maybe I do, I don't know!), but I really love the lyrics of Hadestown. Basically, I always found the story of Orpheus to be interesting, since it deals with that very natural desire to protect what you love and try to keep it from being lost; but it is also very Greek, so Orpheus himself had always been a character I didn't much like. The original myth paints him as a narcississtic asshole, full of himself and upset by the death of his beloved not because he would miss her, but because it happened to HIM, and that is unfair; thus, his own hubris results in his failure to retrieve Eurydice in the end.

But in Hadestown, the characters are all a bit different. Even though I like the music all the way through, the muses piss me off-- they make excuses for Eurydice's seduction, defensively claiming that she had no choice instead of acknowledging that people can make mistakes and regret them. So I find it difficult to like those songs as much, even though I like Eurydice-- as she is portrayed, she clearly covets a life she thinks she will get if she goes down below the Earth, and so allows it to seduce her. When she gets it, it is not as she expected.

What really intrigues me about the story is how they change Orpheus, though. He becomes this interesting character that actually appeals to all the kinds of flaws I like to play in my own characters; he's a bit naive and over-hopeful, but is aware of the world. He tries to talk Eurydice out of going to Hadestown because he's afraid it will destroy them, but when she leaves he follows out of desperation, willing to be there if it means they face adversity together (a pleasant change from self-important Orpheus of the original myth). He is unrealistic in his idealism, but he nearly wins out, only to be outmaneuvered by Hades, who plays on his fear of loneliness and doubt to separate him from Eurydice before she escapes. What's really interesting about Hadestown, to me, is that the final song-- 'I Raise My Cup to Him'-- makes it feel as though he is actually the one who dies, or at the very least, is driven mad (possibly blinded) and left to wander, while Hadestown continues to be a very real and alive place, if a place of horror and tyranny. I liked that about it best of all. Ironically, I do not have 'I Raise My Cup to Him' on my mp3 player, I should fix that.

Anyway, I like the way the lyrics not only shape the characters to be different people than they were in their original telling, but also allude to the other stories relating to those characters. For example, Orpheus was written about in other stories but never settled with another maid after the death of Eurydice. It was implied that he did take young, beautiful men to his bed and walk among them freely, and there's a taste of that in Hadestown. There's also notes about Eurydice being pulled down by vipers and vultures, which are both attributed to her death in the garden; just all sorts of little subtle play that really makes me love the CD.

Anyway, this is my favorite lyrical play from the whole thing at the moment, though I'm sure it'll change again or I'll start lusting over another passage again in a few minutes. I've never been very good at picking one, solid favorite thing.

But the ones who tell the lies are the solemnest to swear
and the ones who load the dice always say the toss is fair
and the ones who deal the cards are the ones who take the tricks
with their hands over their hearts while we play the game they fixed
and the ones who speak the words always say it is the last
and no answers will be heard to the questions no one asks
so I ask you as a brother
and I ask you as a friend
and I ask you as a lover
and I ask you, once again: is it true, what they say?