The Laurie Anderson thread
Exactly!!! Well done there! [tup]Analissa wrote:
O superman is a parody of Jules Massenet's aria "O Souverain". I think Laurie's version is about technology slowly replacing the gap human relationships formerly filled. There is a voice asking for help: "O superman, o judge, o mum and dad" but, at the end, it's just an illusion, an answering machine. And the image of the "mum" is not comforting anymore... she's got petrochemical arms, military arms... electronic arms.
In a current context, Big Science may have different interpretations- some of them related to 9/11 (which in fact, is what art aims for, constantly changing standpoints); but it is also interesting to analyze the song having in mind the 80's because there was a taboo with the future of technology and globalization was starting to evolve, hence Laurie's inspiration for most of that ambivalent record.
Ironically, the musical pieces were actually part of a multimedia spectacle called "United States".
Reality is a personal choice