"What shall we do now?" (re. the UCSB shootings)

[Laelth]

37. Another few pieces of evidence.

Last edited Mon May 26, 2014, 05:04 PM - Edit history (1)

1) Here are some of the lyrics from "What Shall We Do Now?"

What shall we use to fill the empty spaces
Where waves of hunger roar?
Shall we set out across the sea of faces
In search of more and more applause?
Shall we buy a new guitar?
Shall we drive a more powerful car?
Shall we work straight through the night?
Shall we get into fights?
Leave the lights on?
Drop bombs?

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/pinkfloyd/whatshallwedonow.html

To me, those sound like things men might be inclined to do, not women. No doubt, there's a lot of personal agony and introspection in the movie, but who are "we" in that song? Is it unreasonable to assume that Waters is talking about men (in the aggregate)?

2) In addition, I note there are two key screams in the movie. The first is vocalized by the primary male character (and it's in response to a painful exercise of female power). The second is uttered by the primary female character (and it's in response to a painful exercise of male power--war, violence, bombs, destruction). It's hard for me to divorce these primal, human utterances from what I see as the overall theme (i.e. relations between the genders).

3) How do you explain the imagery in the clip posted above--specifically, the wall destroying a Christian church that then re-assembles itself into a new church (a vaginal, brick-menstruating church). If that's not talking about power relations between genders, what is? Waters seems to argue that femininity has replaced Christianity as the dominant religion in the dystopic world he describes.

Of course, ymmv. Thanks for engaging me on this topic.

-Laelth