Newsgroups: alt.music.rush
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 13:11:35 -0500 
From: "Jonathan T. Moore" <jmci+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: 2112 Ending...

esuqs@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr W J Lynn) writes:
> >       In _Visions_ he says that it is INTENTIONALLY left vague.  This blew me
> >away when I read it, I'd always gone with the 'Elder Race Returns'
> >interpretation, and I was really surprised to learn that I had gotten that as\
>  a
> >result of my own life-view.
> 
> I'm sorry, as far as i'm concerned the ending is still unhappy.
> 
> If you read the lyrics it says-
> 
> V. Oracle: The Dream
> ... "I guess it was a dream, but even now it all seems so vivid to me.  Clearly
> yet I see the beckoning hand of the oracle as he stood at the summit of the
> staircase" ...
> ... "I see still the incredible beauty of the sculptured cities and the pure
> spirit of man revealed in the lives and works of this world.  I was overwhelmed
> by both wonder and understanding as I saw a completely different way to life, a
> way that had been crushed by the Federation long ago.  I saw now how
> meaningless life had become with the loss of all these things ..."
> 
> Notce the how the 'elder race' were crushed by the federation long ago.
> So how can this 'elder race' come back and rescue these people?
> He sees how life was and how it can never be again.
> 
> Before the Soliloquy it says-
> 
> VI. Soliloquy
> ... "I have not left this cave for days now, it has become my last refuge in my
> total despair.  I have only the music of the waterfall to comfort me now.  I
> can no longer live under the control of the Federation, but there is no other
> place to go.  My last hope is that with my death I may pass into the world of
> my dream, and know peace at last."
> 
> This is a world of his _dream_.
> Who said they ever existed?
> 
> Warren.
> --
> 
> |warren@dcs.warwick.ac.uk/esuqs@csv.warwick.ac.uk/cstadcl@csv.warwick.ac.uk|
> | If you cannot stand      |      /  _  _  _     This is how we know what  |
> | up for what you believe, |     //|| \| \| |\ | love is, Jesus christ     |
> | Your beliefs are nothing | /| //-||_/|_/|-| \| laid down his life for    |
> | and neither are you.     |/ |//  || \| \|_|  | us.    1 John 3:16        |
> |warren@dcs.warwick.ac.uk/esuqs@csv.warwick.ac.uk/cstadcl@csv.warwick.ac.uk|

It would be helpful if, when you quoted the lyrics, you quoted what
was actually sung:
The Oracle:
"...They left our planet long ago,
The elder race still learn and grow.
Their power grows with purpose strong,
To claim the home where they belong.
Home to tear the Temples down,
Home to change...."

Seeing as how Webster defines "oracle" as "the revelation or response
of a medium or priest" and that furthermore the word derives this
meaning from the Ancient Greeks who sought truth at an Oracle, this
would tend to imply that this "dream" had some sort of prophetic
nature; i.e. that perhaps someday it would come true. Certainly, it
appears from the dream (if one accepts the previous premise) that the
Elder Race were perhaps crushed, but some escaped. It is quite
possible that considering the self-centeredness and decadence of the
hero's society (i.e. the priests obviously did not encourage
creativity) that over centuries the Elder Race could quite conceivably
regain power sufficiently to reclaim the planets from the priests. I
think the fact that the hero commits suicide just before (?) the
return of the Elder Race just adds to the bitter irony of the story.
Just my humble opinion, of course.
-----------------------------------------------
Jon Moore             (jmci@andrew.cmu.edu) 
 "What have I got in my pocket?" --Bilbo     
 "Let the truth of love be lighted,          
  Let the love of truth shine clear." --RUSH 
-----------------------------------------------

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