10-09-2001                     F i c t i o n prev next

                When the earth was still flat
                And the clouds made of fire,
                And mountains stretched up to the sky, sometimes higher, Folks roamed the earth like big rolling kegs.
                They had two sets of arms. 
                They had two sets of legs.
                They had two faces peering out of one giant head
                So they could watch all around them as they talked
                     while they read.
                And they never knew nothing of love. 
                It was before the origin of love.

                Now there were three sexes then,
                One that looked like two men glued up back to back
                Called the children of the sun.
                And similar in shape and girth were 
                The children of the earth.
                They looked like two girls rolled up in one.
                And the children of the moon were 
                Like a fork shoved on a spoon.
                They were part sun, part earth, part daughter, part son.

                Now the gods grew quite scared 
                Of our strength and defiance
                And Thor said, "I'm gonna kill them all with my hammer,
                     like I killed the giants."
                But Zeus said, "No, you better let me
                Use my lightening like scissors,
                Like I cut the legs off the whales, 
                Dinosaurs into lizards."
                And then he grabbed up some bolts 
                And he let out a laugh, said, "I'll split them right
                     down the middle. Gonna cut them right up in half."

                And then storm clouds gathered above into great balls
                     of fire

                And then fire shot down from the sky 
                In bolts like shining blades of a knife.
                And it ripped right through the flesh 
                Of the children of the sun and the moon and the earth. 
                And some Indian god sewed the wound up into a hole,
                Pulled it round to our belly to remind us of the price
                     we pay.
                And Osiris and the gods of the Nile 
                Gathered up a big storm to blow a hurricane, 
                To scatter us away, in a flood of wind and rain,
                And a sea of tidal waves, to wash us all away,
                And if we don't behave they'll cut us down again
                And we'll be hopping round on one foot and looking
                     through one eye.

                The last time I saw you we had just split in two.
                You were looking at me. I was looking at you.
                You had a way so familiar, but I could not recognize 
                Cause you had blood on your face, 
                I had blood in my eyes.
                But I could swear by your expression that the pain down
                     in your soul was the same as the one down in mine. 
                That's the pain, it cuts a straight line down through
                     the heart; we called it love. 
                So we wrapped our arms around each other,
                Trying to shove ourselves back together.
                We were making love, making love.
                It was a cold dark evening, such a long time ago, when
                     by the mighty hand of Jove... 
                It was the sad story of how we became lonely two-legged
                     creatures,
                It's the story of the origin of love.
                That's the origin of love.

                      --"Origin of Love" from Hedwig and the Angry Inch

                - - - -

                All the songs in Hedwig absolutely kick ass. But this is my favorite. It's based on Plato's Symposium and it's one of the best song I've heard this year.

                I've seen the movie four times... so far.
                 
                 
                 
                 

                 
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