Televators

by Anonymous

Really interested in the "half eaten corneas" line. Definitely a good catch, but you might be off by a bit. I say this in the devil's advocate way.

My interpretation of this song is more of a personal take than your interpretation may be. I think this is the ode to their friend that fits much more loosely than anything else, which is why it is so quiet.

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Andrew Says: Yes, the song is an elegy lamenting the death of their friend Julio Venegas.

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The "tow" catch is great too, but I should offer my ideas on this too. The song's subject jumps onto a freeway, after looking into a spiritual world through a coma and being disgusted with everything (ie. his half eaten corneas, ie. innocence lost on every level) figuratively (third eye) and concretely.

I think the tow might really be a tow on the street picking his remains up, like a fish being pulled up to his end.

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Andrew Says: I like that idea.

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I think the fragments of sobriquets is an interpretation of what we all are to all people. We aren't cohesive, we are different in every situation (fractured), and this may have been an antagonistic truth that helped kill Cerpin Taxt.

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Andrew Says: This is an interesting interpretation as well!

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Your version of "stalk the ground" is great too, I never thought about the pacing that would go on across that bridge. I always imagined the EMTs or the bereaved looking for the pieces of the one they loved, stalking the ground for a tangible, but ineffective piece of the one they've lost forever.

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Andrew Says: Another excellent Idea! People "Stalking the ground" to find all of his remains definitely could be an interpretation to this.

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The "house half the way" that split his lips but marked his words on his grave (ie, made him a brilliant but brutal story by being an addict in a half way house but hobbled him simultaneously) which is why he will die as nothing now, in that light.

He might have art in him, but the world sees him as nothing. The last way to make a poetic statement is to go out in an artistic way.

So, pull the pin - probably not an eject button but a grenade, save your grace - as in not asking for it and determining something for yourself when the world never gave you a chance - mark these words on his grave.

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Andrew Says: I'm impressed by the idea of "Save your grace" which is Cerpin saving his dignity by killing himself, and taking the matter into his own hands instead of letting something else do it.

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And, as for "you should have seen the curse that flew right by you" I think that's a cautionary tale. You could be this man driven by visions and society to kill himself, so full of ideas that would never be given their rightful place.

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Andrew Says: So you think that the "Curse" is Cerpin's enlightenment to new and different ideas? That's a very unique and most likely correct view on the subject.

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It could have been you. A page of concrete could have crushed your life as you know it. It's a fucking brilliant song. I think it goes outside of the mythology of the album and is a true eulogy, even though its a huge single for them.

Also, auto de fe is a reference to martyrdom as well (ie. burning at the stake).

I think the robbed of the asphalt that cushion his face by the room colored Charlatan is someone who would call him crazy or a statistic or depressed and psychotic, not a profound visionary who The Mars Volta centered an album around. If you make him crazy, his journey means nothing.

I really did love your interpretations though, definitely made me reinterpret this album. I just think this song operates not simply conceptually, but more strongly to the members who had a part in writing it.

It really is an amazing song on all levels aesthetically and conceptually. Thanks for having a conversation about it.

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Andrew Says: I'm glad you like it. I'm right in the midst of creating a "De-loused in the Comatorium E-Book" which is going to be a really comprehensive guide.

I'll be using mine, and the collective information of everyone else's interpretations on the album to create it, and I might use one or two of the interpretations you have here.

Thanks for writing man!






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