"Soma" // 11.15.12

hey look, I know that this can be made into pretty much anything to support anything at all, but here it goes. 

[1]the strokes wanted the listener to think about not just soma in the literal sense, but the idea of 'soma' and what is might be in real life. soma isn't just a thing, it's an idea. for example: 

     [2]"soma is what they would take when hard times opened up their eyes." 

[3]simply, the song talks about a possible escape. but in the second verse,

      [4]"and and then he walks out, somehow he was trying too hard to be like them."

[5]he sees his fiends and the people around him, affected by the equivalent of soma and he wants to be away from it. 

      "but I'm not listening no more." 

[6]somewhat like the other songs that we have heard, this has become a statement of resistance  the song provides a perspective that claims to be different: above the influence of the drugs that society keeps pushing. 

1. states the main argument and the purpose of the paragraph

2. first example taken from the lyrics

3. explanation of that example

4. the main idea is expanded through the addition of another quote

5. explanation of the example

6. connection to the other songs, concludes by explaining the viewpoint of the narrator

2 + 2 = 5 // 9.11.12

what is this narrative even?

why yes, it is a narrative. I take several lines in the song to mean that things in the world that the speaker sees have become what we might call illogical, wrong. hence the title, '2+2=5.' in the first lines, "are you such a dreamer, to put the world to rights", it's as if someone has changed the world to the state that it is now. the person believed that these changes might have been right, but they weren't. then, throughout the song, there are more of the illogical examples..."January has April showers...two and two make five...hail to the thief." not only have the people become complacent, they've been around these things that they've become ignorant. there might be innocence in not understanding the evils that are right under your nose, but that doesn't always make it better. "you weren't...paying attention."
in the beginning of the song, the speaker could have been fighting what he saw, and was seen as the rebel. but towards the end, you can see how the tone changes slightly. "go and tell the king that the sky is falling in...but it's not...maybe not..." these things that the speaker sees, it's as if the sky is falling, but after so long of trying to resist, he's come to accept it, at least somewhat.

also: twisted logic