From my currently favorite song,
Bullets, by
Tunng:
These aren't the full lyrics, but my favorite ones in the song...
Bullets wrote:Green hills and enemies
These things they make us sentimental inside
Your words are gelignite
Or just another sentimental aside
...
Our blood and guts are out
We spread our bones across the table at night
We cut our fingers off
To give ourselves those little extra insights
...
We're catching bullets in our teeth
Its hard to do but they're so sweet
And if they take a couple out
We try to work things out
We're catching bullets with our
Heads and hearts and all the darkest parts of us
It's strange to find such light
In such endless night
We're catching bullets in our backs
We sent the undertaker back
Into the garden in the drought
To try to work things out
We're catching bullets with the best resources that we've got
We're happy then again we're not
We shout - through the endless doubt
Whether it was intended or not, to me this song is about human achievement (as my favorite songs are wont to be), particularly in the realm of scientific advancement, or more specifically the scientists themselves in a given generation. Scientific progress has been pretty crazily exponential over time; compared to a scientist in the first few millennia CE, or even in the 1700's or 1800's, an undergraduate student interested in science has so many more tools, tricks, and comprehensive knowledge, and our more prominent scientists so much more accomplished (not in the sense of producing groundbreaking discoveries, but producing more comprehensive information about topics more difficult to investigate, such as what we've learned about quantum mechanics), that to scientists of past generations it might very well seem that we're "catching bullets in our teeth" -- regularly performing tasks that are nigh impossible for them (and it's certainly "easy if you know how it's done").
But with some achievement comes lots of backlash. On the personal level, the stereotype of a gaunt nerd huddled over a keyboard comes to mind; devotion to science tends to draw people away from, well, interest in remaining healthy and fit, and hence "we cut our fingers off / to give ourselves those little extra insights." To some people, it's looks like a worthwhile tradeoff to sacrifice your health, lifespan, what have you, to devote a few extra hours in the day to this sort of work. And on a larger scale, when "[the 'bullets'] take a couple [of teeth] out" (our own efforts hurt us; e.g. CFC's and nuclear bombs), there are enough humans interested in keeping the damage minimal that continuing is still viable ("and when they take a couple out / we try to work things out").
I could keep rambling, but this is getting long enough that it's probably beyond boring by this point. There's other stuff I'd like to have mentioned such as increasing lifespans ("we sent the undertaker back") and carrying on in the face of ever-present doubt ("we shout through the endless doubt"), but the most important bit I still had left to mention is that we're
happy doing this despite the backlash we take for it. Well, maybe not you hippies who want to live in the woods and frolic with the forest animals all day, but I don't understand you people anyway -- I'm talking about people like me who are interested more in science and progress. Of the last few lines, "we're catching bullets with the best resources that we've got / we're happy, then again we're not" makes me picture an older gentleman in a lab coat, with glasses repaired with masking tape, standing wearily, bleary-eyed, and exhausted, but with a gentle weak smile on his face. That look of tired satisfaction is the best sort of happiness that I personally could hope for.
...but that's just me. The song is probably actually about relationships or some shit.
[/spoiler][spoiler=Puzzle of the Exuberant!]
[/spoiler]
