Paramore's new single "Brick By Boring Brick" seems to fit nicely into David Dark's definition of apocalyptic. The song (and especially the video, worth checking out) tells the story of a young girl-princess who "lives in a fairy tale." This fairy-tale world is the antithesis of the real world of "taste and smell." Perhaps many Christians today could place themselves in a similar Docetic dreamland, having "built up a world of magic/because your real life is tragic." The song advises that the fairy-tale girl needs to "Keep [her] feet on the ground/while [her] head's in the clouds," in other words stop trying to fly by clutching at butterflies and only managing to rip off their wings.
This first part of the story serves as an apocalyptic wake up call: "The real world is tragic and harsh, but you can't escape it." This is an important realization, but often leads to an overemphasis of worldliness and a despair that tries to cope with brutal reality. In "Brick By Boring Brick," this despair is represented in the chorus which exhorts everyone to get a shovel and bury "the castle," the imaginary home we've built up for ourselves in dreamland. The new home is not fanciful, but rather made "brick by boring brick" so no wolves can blow it down. However, how satisfying is this compromise? Certainly no one wants to live in a boring brick house, no matter how sturdy it is.
This is where the song takes a hopeful and (I'd argue) spiritual turn. In the bridge, the little girl is accused of having "built up a world of magic," but then the narrator chimes in with a version of C.S. Lewis' Argument from Desire. The song explains that "If [fairy land is] not real/you can't hold it in your hand/you can't feel it with your heart/and I won't believe it/but if it's true/you can see it with your eyes/or even in the dark/and that's where I want to be, yeah." Essentially, if no fairly land existed we wouldn't be able to wish for it, but if it is real it can be felt no matter the circumstances. This realization, this hope, is the rebirth of the little girl. Here I rely in the video, as the little girl falls headlong into the grave of the castle, Hayley, who is dressed exactly the same and seems to be the grown-up version of the little princess, walks away into a world covered in gold. The death of her perfect dream has not meant the death of her hope, even in the dark realities of life her hope shines all the more beautiful.
The empire tends to have two stories: either life is perfect and doesn't need any more attention or life is terrible and nothing can be done. Either way, reality is inevitable and hope doesn't really have a place. However, life in the Kingdom provides hope in the midst of darkness, neither is the world perfect or irredeemable but Christ is Lord over all. In Him we find the strength to carry on, and above that, radiate His glory.
Questions:
1. How can hope transform our outlook on life? How is it possible that Christ's power is made perfect in weakness (II. Cor. 12:9)?
2. How do you interpret the ending of the song and the video? Do the girl's fanciful beliefs leave her vulnerable unto death, or is she reborn stronger? Where is Hayley walking to as the video fades?
Great post, David! I watched the video and would recommend others do the same. Radical hope in the midst of darkness is one of the most amazing aspects of the Kingdom; living into that hope is a lifelong endeavor, for which we need constant reminder by way of formative disciplines.
ReplyDeleteYour observation about empire's two stories is a good; I hadn't necessarily thought of it in those terms before, but you're exactly right.