Zoom Out, Literally?
November 14, 2007 10:28 AM Subscribe
Is there a name for the literary device used in this song?
I was listening to a song (Eighteen People Living in Harmony, by Dredg). The lyrics begin as follows:
The opera is over
Singers have all gone home
Seats are empty
The kitchen is closed
The sidewalks are sprayed down
The blinds are pulled down
The foundation's unstable
The wrecking ball is back
You can see how each lyric changes perspective of time, almost as if one was "zooming out" of the situation as it had been described in the lyrics that preceded the current line.
I thought it rather clever, and was wondering if there a name for this device? Are there other examples you can think of that do something similar?
I was listening to a song (Eighteen People Living in Harmony, by Dredg). The lyrics begin as follows:
The opera is over
Singers have all gone home
Seats are empty
The kitchen is closed
The sidewalks are sprayed down
The blinds are pulled down
The foundation's unstable
The wrecking ball is back
You can see how each lyric changes perspective of time, almost as if one was "zooming out" of the situation as it had been described in the lyrics that preceded the current line.
I thought it rather clever, and was wondering if there a name for this device? Are there other examples you can think of that do something similar?
Best answer: I don't know about the "zooming out", portion, but the song's extended use of metaphor is a conceit.
posted by Lieber Frau at 11:42 AM on November 14, 2007
posted by Lieber Frau at 11:42 AM on November 14, 2007
I would call it enumeration.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2007
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2007
Best answer: It sounds most like a framing device or narrative hook.
Writing also borrows a lot of terminology from film. If it were film it might be described as an establishing shot that has a discovery shot (the wrecking ball) at the end of it. Establishing shots are often 'long shots' which show an overall scene before focusing in on a smaller part of it. The opposite of that would be a pull-back shot or dolly-out.
posted by cocoagirl at 12:09 PM on November 14, 2007
Writing also borrows a lot of terminology from film. If it were film it might be described as an establishing shot that has a discovery shot (the wrecking ball) at the end of it. Establishing shots are often 'long shots' which show an overall scene before focusing in on a smaller part of it. The opposite of that would be a pull-back shot or dolly-out.
posted by cocoagirl at 12:09 PM on November 14, 2007
Yeah I'm not sure it's specifically a 'zooming out' technique employed here, but there's definitely parallelism and other techniques related to repetition.
posted by Firas at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2007
posted by Firas at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2007
Response by poster: Thanks everyone, maybe it was just my frame of mind when listening that hooked me (thus the best answer above) When I heard it in my mind I saw the curtain closing as the singers take a bow, then ... oh wait, the custodian is turning out the lights, then ... oh wait, these are deserted streets in the wee hours of the morning as the morning crew is spraying the sidewalks like in the French Quarter, then...oh wait this is a dilapidated part of town long abandoned, then ... oh wait, this building is boarded up, cordoned off and about to come down and men in hardhats are looking on. Sure the opera is over, but it was over a looong time ago. My point of view had "zoomed" away from that initial moment of being in the house looking at a freshly closing curtain to a wide view of a demolition scene.
It was those "oh wait" moments I was looking to define. I kept having to reframe the scene in my eye with each new lyric.
posted by chocolate_butch at 3:57 PM on November 14, 2007
It was those "oh wait" moments I was looking to define. I kept having to reframe the scene in my eye with each new lyric.
posted by chocolate_butch at 3:57 PM on November 14, 2007
I have been thinking about this for a while—sorry my answer comes a bit late to the party, or to the opera. The best term I've been able to think of for the "zooming" you describe is "telescoping," a term applied to pieces of literature which collapse large expanses of time and/or space into a noticeably compressed description. (Imagine a collapsing telescope.)
While I was looking up "telescoping" I also came across another term that may be relevant to your lyrics: "telescoped metaphor." I'm not as familiar with this term, though, and different authorities seem to use it in slightly different ways.
posted by Orinda at 6:12 PM on November 14, 2007
While I was looking up "telescoping" I also came across another term that may be relevant to your lyrics: "telescoped metaphor." I'm not as familiar with this term, though, and different authorities seem to use it in slightly different ways.
posted by Orinda at 6:12 PM on November 14, 2007
Well. If the opera's ending is supposed to be represent the city's life slowly ending, it's a microcosm.
posted by Firas at 9:38 PM on November 14, 2007
posted by Firas at 9:38 PM on November 14, 2007
(A classic example of a microcosm in literature is A Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich, where the prisoner's daily life is supposed to represent the whole of the USSR's condition.)
posted by Firas at 9:45 PM on November 14, 2007
posted by Firas at 9:45 PM on November 14, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
Maybe I am reading it all topsy turvy, or perhaps I have described exactly what you meant. This is a fairly useless response really. But, well, the opera is over.
posted by AlliKat75 at 10:38 AM on November 14, 2007