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Interpretations:Contrecoup

From This Might Be A Wiki

As mentioned in Interpretations:Contrecoup (Demo), this is a fairly straightforward song if you know the obscure words they use:

  • contrecoup: A head injury where the brain is bruised against the far wall from the impact
  • phrenology: The archaic study of the shape of the head and how it relates to your personality and fate; this was basically palm reading turned into a pseudo-science
  • craniosophic: The state of being well-versed in phrenology. Sophic = knowledge, Cranio = of the skull.
  • limerent: The state of infatuation or being in love

So, to summarize: Guy gets hit in the head, falls in love, but his vocabulary goes all obtuse and no one can understand him.

Just to add, he gets pushed into a wall by someone, that causes his contrecoup\brain injury, this causes him to suddenly fall in love with his attacker but can't convey his love due to the sustained head injury, and possible concussion, he has just received from his attacker\proposed beloved. I know it looks like I'm rehashing what you said, but I just wanted to clarify that the guy fell in love with his attacker... I suppose I could have just said that... Ah well. --Thaddius 14:39, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Small note: I think the accompaniement becoming faster and then fading out represents the singer descending into madness in the moments before he dies. Perhaps the contrecoup was more severe than he thought?

I'm just here to explain the word origins of contrecoup. (yay! learning!) Coup is the French word for a hit, or blow; however, my friend has just pointed out that Linnell is saying contrecoo, or at least, pronouncing it that way... Contra is a perfix meaning "opposite", or "Contrary". Therefore, Contrecoup would be a blow opposite the site of the hit. Sounds painful...

User:Apollo

The pronunciation of contrecoup as "contrecoo" is because we English speakers have adopted the French pronunciation of the word coup. They -- the French -- like to soften or leave off the last letters of their words when spoken, though they affect the pronunciation of the part that comes directly before the unspoken letters. JFYI. --MichelleMaBelle 21:57, 18 February 2009 (UTC)

Note the change in the first chorus from, "And the second was worse by far than the first 'Cause it made me limerent" (where the second impact caused the speaker to fall in love) to a later chorus of, "And the second was worse by far than the first 'Cause the first one woke my feelings for you" (where the first impact caused the speaker to fall in love).

User:TheCerealPoet

After I found out what contrecoup and limerent mean, I've become completely convinced that the song is about Krazy Kat.

[User:ZydrateFish]]




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