Interpretations:Snail Shell
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It's about a guy who hasn't had sex in a long time, and he's thanking the girl who ended his slump and put him back in his "shell" He's also wondering if she's a slut ("was it what you'd do for anyone"). Perspixx 02:18, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Man I dont get why so man people hate John Henry. I think it's so fantastic. Either way I think snail shell is the literal meaning. Snail fell out, someone put him back in yatta yatta. Very rocking song. Still just dont understand how people think every song on this album is weak. Musicaly its amazing and lyricaly usualy straight foward but put together and said very well.
A very very weak song. Yeah it's about a snail...yawn. How this was chosen as the single for John Henry I do not know. Like many of the John Henry songs, it is at least two minutes too long and is perhaps the worst track on the album. Indeed it's not even the best album on the EP it originally appeared on. Mrs Train and the old school genius of the Hotel Detective 1994 version see to that. (Mr Tuck)
- I'm confused. How can every song on John Henry be the worst song on the album?--64.131.249.17 23:10, 19 November 2006 (UTC)
I think you're on the right track with the sarcasm there, but in my opinion it's about a person (not a man or woman necessarily, just a person in general; see 2nd line) who has always been kinda withdrawn (in a "shell", as it is often said) and was briefly drawn out of this shell and apparently fell in love with/befriended someone, who then turned on them/spurned them/otherwise hurt them, and put them back in their shell. Now they're resigned to their fate as someone who will never be socially accepted ("and now I'm where a snail has to be") and sarcastically "thanking" the person who put them back in their shell. This song seemed to lead me to that conclusion right away. -Tgies
You're both far too metaphorical. It's a simple song about a snail who fell out of his shell thanking the guy who put him back. He's so low he can't tell if it's a sir or ma'am, he fell out of his shell, and now he's back there (it's where a snail has to be).
The only thing that hints there's any more is his desire to thank them, and curiosity about the reason for the help. But I suspect the reason for the curiosity is simply because, as he notes, it's difficult for him to repay the person, so he's hopeful that it's something they would do for anybody (not requiring repayment), as opposed to something they'd only do for him (probably also OK, since they like him enough they won't require repayment), or something where they thought the act would be repaid (in which case, he needs to know how he can repay it).
Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the music video appears to be about being marginalized by the television media.
Realistically, snails are far too attached to their shells to "fall out", and if they did, they would probably be contented to just growing a new one... Though that logic is probably too nitpicky for a song where the same snail is capable of human emotion and speech.
Snail Shell could be an allegory for agoraphobia. A snail's a perfect agoraphobic, because detachment of its shell home is almost always fatal for it.
What I also see is that classic childhood experience where you're playing with a slug or a snail. You pour salt on it and watch as it shrivels up and dies. In this song, They chose to return a lost shell (which won't do anything since the muscles won't reattach) instead. You could scale it larger and interpret "hand" as something like the hand of some god deciding what to do with distressed, but ultimately doomed peoples. But then it gets kind of existentialist.
- sheep
I had no childhood experience of killing small innocent creatures for fun that I'd label "classic." I recall mother sending some slugs to their maker to keep them off the vegetable garden, but that involved letting them drink themselves to death, and it was always with a touch of mourning at their tiny pie-plate-of-beer melodrama.
So many great ideas here! Agorphobia is a brilliant thought, one I hadn't considered, so is the servant-to-master concept. I also had not considered that the snail was being sarcastic, which is possible. This is a clever group.
My take was that the narrator is someone humble and low, per usual - a worm, an experimental dog, a night light - and the jist of the lyrics was the wonderment at someone more powerful than you doing something kind for you for no reason. I had thought it was to capture that amazing conflicted feeling you get when it happens. The bulk of the song isn't about the snail himself, but about his thinking to himself about the act. Was it something about me? Did you do it with some thought of reward? What makes powerful people do nice things for people without power? - Christina Miller
Maybe the snail is trying to avoid repaying the person who helped him back, which is why he's apparently so interested in the discussion of the subject, as an attempt to postpone things with complex thinking.
It's sometimes difficult to figure out if TMBG songs should be taken literally or metephorically. Like some have these deep hidden meanings, and some are just funny or completly literal...I'm really not sure which one applies to Snail Shell -Ruth
Without thinking about it, upon hearing this song I immediately took it as one human being speaking to another, the former being someone the latter considers lowly. Perhaps the speaker was acting above his station, and he's thanking the other person for putting him back in his place, perhaps sarcastically. The "Sir Hand" lyric suggests the literal interpretation is probably the right one; still, I can't shake this idea.
Re: top poster: Get a grip. We should be allowed to think.
I think it's about a hermit crab that's fallen out of its shell somehow, and a kind stranger put him back in. Unlike snails, hermit crabs can live outside of their snail shells for at least a little while and can safely go back inside them. The line "and now I'm where a snail has to be" doesn't necessarily mean it is a snail talking, certainly a snail has to be in a snail shell, but other things can live there as well.
The 'sarcasm' mentioned in some of the interps above makes the most sense to me. The narrator (a person, not literally a snail) is not really happy or thankful to be put back 'in his place' (by a break-up or insult). Also, the first word in the song can be heard as "Sirhan", a reference to the assassin Sirhan Sirhan. Closely followed by "or is it ma'am?" seems to imply that the other person (the one being addressed by the narrator) is a woman. Which would make this another relationship-gone-bad song. --Nehushtan 14:21, 20 Mar 2006 (CST)
When I was younger, I was made fun of a lot; this was my "F*ck you" song. I was certain it was about someone trying to be brave enough to speak up or interact, but the person just gets made fun of / picked on, so he or she crawls back into his or her snail shell. I always thought it was a mix of sarcasm and a little honest belief that the world is scary and it's best to be nudged back into your safe place. It might just be about a snail, but it felt really good to blast this and hate all the other fourth-graders, so I'm sticking with my interpretation. --Miss Mott
As soon as I first heard this song, I immediately got the feeling that it was a sarcastic thank you. It really seems as if it's somebody being put in their place, and is saying that the person who puut him there isn't really all that great and shouldn't have the authority (and to the person above me, I was tortured in 4th grade, too. What a coincidence). A snail is considered to be a slow moving creature which isn't relaly all that high up on the food chain. The line "Was it what you'd only do for me?" makes it sound as if the person (Sir Hand) holds a grudge against the "snail" and is out to make the snail's life miserable.
The metaphorical social ostracisation mentioned at great length in above interps seems to be mostly along the right lines. I wouldn't agree, though, that it's sarcasm - I think our 'snail' is in denial about his situation, and glad that he has returned to his lonely life, away from the scary people in society.
Small, insignificant creatures representing social awkwardness - a theme, mark you, that was revisited to great effect in Doctor Worm.
I'd agree with the above suggestion, though I'm more inclined to see it as someone who's grateful for help of questionable value, like an alcoholic in withdrawl given a bottle or a criminal released into a society that will shun him. Stuff like that.
Or maybe it is just about a snail.
I think it's about someone ("the snail") who's been helped out by "the human", somebody "the snail" thinks is higher than himself, during a tough part of his life. So therefore, he wonders if "the human" would help out just anybody or just him, and gratefully asks "the human" what he, "the snail" could do to repay. (Confusing enough?) A great song, one of my John Henry favorites. :) --Lemita 01:19, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
I especially agree with Tgies. I can articulate the relationship interpretation in a little more detail.
1. "Sir hand" is a reference to God, and "or is it ma'am" is a reference to the girl he's lost a friendship with. If God chose these events, then they will help the narrator and he may one day be able to "repay" the girl for opening up his perspective regarding feelings and experiences, at the expense of the burden of being exposed to a greater, more sublime suffering--watching and struggling against what increasingly seems to be a frightening potentially permanent loss of a friend.
2. In "I fell out of my right place again" I feel like his "right place" (ie, his "snail shell") had been (and continues to be) loneliness and introspection resulting in creative works that no one fully understood and that he couldn't expect to yet, if ever.
3. When he met this girl, he found a new place, love, which allowed him to see a different part of the world, outside of his introspective "snail shell". However, in the gradual and painful loss of a close friendship, he realizes repeatedly how much he belongs in his "snail shell".
3.1. I think the key is that the text is neither literal nor sarcastic; it can be read either way, and this is what contributes to the paradoxial richness and the wealth in deconstruction of the metaphors implied by the imagery. The idea of the "snail shell" can be read as good, right and necessary (supporting an interpretation of honest gratitude), but also evil, lonely, cold, and small for the moment (suggesting sarcasm in spoken gratitude).
3a. Here is in interpretation of snail shell as "good": The narrator, having been humbled, now sees in clearer focus the arduous, lonely nature of the task that he had long suspected was ahead of him. And now he has a clearer perspective that will always help him in his life. He can't yet "pay back" either God (ie, humanity) or the specific girl he met and learned from, but he hopes he will one day. The narrator has faith enough in his purpose that he knows this experience will ultimately be a boon for him and so holds no grudge or bitterness.
3b. Here is an interpretation of the "snail shell" as "evil" (in a Nietzschean sense), lonely, changing, disorienting, cold: The narrator speaks most of this sarcastically, knowing that true generosity is in silent magnanimity. He wants to see clearly both perspectives which could portray either his or her life as the more difficult or unjust life, but cannot help but be swayed by the comfort of the bias of his own worldview. He feels ultimately, that he is the more noble one and still harbors some resentment, but hopes to never act on this resentment, transforming it into creative energy, music, lyrics, poetry, instead.
4. The narrator's last speculation "Or was it something where you acted when you saw the need//And knew that there would be a way the act could be repaid//And so it may, but for today//I want to thank you for putting me back in my snail shell" shows clearly, in four lines, the process of his perspectival and moral fluctuations. The first two lines, with the idea that the girl "saw the need" and thought "the act could be repaid" imply that she is selfish and does not understand how the true nature of giving and love involves a dissolution of "self" and the obsoletion of a debtor-creditor relationship; this relationship which could be called love cannot be expressed economically:
"The gift turned inward, unable to be given, becomes a heavy burden, even sometimes a kind of poison. It is as though the flow of life were backed up." -May Sarton
"Should not the giver be thankful that the receiver received? Is not giving a need? Is not receiving, mercy?" -Nietzsche
But then the last two lines mark a return to gratefulness and thankless magnanimity, with a renewed faith and purpose, seeing the experience as a fortunate opening up of perspective, ultimately a blessing. (fractal tact 2:12am, 19 September 2007)
Just a thought: Snail shell rhymes awfully well with "jail cell."
Why didn't anyone to think of this? (I found it instantly obvious).
It's about a man living in an Orwellian nightmare, who either
A. can't stand living any way else due to how his brain is conditioned
B. is being sarcastic
and, after briefly getting out of total control and moderation, is expressing his "thanks" that he got put back in his place, or his "Snail Shell".
I agree with the idea that it's a sarcastic song about a person who is socially reclusive, but who briefly exited that "shell," only to get burned by the person he had found a connection with. What I really like, though, is the repeated reference to the addressee being "repaid." I see it not as gratitude, but as a suggestion that the speaker is going to get some sort of revenge. So when he says "...and knew that there would be a way the act could be repaid? And so it may..." he's saying "I'm going to get you for this someday."
- Great observation, whoever you are! This enriches my appreciation of the song. --Nehushtan 21:44, 6 August 2008 (UTC)
Come on people... It's not a bad or boring song.. and John Henry has some good songs... I love this song... And the video is good... Since they're all wearing white, it gives them a kinda heavenly aura... i guess... It's about a snail who fell out of his shell... But those people who thought it's boring because it's about a snail, they probably would think Dr. Worm would be boring because it's about a worm which too is a slimy invertebrate... They are both on my favorites list... It's not that bad of a song... It's one that i like to dance around to when I have insomnia so I listen to music and dance until i get tired... I support the snail!!!
Not that it has anything to do with the song, but whenever I hear the opening line I always think of Sirhan Sirhan, the man who shot Robert Kennedy.
I think this song (one of my favorites on the album BTW) is meant to be a literal example of a broader, more general occurrence. The snail fell out of his shell, his only home, and was placed back in by the unknown hand of someone who cared enough to stop and help him out, and now the snail wants to repay the person somehow. It's about the kindness of strangers and people taking the time to do good deeds even when they're not necessarily obliged to.
I'm pretty sure this song is meant to be taken literally. It's about a snail that somehow fell out of his shell, and someone put him back in it. The song starts out by him saying, "Sir hand, or is it ma'am?" He can't tell if the persons a man or woman, 'cause he's on the ground. "How may I give you a hand, from the position at your feet where I stand?" He's trying to figure out a way to repay the person who put him back in his shell, but can't really do anything because he's at the person's feet. You other people may have deeper interpretations, but I think this song is very simple. --Mrs. H0rrible Someone keeps moving my stool! 05:12, 2 April 2010 (UTC)
I always thought this song was to be taken fairly literally, but not in quite as optimistic a way as has been mentioned above: it's not unheard-of to serve escargots, or cooked snails, in their shells.
Aw, it makes me sad to see hate for this song. I really love it! And I do think that it's meant to be taken at face value - a snail that fell out of its shell and is thanking the person who put it back in its proper place. If you really wanted to, you COULD technically find some religious symbolism here. I've thought about it: the snail's comparison to "Sir Hand" is very similar to the comparison between humans and God. "Sir Hand, or is it ma'am?" could refer to how God doesn't really have a gender, being completely different from/above humanity (despite being referred to as "Him" all the time). In fact, referring to the human as a hand rather than an entire person could refer to humans' inability to completely understand God, just as the snail can only really see the hand (and feet, in a later line) of the human that saved it. Putting the snail back in its snail shell is parallel to God helping us out, looking out for us, etc. "How may I give you a hand from the position at your feet where I stand?" There's not much at all we can do for God in return but say thanks, just as the snail can't really help the human, but wants to help, and thanks him/her. And then the whole part where the snail wonders about the human's motives could be similar to questioning why we're here, why God created all this, etc.
But of course, this is a Christian point of view, and probably sounds stupid to someone who doesn't believe in God. It's a really ridiculous theory, but an interesting thought, I think! Kind of belongs to the school of thought that there's a Jesus Christ figure in every movie/book/whatever. I don't think AT ALL that this was the intention of the song (coming from the band that sparked slight controversy over categorizing angels with unicorns and elves in Science Is Real). I really do believe that the song is about a snail, quite literally. I have no idea if They're religious at all - They've always struck me as atheistic, and writing a song about God - in a symbolic, respectful way, at least - isn't something They'd do at all. This is just some crazy rambling interpretation on my part.
(As an added note, I think the interpretation I actually agree with the most is best stated two comments above this one. And the one directly above mine is really interesting! I never thought about it like that! Poor snail! It thought the human was saving it, but he/she was really just preparing a tasty dinner.) -Ofpurelove 19:17, 5 April 2012 (EDT)
I always took "Sir Hand" to mean the singer's hand (which certainly explains why the singer stands at his feet) and "or is it ma'am?" to imply that Sir Hand was playing a female role. Therefore, it's about an introvert who prefers masturbation to the complexities and pains of having sexual/romantic relationships with others. ChasFink (talk) 10:48, 20 August 2013 (EDT)
Before reading this page, I had no idea anyone interpreted the lyrics to this song in any way other than that they are clearly dripping with bitter sarcasm. Obviously this is an angry song; listen to the awesome, rockin' riff. This is one of the heaviest and hardest songs TMBG has ever written. Also one of my favourites. Trust me - the lyrics are spoken as a human being, to another human being, and they are extremely sarcastic.
Ie: "Thanks so much for reminding me that I am a subhuman, less than you, and my place is as a helpless creature, looking up at you from your feet. I thought I was a human being for a while. Thank you sooooo much for reminding me that I am just an insect (well, actually a gastropod, but you get the idea)..."
Yeah I agree with the above suggestions that it is a breakup song. I listened to this song a lot after a difficult breakup and it helped. Circumstantial, but try listening with this in mind. Makes more sense than a heavy rock tune with a biting riff in which the singer is screaming (for TMBG) the lyrics... and it's just about a snail who is happy to have been helped by a giant hand.
Come on, people.
Sirhan sirhan
Does Sir Hand refer to this guy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirhan_Sirhan
- Good question. Try as I might, I can't tell whether the John Henry version of the lead vocal includes a 'd' at the end of the first word(s). I'm guessing that ambiguity is intentional. --Nehushtan (talk) 00:57, 5 August 2019 (EDT)
I also agree with Tgies! Just read the Glass Menagerie. This is a song Laura could sing after Jim leaves.
Cochlea!
I was just reading Wikipedia's article on the cochlea, which is a coiled part of the inner ear, because mine is damaged in my left ear. The article says the word comes from the Latin for "snail shell"! This is probably a coincidence and not what they had in mind, but I think it's interesting that this snail shell is related to hearing. Maybe "putting one back in their snail shell" could mean making them appreciate listening to music again. I'm not a candidate for a cochlear implant, but if I did get one, I would thank the surgeon for putting me back in my snail shell.--Mandaliet (talk) 20:50, 1 September 2014 (EDT)
doctor of beasts
o doctor of beasts, to a green snail shell with its timid miracle hidden, awaiting death, you come as a deity! even snails know that gods obliterate, that cures bring pain, that heaven is seen through a door of flame. o doctor of beasts i am the man snail who sees your single eye peering into my shell! why, muad'dib, why? 73.69.214.214 12:24, 14 January 2021 (EST)
John Henry is All About the Same Death, But in Alternate Realities Tour
Welcome, one and all, to the second stop of my HotelDetectiveInTheFuture "John Henry is All About the Same Death, But in Alternate Realities Tour"! Tonight, we've stopped in the town of the Snail Shell interpretations page. The objective of this tour is simple: I will be posting interpretations on how the John Henry album is a concept album about this guy’s death, but each song is an alternate reality. Ok, here we go.
Ok, my theory is that this guy is dumb, and not very bright. One day, his low intelligence causes this girl to murder him. How? Clonking him in the head with an empty snail shell, several times. But since this guy's an idiot, he thinks she's doing him a favour.
I admit this interpretation is not the strongest, but hey, not everything is the greatest! - HotelDetectiveInTheFuture🪗 talk 🎸
A literal snail out of its shell
I think John saw that and the idea for a song naturally followed from there.
Sometimes a snail is just a snail!
Hermit crab
It's from the perspective of a hermit crab, in my opinion. A snail can't fall out of its shell, but hermit crabs also make their homes in snail shells. I really prefer to take this one pretty straightforwardly, personally, I think it's really cute.
Kittythebunny (talk) 05:16, 31 January 2023 (EST)
Extending on the cochlea thought
The song is singing from its own perspective. "Sir/Ma'am Hand" = the hand that selected a given track on a CD, record, etc., or digital download in more recent times. "Putting me back in that snail shell" = putting the song back in your cochleas for a few minutes.
Jail Cell
I have always interpreted this song to be about someone going to jail. The main character is either grateful to be there because they are so institutionalized to the prison system it feels like home to them or they are incredibly sarcastic and plotting revenge against the person who incarcerated them.
Toxic friendships...duh
I feel like it's *painfully* obvious, but maybe it's just me. Often, being in a "shell" is a sort of metaphor for being very sheltered from people and being out of your shell is like ...being confident and feeling good I guess. So this person has this friend who constantly puts them down and back into their "snail shell", and the narrator is saying, sarcastically, thank you. Thank you for ruining my life. "Is it something you would do for anybody" is wondering if this person has hurt people the same way they hurt the narrator. Maybe it's about a snail. With toxic friendships. Or a slug. Slugs don't have shells. So....like...they mistake the slug for a snail??? What am I going on about
Alltimewgat (talk) 11:57, 7 October 2023 (EDT)
