Clyburn 1 Lea Clyburn 6 December 2010 Rhetorical Criticism Essay 2 Unrequited Love Rock and Roll Style A Fantasy Themed Critical Approach to The Smashing Pumpkins “Stand Inside Your Love” My junior year of high school, I heard a song that changed my perception of love songs. Not being a fan of sappy, semi- heartfelt, “Michael Buble” style of saccharin set to music, I was taken aback by the thrashing guitar and pounding drum of The Smashing Pumpkin’s “Stand Inside Your Love.” This song was the second single off of their fifth and then final album Machina/The Machines of God released in 2000. I can say that I have been a lifelong fan of The Smashing Pumpkins. After analyzing every single lyric of almost every song like most brooding and dramatic teenagers, I never recalled hearing a true love song. At the time, rock music was evolving from the angst-ridden grunge era, where feelings like love were over powered by anger. There was a lot of “I hate you” on the rock stations, but no “I love you.” This change made this song so interesting to me and made it become one of my favorite songs of all time. Billy Corgan, the front man of the band and writer of the song, described it as a rare song that wrote itself quickly and was a love song that rocked, which explained was rare for him (mtv.com). He emanated a seemingly “cool to emotion” persona, but after listening to this song, I learned that even rock stars still have doubts about themselves being good enough for an object of unrequited affection. Using Ernest G. Boreman’s Fantasy theme critical approach I will analyze and discuss Billy Corgan’s rhetorical vision of “Stand Inside Your Love” being that unrequited love is not a thing of the past. Fantasy Themed Criticism Developed by Earnest G. Bormann, Fantasy theme criticism analyzes how stories, such as books, poems, and in this case a song, can circulate through society and everyone in that society finds a way to relate to it and use it to make sense out of their own experiences. Fantasy themed criticism is based on two assumptions: communication creates reality and symbols not only create reality, but individual meanings for symbols can converge to create a shared reality. In simpler terms, fantasy theme criticism is a reflection of how different individuals perceive reality. Fantasy themed criticism has two parts that consist of symbolic convergence which is the theory part of criticism and fantasy theme analysis. In her book Rhetorical Criticism, Sonja K. Foss notes symbolic convergence as “symbols not only create reality for individuals but that individuals’ meanings for symbols can converge to create a shared reality or community consciousness” (97). Foss then further defines convergence as “the way two or more private symbolic worlds incline toward each other, come more closely together, or even overlap during certain process of communication” (97). An example of symbolic convergence would be John Doe driving and when turning on the radio, he hears a break-up song and John reflects back on a relationship ending in his past. His private symbolic world and the songwriter’s private symbolic world collide because they both have had the same experience. Therefore, they both have a shared world-view of failed romances. The second component of fantasy theme criticism is fantasy theme analysis. This is the method in which the rhetor attempts to explain the world views presented in a story and how symbolic convergence takes place with the use of stories. The term “fantasy” means to take an experience and put it into the form of a story. When one initially hears the word fantasy, thoughts of wizards, castles, damsels in distress, and dragons come to mind which can be confusing to someone unfamiliar with fantasy theme criticism. Foss explains, “In addition to their dramatic nature, fantasies are characterized by their artistic and organized quality” (99). A bunch of guys sitting at a bar reminiscing about how cool they thought they were does not make for a proper artifact to be analyzed, but if one of these guys decided to turn it in to a memoir or novel (hence artistic and organized ) then, this type of criticism could be applied. Fantasy themes are drama’s dealing with past or future experiences. Fantasy themes are divided into three different types including setting, character, and action. Once these types of themes are analyzed, the rhetor then can offer an explanation of experiences or rhetorical vision. The character theme is defined as an agent or actor in the drama. The rhetor gives them characteristics and qualities and also gives them motives. They can be portrayed as heroes, villains, main characters or supporting characters. The action theme or plotline is the actions that they characters take part in. The setting theme is where the actual drama takes place. These can be anything from actually physical locations like a supermarket to inside someone’s mind. Once these themes are analyzed, the rhetorical vision is determined. Foss defines the rhetorical vision as “unified putting together of the various shared fantasies or a swirling together of fantasy themes to provide a particular interpretation of reality” (100). SYMBOLIC CONVERGENCE OF “STAND INSIDE YOUR LOVE” “Stand inside Your Love" is spectacular, a huge, booming, stadium-shaker, full of sonic fireworks and Billy Corgan's swoon inducing vocals. It was released when the Pumpkins had to prove they still had something like this in them, after their pastoral mood experiment "Adore" left a lot of fans scratching their heads. In that context, "Stand" is a triumphant statement of purpose, but in the long run, I think it will be seen as a classic love song, one that equals the rush of giddiness and dread and excitement and desperate, sweet pain that comes with love.” This quote from William F. Parrish’s review of “Stand Inside Your Love” on Amazon. Com is a statement that rings true to most everyone who hears the song. This “ringing true” is symbolic convergence. “Stand Inside Your Love” is a rock ballad written about a man who is adoring his love from afar and that his affection is unrequited or in other words, his love is one sided. Freedictionairy.com defines unrequited love as “love that is not openly reciprocated even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. The beloved may not even be aware of this person’s deep feelings for them” (thefreedictionairy.com). Like Parrish stated before, the rush, giddiness, desperate, sweet pain is something that we have all experienced at one time or another. When I heard this song for the first time, I felt an instant connection with the lyrics because I and many others can relate to not having our affections returned. Due to the overwhelming symbolic convergence, “Stand Inside Your Love” charted at number 2 in the United States’ Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, number 11 on the United States Mainstream Rock Tracks Chart, number 23 on the United Kingdom’s Singles Chart, and number 32 on the Australian Singles Chart (chartstats.com, 2). Even in the year 2000, music listeners all over the world were identifying with Corgan’s lyrics about unrequited love, proving that the timeless sentiment was really just that, timeless. Fantasy Theme Analysis Fantasy theme analysis consists of identifying three fantasy themes which are character, action, and setting. Identifying these themes reveals that the song alludes to several instances of unrequited love. I have included these themes in the chart below. Character Action Setting You and me are meant to be one-sided romance You are everything I want and ask one-sided romance for You are all that I dreamed one-sided romance (You) Don’t understand one-sided romance (You) Don’t feel me now one-sided romance I will breath for the both of us one-sided romance Who wouldn’t be the one you love Who wouldn’t stand inside your love The category of these themes represents a one-sided romance involving “you” or the character being lusted after and adored by the “outsider” or character whose love in unrequited. The character of “you again is present when the “outsider” is telling he/she “don’t understand” and “don’t feel me now” which alludes to someone unaware of affection. The character then shifts to the “outsider referring to themselves as “I” taking the action of “will breath for the both of us” which obviously suggest that he is clearly more invested emotionally than the object of his/her affection. At the end of the song, the “outsider” asks the questions, “Who wouldn’t be the one you love” and “Who wouldn’t stand inside your love?” These questions imply that the “outsider” feels that his love interest is capable of being loved by anyone in the world, making the whole world his competition. The character of the outsider feels somewhat unworthy and it is apparent through the asking of such questions (Pumpkins). The setting is very vague. There are no specific places mentioned which leaves this theme open for interpretation. This vagueness lets the listener put their personal experiences into the setting. For example, John Doe hears “Stand Inside Your Love” and reflects back and an old unrequited love involving a high school basketball star. The setting of the song, in her mind, is the Carlisle High School basketball gym where she watched Brock play every game. This makes her personal connection with the song much more substantial. Coding of these fantasy themes reveals that the rhetorical vision of this song creates a shared reality involving unrequited love.