User:ManfrenjenStJohn

Come here looking to talk? Great!
 * 1) Click here to get to my talk page.
 * 2) Then click the "+" sign at the top of the page, and start entering your new topic!

Happy Editing!

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ManfrenjenStJohn 20:12, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

About ManfrenjenStJohn
Facts:


 * 1) Resident of the Santa Clara Valley.
 * 2) Click here for the origin of the name "ManfrenjenStJohn".

I am, of course, a Genius
This fact belongs to a rare category of information which requires no source or citation.
 * 1) You feel it.
 * 2) You know it.
 * 3) It transcends Wiki policy.

I hold this truth to be self-evident. So there.

Junk that I'm finding useful as I work on Wikipedia articles

 * Examples of Requests for Permission (to use photographs, etc., in WP
 * WikiP Navigational Templates

The remainder of this article is my own personal sandbox for practicing Wiki editing.

Not "The Pass"
"The Pass" is a song by the band Rush from their 1989 album Presto. The song deals with suicide and its concomitant symptoms, especially among teens. It contains what is essentially an impassioned (but, admittedly, rational) plea for those "on the razor's edge" to weather the ultimate irrational situation: That of abject hopelessness, and the characteristics (and the commonality) of severe depression in teens, and ultimately suicidal ideation. Most of the song is spoken in a compassionate second-person (e.g. "Static on your frequency/Electrical storm in your veins") The narrator of the song implores of the allegorical "Martyr without a cause": "Don't turn your back and slam the door on me." Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for the song, took a very careful, drawn look at teen suicide at the time of writing. He stated his goal as being not just a blind plea against teenage suicide, but a compassionate attempt to understand the motivations behind it. Neil ponders the unfortunate commonality that "Someone set a bad example/Made surrender seem alright/The act of a noble warrior/Who lost the will to fight".

Peart, as narrator, attempts to penetrate the damaged psyche of the seemingly hopeless individual, and, knowing that sympathy is not enough to change things, offers a quiet, empathic anthem that the victim/protagonist will hopefully use to fight for his life. Peart invokes a cleverly modified reference to a famous quote by Oscar Wilde: "All of us get lost in the darkness/Dreamers learn to steer by the stars".

Peart, a declared atheist with a Christian upbringing and a penchant for curiosity where faith is concerned (as well as a keen sense of wordplay), uses the double-meaning phrase "Christ, what have you done?", to punctuate the choruses. In doing so, he subtly both:
 * speaks in an idiom, admonishing the victim as if to beg the reasons why he would, hypothetically, kill himself
 * speaks literally, tongue-in-cheek, pondering what effect the story of Jesus Christ's martyrdom may have on impressionable youths looking for role models, or reasons for the pain they feel.

The song is a marked departure from the hard-driving, up-tempo, and chargedly optimistic paeans that characterize more "typical" Rush songs.