"This Tornado Loves You"

In the song “This Tornado Loves You,” Neko Case uses the symbols and archetypes of death, Love, and nature to express the theme of Destructive Love. According to Anthony Stevens in Ariadne’s Clue, He explains that, “Fear that an attachment bond may be under threat can result in anger and aggression, as well as anxiety, while low or attachment figure is associated with grief, despair, depression, and sometimes suicides” (48). Furthermore, human nature is compassionate; “to recover a loved one who has been carried there is a supreme act of sacrifice;” displaying the bond of human attachment (Stevens, 50).  Additionally, humans have become overly obsessed with love results in the destruction “of the self as an individual,” resulting in the confrontation that “it is the inevitable that people should wish [death]” (Stevens,168).

Archetypal photograph

Quotes from Ariadne's Clue

Here are three quotes which I found insightful and interesting:

"something more and other than itself which eludes our present knowledge' is what endows it with fascination and power"(13).

"Viewed from the biological standpoint, it is true to say that the evolution of our capacity to decipher visual meanings occurred much earlier than our capacity to use language; as a result, symbols, being imagistic rather than verbal, are more directly linked to their deep structures (archetypes) than are words" (28).

"Symbols are viewed as the natural language of dreams because dreaming brain makes use of image and drama rather than words" (41).


One quote that I found confusing:
"the best possible formulation of a relatively unknown thing, which cannot for that reason be more clearly or characteristically represented" (12).

A recent dream

In a recent dream, I was in a warm tropical island.  I was lying on the beach enjoying the warm rays of the sun, while inconspicuously watching people. While lying on the beach, I concentrated on the heat touching my legs, arms, and torso. Because the beach was so peaceful and illuminating the delight of being anywhere else wouldn’t feel the same, I wanted nothing more than to spend my time lay under the sun.