Wordplay... you know I love it, if you ever meet me in Antenna most of the time the names I use are wordplays and puns (just as I include them in my posts at the slightest provocation
), I've even used a cheesy chemical pun.
With that said maybe I'm imagining them, but I suspect many are deliberate...
From Numbers: "all the yobbos in the Styx"
I must be obsessed with that one
bear with me, I was completely unfamiliar with the phrase "the sticks" which is defined by the Merriam-Webster for that context as
7 plural: remote usually rural districts regarded especially as backward, dull, or unsophisticated : BOONDOCKS
and fits nicely with yobbos (which would be rural inhabitants). But since the song talks about people dying in war and/or terrorist acts the meaning of the river Styx, the crossing to the underworld in Greek mythology can apply. My familiarity with that legend and aforementioned unfamiliarity with "the sticks" also bias me to think of that phrase as I wrote it above.
I include the definitions for the benefit of the wombers and visitors for whom English is a foreign language. That is also one of the motivations for getting this started... puns and wordplay may escape those that don't enjoy a great familiarity with the English language... they eluded me for years, and maybe I'm overcompensating at finding some.
The next example may be such a case... Tranquility:
"In the sun thy will be done"
The religious overtone of "thy will be done", part of the Lord's Prayer, the Pater Noster, makes me think that it may well mean "in the Son (of God) thy will be done."
I'll be the first to recognize that one can too easily misinterpret and twist the Sun/Son similarities, but I think there's a good case for the example above.
More as I think of them...
Anyone has more examples or wants to discuss those two?
With that said maybe I'm imagining them, but I suspect many are deliberate...
From Numbers: "all the yobbos in the Styx"
I must be obsessed with that one
7 plural: remote usually rural districts regarded especially as backward, dull, or unsophisticated : BOONDOCKS
and fits nicely with yobbos (which would be rural inhabitants). But since the song talks about people dying in war and/or terrorist acts the meaning of the river Styx, the crossing to the underworld in Greek mythology can apply. My familiarity with that legend and aforementioned unfamiliarity with "the sticks" also bias me to think of that phrase as I wrote it above.
I include the definitions for the benefit of the wombers and visitors for whom English is a foreign language. That is also one of the motivations for getting this started... puns and wordplay may escape those that don't enjoy a great familiarity with the English language... they eluded me for years, and maybe I'm overcompensating at finding some.
The next example may be such a case... Tranquility:
"In the sun thy will be done"
The religious overtone of "thy will be done", part of the Lord's Prayer, the Pater Noster, makes me think that it may well mean "in the Son (of God) thy will be done."
I'll be the first to recognize that one can too easily misinterpret and twist the Sun/Son similarities, but I think there's a good case for the example above.
More as I think of them...
Anyone has more examples or wants to discuss those two?
