Listen to "World Without Mirrors" while reading the story.
The song is set in a first person perspective, and deals with a theoretical world without reflection, a world where we cannot see our own image. The idea for the song came when I was reading one of the Wheel of Time series books. One of the characters (Egwene I think) was looking at herself in the mirror, and thinking about what she looked like. It made me wonder what we would be like if we couldn't see ourselves, if we didn't have ourselves as a basis for comparison with the rest of the world.
The first verse is me waking up and realizing we can no longer see our own reflections. It starts with me not being able to see myself in the mirror. My reaction is a very calm one of "I decided I'd just skip shaving, and tell my boss I'm not misbehaving." Shaving is a requirement at my job, so giving the excuse to my boss would probably be my initial reaction. The rest of the verse just drives home the point that we cannot see ourselves anymore, "turned on the TV, but the picture wouldn't open, the magazines had all faded away to nothingness...I picked up a Polaroid and took a couple photos...on the film it was all a no show."
The second verse is mostly about reactions. Some people would honestly kill themselves if they couldn't see their reflections any more. I'd be fine with not being able to see mine. I don't care what I look like. My looks don't define me, even if they do affect my life because of the way people perceive me. That's another topic, for another song, if I can pull it off. Specifically, how much does our appearance define our lives? You could write a novel about either subject. Back to the song, "some people were staring at their mirrors and tapping," just living in complete denial about the whole thing, shocked at the new reality. "I wonder what the rest of my life will be like, now that I'm judged solely for what I do on the mic...People will still judge me based on how I look... without reflection the inspection is done based on memory and what their mind wants to see." Ideally, if we stopped seeing our own reflections, we'd stop judging people based on appearance. However, even if we stopped seeing ourselves now, we'll remember our own appearance, and if anything 10 years from now we'll remember a younger, healthier, more attractive self because that's the last image we'll have.
Third verse, very idealistic, but how I see the world. If we could never see our own images, I think the world would be a much better place. We'd be looking for the true inner beauty, and we wouldn't judge others. We also wouldn't judge ourselves as much, which is just as important. I don't know if it would be any easier to fall in love, though. I think love is hard to find no matter what circumstances there are.
I could interpret every lyric in this song the way I see it, but the idea of the song is to get you talking. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on the subject. Actually, I just posted a blog at www.myspace.com/missionman about it, and I'd love to see a reply there.
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