The title of the Arcade Fire's Mountains Beyond Mountains reminds me of the 52nd hexagram of the I Ching, the Kan: The Mountain Above, The Mountain Below.
When one's sitting is like that of the back and one loses all consciousness of the self, when one walks in the courtyard without regard to any of the persons in it, then there will be no error.
Mountains rise up grandly from the surface of the earth and their mass rests upon the world in quiet and solemn majesty, yet they also serve to block the onward progress of the traveler. The mountains are thus simultaneously resting and arresting, and Arcade Fire illustrate this dual nature using the metaphor of vast suburban sprawl: "Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small," sings Régine Chassagne, "that we can never get away from the sprawl."
For Ms. Chassagne, this is accomplished not by literal stillness, but by resolutely singing and dancing to one's own drummer, despite the petty criticisms of the bourgeoisie ("They heard me singing and they told me to stop - quit these pretensions and just punch the clock"). The video shows those in the courtyard, the dead shopping malls of suburbia, to be but puppets with their repetitive and mechanical gestures, mere archetypes hiding behind masks.
Ms. Chassagne, on the other hand, that odd girl dressed in funny clothes, is the only "real" person, the genuine one who may get past the mountains beyond mountains and to the beckoning city lights in the distance. In the closing shots, she's the Lady in Red, literally Singing in the Rain, and her boundless joy seems to suggest liberation from the sprawl, even while she is physically still in the suburbs herself. Nirvana in the midst of samsara.
Living in the sprawl, dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains and there's no end in sight.The I Ching suggests that to defeat the entrapment of the mountain one should be like the mountain - still, resolute, and fully present. The mountain below does not regard the mountain above, and the mountain above does not regard the mountain below. Thus, we should not get caught up in worrying about the opinions and perceptions of those around us, instead walking into the courtyard without regard to the other persons in it.
For Ms. Chassagne, this is accomplished not by literal stillness, but by resolutely singing and dancing to one's own drummer, despite the petty criticisms of the bourgeoisie ("They heard me singing and they told me to stop - quit these pretensions and just punch the clock"). The video shows those in the courtyard, the dead shopping malls of suburbia, to be but puppets with their repetitive and mechanical gestures, mere archetypes hiding behind masks.
Ms. Chassagne, on the other hand, that odd girl dressed in funny clothes, is the only "real" person, the genuine one who may get past the mountains beyond mountains and to the beckoning city lights in the distance. In the closing shots, she's the Lady in Red, literally Singing in the Rain, and her boundless joy seems to suggest liberation from the sprawl, even while she is physically still in the suburbs herself. Nirvana in the midst of samsara.
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