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MaryEllen · 05-19-2003, 01:05 PM

DMD3:

Have you ever heard Elvis's song "In the Ghetto" on an oldies station? Basically, it is the same theme: a child born in that situation has little chance of success, or perhaps even survival, even if "the child is strong." He's been dealt the wrong cards in the game of life--or, in Gord's image, the wrong number came up for him on the roulette wheel of life.

The "circle of steel" has been conjectured to be any number of things--clearly Gord meant it to imply the roulette wheel ("place your bets"); perhaps also the "great mandala" of Indian philosophy (the circle of life--there's a Peter, Paul, and Mary song about this); and also perhaps huge 1960s-era urban slum "project" buildings clustered around a central area. He might have meant "circle of steel" to mean all these things, or some, or more. A good writer often uses double--or triple, or more--meanings.

Example: In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet tells Ophelia to "Get thee to a nunnery." Elizabethan audiences would have known that whorehouses were also known as "nunneries."

05-19-2003, 01:05 PM	#7
MaryEllen Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Cheverly, Maryland, USA Posts: 50	DMD3: Have you ever heard Elvis's song "In the Ghetto" on an oldies station? Basically, it is the same theme: a child born in that situation has little chance of success, or perhaps even survival, even if "the child is strong." He's been dealt the wrong cards in the game of life--or, in Gord's image, the wrong number came up for him on the roulette wheel of life. The "circle of steel" has been conjectured to be any number of things--clearly Gord meant it to imply the roulette wheel ("place your bets"); perhaps also the "great mandala" of Indian philosophy (the circle of life--there's a Peter, Paul, and Mary song about this); and also perhaps huge 1960s-era urban slum "project" buildings clustered around a central area. He might have meant "circle of steel" to mean all these things, or some, or more. A good writer often uses double--or triple, or more--meanings. Example: In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet tells Ophelia to "Get thee to a nunnery." Elizabethan audiences would have known that whorehouses were also known as "nunneries."