Quoting The Hodottir <hodottir@hotmail.com>:

Last time I tried to post this, I also added a bit about 'Piazza, New York Catcher' possibly containing references to John Fowles' 'The Collector' (I will be your Ferdinand and you may wayward girl etc), but I'm not quite as sure about that as before. Anyone have any better ideas?

Hi - I think you're right about this. Take a look at, for example, http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_fowles_collector.html: "The title character is Frederick, a butterfly collector (who prefers to be called Ferdinand), who decides to "collect" the long-admired-from-a-distance object of his fantasy, an art student named Miranda. Frederick keeps Miranda prisoner in a room in his secluded basement. All he wants is for Miranda to love him and, other than keeping her prisoner, he treats her like a queen, fulfilling her every need or want. This is where The Collector succeeds best, in making Frederick not a monster, but a pitiful, lonely man in need of love and willing to give Miranda everything except her freedom." So when you see Stuart's lyrics for "Piazza," "How many nights of talking in hotel rooms..." you can see a parallel, the singer asking for his own captive. I think it's a parallel that holds up pretty well. By the way, I'm crap at finding these references; I'm suitably impressed that Ms. Hodottir did. (However, in looking at the last line, I can tell you that "Lewis and the litany of grace" is yet another! Christian reference, this to C.S. Lewis' book _Mere Christianity_, which is perhaps the best of his inspirational literature; as for myself, though, I'm a godless humanist who doesn't believe a word of it.) cheers, Richard. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+