Bob Dylan and semiotics

isis, the pyramids all embedded in ice, barry lemasney 2012 

When I was very young, the world was a mysterious and exciting place, full of new sights, I didn't understand what i was seeing, but it looked interesting and full of possibality. Now I know the world , it is  less interesting. I know roughly how every book I read or each movie I watch will end ,its all variation on fairly limited themes.  I think art should recapture that new world that every visual experience offers to a young child .A feeling of " I don't know whats going on here but it all looks very interesting " like first visiting a new country.
   I've been looking at the Cremaster Cycle . it seems  to record a parallel , superfically familar but bizzare world . I have no interest in reading the text , I'm just looking at the pictures . I'm not worried about the meaning in pictures, in fact knowing what they are about often removes the mystery, the truth is often very dull.      

from the cremaster cycle

 It's like Bob Dylan lyrics . The words and phrases them selves are the art not the story or message . Like "The pyramids all embedded in ice " It's a wonderfull image but the story of Isis is pretty daft

I married Isis on the fifth day of May
But I could not hold on to her very long
So I cut off my hair and I rode straight away
For the wild unknown country where I could not go wrong

I came to a high place of darkness and light

The dividing line ran through the center of town
I hitched up my pony to a post on the right
Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down

A man in the corner approached me for a match
I knew right away he was not ordinary
He said, “Are you lookin’ for somethin’ easy to catch?”
I said, “I got no money.” He said, “That ain’t necessary”

We set out that night for the cold in the North
I gave him my blanket, he gave me his word
I said, “Where are we goin’?” He said we’d be back by the fourth
I said, “That’s the best news that I’ve ever heard”

I was thinkin’ about turquoise, I was thinkin’ about gold

I was thinkin’ about diamonds and the world’s biggest necklace
As we rode through the canyons, through the devilish cold
I was thinkin’ about Isis, how she thought I was so reckless

How she told me that one day we would meet up again
And things would be different the next time we wed
If I only could hang on and just be her friend
I still can’t remember all the best things she said

We came to the pyramids all embedded in ice
He said, “There’s a body I’m tryin’ to find
If I carry it out it’ll bring a good price”
’Twas then that I knew what he had on his mind

The wind it was howlin’ and the snow was outrageous
We chopped through the night and we chopped through the dawn
When he died I was hopin’ that it wasn’t contagious
But I made up my mind that I had to go on

I broke into the tomb, but the casket was empty
There was no jewels, no nothin’, I felt I’d been had
When I saw that my partner was just bein’ friendly
When I took up his offer I must-a been mad

I picked up his body and I dragged him inside
Threw him down in the hole and I put back the cover
I said a quick prayer and I felt satisfied
Then I rode back to find Isis just to tell her I love her

She was there in the meadow where the creek used to rise
Blinded by sleep and in need of a bed
I came in from the East with the sun in my eyes
I cursed her one time then I rode on ahead

She said, “Where ya been?” I said, “No place special”
She said, “You look different.” I said, “Well, not quite”
She said, “You been gone.” I said, “That’s only natural”
She said, “You gonna stay?” I said, “Yeah, I jes might”

Isis, oh, Isis, you mystical child
What drives me to you is what drives me insane
I still can remember the way that you smiled
On the fifth day of May in the drizzlin’ rain

Copyright © 1975 by Ram's Horn Music; renewed 2003 by Ram’s Horn Music

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/isis#ixzz29gMAhmII