TROPICO ANALYSIS

[COLACNT 5,177]

In the car, wtf did she throw? A copy of Paradise? The farewell?

 

[Wryta Thinkpiece 3,344]

[Sitar 22,207]

 

Me driving home from Tropico the Ultraviolence announcement

[Kerrigan 612]

 

i just peed

[Mileena 2,691]

 

This is why I go on this site every day.

[Rebel 3,176]

In the car, wtf did she throw? A copy of Paradise? The farewell?

 

Her wallet, she threw her wallet which I guess symbolizes money and then her pearl necklace later. I suppose Bel Air is about repenting their sins and greed for money or whatever, but it doesn't make sense since they just robbed a shit ton of people

[slang 1,532]

Like some others, I have some problems with slowness and dependence on pretty looks in parts (e.g., the Bel Air sequence), and it is as much a poetry video as a music video, which is to say she may be more interested in the poems and visuals than the music. Still I've watched 3 times and not really bored by it. The strongest, I think, is the Body Electric intro and sequence, which to me is just brilliant (and not just because of the snake scene). In a universe where John Wayne is God, Lana being Eve is perfectly sensible. I predict criticism will be coming for putting Jesus in the context of pop culture icons, but that's just Lana (and the BE song tbh). 

 

The monologue after the Body Electric sequence is derived from Walt Witman's Body Electric, not surprisingly. Although I couldn't find it in the credits. Maybe an oversight on her part, or maybe we're all assumed at this point to know that Whitman's gonna happen there.  

 

 

I'm particularly struck by these lines (in fact at the end scroll all the way down):

 

The thin red jellies within you, or within me—the bones, and the marrow in the bones,

The exquisite realization of health;

O I say, these are not the parts and poems of the Body only, but of the Soul,

O I say now these are the Soul!

 

This is profoundly unChristian, of course, yet she is Christian (of course). As the monolog happens after corruption (via the apple), it's uncertain (for me) whether @@Ultraviolence attribution to Whitman--

"Man will then be reborn through this glorification of his body, for the human body is as sacred as the spirit."-- actually applies to the video meaning. But my point is not to say that he's wrong but just that the interpretation is uncertain for me. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. On the idea that the body monologue is an effect of biting the apple, LDR and SR could be dead at the end (aka beautiful spirits) and going to heaven, so Bel Air would actually be a song about dieing (and a fundamentally Christian song). Wouldn't be the first time characters died in an LDR video.

[prettydrugs 456]

has someone already  written all the things said in Tropico? (like what John/Marilyn/Elvis say and the parts of the poems Lana recites) I want to learn them and say them while I watch it   

[Guest Dot]

The way I saw it was that the garden of eden represented her early childhood, everything was beautiful, she was surrounded by the icons that would go on to shape her life, then by a decision she consciously made, she left all that behind with the man she loved, she cast herself into chaos and did what she had to in order to survive. the ending scene is when she finally arrived at the point where she wanted to be. She cast off the black lingerie and reached paradise, but not the same paradise as her childhood, this one is different, she knows more, she's not as innocent, she's learned from her mistakes and she's found her place in life.

This is pretty much it! Good job!

 

[ConeyIslandQueen262 1,068]

has someone already  written all the things said in Tropico? (like what John/Marilyn/Elvis say and the parts of the poems Lana recites) I want to learn them and say them while I watch it   

Me too !!!

[whitman 1,286]

 

Like some others, I have some problems with slowness and dependence on pretty looks in parts (e.g., the Bel Air sequence), and it is as much a poetry video as a music video, which is to say she may be more interested in the poems and visuals than the music. Still I've watched 3 times and not really bored by it. The strongest, I think, is the Body Electric intro and sequence, which to me is just brilliant (and not just because of the snake scene). In a universe where John Wayne is God, Lana being Eve is perfectly sensible. I predict criticism will be coming for putting Jesus in the context of pop culture icons, but that's just Lana (and the BE song tbh). 

 

The monologue after the Body Electric sequence is derived from Walt Witman's Body Electric, not surprisingly. Although I couldn't find it in the credits. Maybe an oversight on her part, or maybe we're all assumed at this point to know that Whitman's gonna happen there.  

 

 

 

I'm particularly struck by these lines (in fact at the end scroll all the way down):

 

The thin red jellies within you, or within me—the bones, and the marrow in the bones,

The exquisite realization of health;

O I say, these are not the parts and poems of the Body only, but of the Soul,

O I say now these are the Soul!

 

This is profoundly unChristian, of course, yet she is Christian (of course). As the monolog happens after corruption (via the apple), it's uncertain (for me) whether @@Ultraviolence attribution to Whitman--

"Man will then be reborn through this glorification of his body, for the human body is as sacred as the spirit."-- actually applies to the video meaning. But my point is not to say that he's wrong but just that the interpretation is uncertain for me. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. On the idea that the body monologue is an effect of biting the apple, LDR and SR could be dead at the end (aka beautiful spirits) and going to heaven, so Bel Air would actually be a song about dieing (and a fundamentally Christian song). Wouldn't be the first time characters died in an LDR video.

 

 

W. W reverse Christian values and concepts, in his eyes we're all sinners from the start but differently from christian concept  "Adam's children can regain this lost paradise not by denying the flesh, which had been a Puritan belief, but by accepting it. Thus, man is not born debased as a result of Original Sin. He should be proud of his heritage and of the "Adamic" in him"

[PrettyBaby 2,219]

 

Like some others, I have some problems with slowness and dependence on pretty looks in parts (e.g., the Bel Air sequence), and it is as much a poetry video as a music video, which is to say she may be more interested in the poems and visuals than the music. Still I've watched 3 times and not really bored by it. The strongest, I think, is the Body Electric intro and sequence, which to me is just brilliant (and not just because of the snake scene). In a universe where John Wayne is God, Lana being Eve is perfectly sensible. I predict criticism will be coming for putting Jesus in the context of pop culture icons, but that's just Lana (and the BE song tbh). 

 

 

I think that's an excellent way to put it, "as much a poetry video as a music video." This is why I feel like I'm out of my league in attempting to offer any critical analysis of Tropico -- my dirty little secret is that even though I majored in English and am fascinated by human communication, I really don't like poetry.   I've tried to sensitize myself to the beauty in turns of phrases, but the truth is that I really, really need to hear poetry served up in the elixr of music to make it go down. So I'm grateful to artists like Lana for making me care what artists like Whitman have to say! (I'm going to switch from "Lana" to "Del Rey" in the below paragraphs... it just seems more respectful when analyzing her work.)

 

So with that intro...

 

 

 

I hope any critics of Tropico will try to be fair-minded. It serves absolutely no purpose to get offended over someone portraying Jesus as a pop culture icon. TBH it does make me sad to think of people experiencing him this way... but the truth is, some people do. I'd even go so far as to say some Christians do sometimes. So I think Del Rey not only has the right to make this portrayal, but also has the potential to speak truth through it.

 

With that said, I think I disagree with the overall theme -- I say "I think," because I'm not sure to what extent Del Rey agrees with Whitman's "Children of Adam," and because I'm not sure I understand exactly what Whitman's point is. Is it to throw off asceticism and embrace epicureanism? (Trading one extreme for another?) Or is it more an appeal to embrace both the physical and the spiritual, to achieve greater wholeness (which, I would argue, is actually a more-Christian approach than asceticism)? Or is it equating the physical with the spiritual?

 

In Tropico, Del Rey actually seems to be criticizing epicureanism more than asceticism (contra Whitman). Then in the Bel Air segment, her Adam and Eve seem to recover the spiritual, resulting in greater wholeness. But it seems that they do this, not by recognizing the physical and the spiritual as distinct-yet-interdependent, but by collapsing the two; so Del Rey ends up at the same place as Whitman, saying sex (or sexual love) equals spiritual redemption. But I find this answer unsatisfying. It seems that in collapsing the physical with the spiritual, Del Rey and Whitman make the same mistake as the ascetics and the epicureans -- focusing on sex the body as the end-all, be-all aspect of life to idolize or reject.

 

To better explain what I feel is a more holistic approach, I would compare Tropico to the epic song "Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres" by Rush (from their 1978 Hemispheres album), particularly the chapter "The Sphere":

 

We can walk our road together

If our goals are all the same.

We can run alone and free

If we pursue a different aim.

Let the Truth of Love be lighted,

Let the Love of Truth shine clear. Sensibility,

Armed with sense and liberty,

With the Heart and Mind united in a single

Perfect

Sphere.

 

 

Not that "The Sphere" concerns the same physical-spiritual duality; rather it addresses a mind-vs.-heart false dichotomy, and resolves it as a unity of parts. While the band Rush (particularly writer Neal Peart) generally advocates a perspective that is more atheistic than Christian, I believe that this particular unity-of-parts ideal is actually more in keeping with Christianity's ideal of unity-of-the-Body (that is, of the sum of all Christ-followers, i.e. "the Church") than are the head-over-heart or heart-over-head proponents who often (and currently) struggle for the right to define "Christian" morality. We don't need just the people who are good at reason or those who are good at compassion; we need both. Thus, while Christianity doesn't exactly advocate, "In all things, moderation," it is true that by advocating all that is good, balance is often the result.

 

It seems that Tropico, on the other hand, argues for an appearance of wholeness, which is in fact remarkably unbalanced in favor of sexual love. It's as if violent crime doesn't matter; as long as you have a mate who really loves you, that's all the goodness you need. I hope I'm reading it wrong. I hope the flinging-away of monetary possessions represents a true repentance of the old life followed by a new one emphasizing love, allowing it to make them both better people. But I get the uncomfortable feeling that they took what they needed after the robbery, and now are just getting rid of the evidence. True, they can still help each other become better people... and so it is still a tale of redemption either way. But I can't believe that a lopsided emphasis on sexual love is going to get them there. (What about other good things like honesty and goodwill toward one's fellow man? Just to name a couple?)

 

I think it would also help if I understood what the connection was supposed to be between the robbery and the dancing. The juxtaposition does create a connection, but to what degree? Was Eve complicit in Adam's robbery? Or is it just a parallel view of their "sins"? (I actually have a problem with comparing pole-dancing to robbery.) I'm sort of left feeling like the film makes a better case for Adam's redemption than for Adam-and-Eve's, yet we're expected to hold them as equivalent somehow. It just doesn't feel right.

 

So my response to Tropico is that, while it is beautiful and true in many of the details, these moments fall short of lasting beauty and truth in the larger picture. While it presents an important message about the need to embrace sexuality as an aspect of one's humanity, it goes too far when if it suggests that sexuality is the most important part of being human. Still, maybe Tropico itself is only part of an even bigger picture, and there is more goodness to come. And maybe that's okay.

 

 

[COLACNT 5,177]

i just peed

lmao

 

This is why I go on this site every day.

ps credit goes to @@kitschqueen !

[sjrq 150]

The "Gods and Monsters" robbery scene looked very much like a similar scene in "Spring Breakers".  I love the song, though, so it didn't really matter.

[Just Cherry 3,766]

It's never too late to be saved. No matter what crimes you commit in your life, it's never too late to repent. You make a mistake, you suffer from it, and you're rewarded in the end with peace if you so choose it. That's about all I got out of it.

[greymillenium 541]

I need to watch it more before I weigh in!

[Guest Dot]

It's never too late to be saved. No matter what crimes you commit in your life, it's never too late to repent. You make a mistake, you suffer from it, and you're rewarded in the end with peace if you so choose it. That's about all I got out of it.

I think she might be referring to K here as well...

[Lirazel 700]

I think she might be referring to K here as well...

I've been thinking all this time if Shaun Ross is playing K...very curious.

[SweetLikeCinnamon 344]

Just noticed the Nike product placement. Lol. 

[shelaughslikegod 79]

I think the scenes during G&M really suited the lyrics. I'm not sure about Body Electric or Bel Air...