ANOTHER BOOK OF BS INSTEAD OF SLEEP

Finding The Meaning Of Paradichlorobenzene For Like The Fiftieth Time

""Should I ask why you have a knife in your purse?"

"It's a dagger, actually. And no, you shouldn't.""

i should call these weekly prompts but today is special because it's 9/19/19 which means it's the TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BENZENE SERIES and because i am the Strange Dark account i am freaking out about this 

i used this for a language arts project too lol

also song at the top is what Owata-P posted probably because of the 10th anniversary i am way too excited about this

I'm a bit obsessed with this song

also I'm evaluating it for a language arts project

1. Alright at a very surface level Paradichlorobenzene in a summary is about the singer (Dark) trying to find the meaning of his own song/trying to find out why he sings. He sneaks out to the city to find his answers and encounters various things in his pursuit of answers.

2. Possible themes for this song are human nature, selfishness, jealousy, order

3. My theme statement is using human nature, so human nature is to seek answers

4. Evidence hell yeah

Though the title is mentioned several times in the lyrics, the definition of paradichlorobenzene is never revealed. Instead, paradichlorobenzene is used as a symbol, since it occurs so often. The song's meaning is a bit of a paradox, because it claims that "there is no meaning to this song" but the meaning of the song is that it's simply human nature to seek meaning or answers in everything. The singer is questioning himself as well as the listener when he asks why he's singing, and how he "sings without understanding the meaning." He also says that he runs out to the city to seek his answers "even though there is nothing out there for [him]." The way the chorus is set up, he says "paradichlorobenzene" between sentences, and so when he asks what he sings for, he then says "paradichlorobenzene" as if he were answering his own question. Paradichlorobenzene symbolizes human nature, therefore he is singing because humans by nature will seek a deeper message in his words. In the second chorus, he makes several statements, separated by the word "paradichlorobenzene" as though it is the reasoning behind his statements. For example, he asks the listener to let him sing and dance, scream, cry, go mad and sleep until he falls apart, all of which is done because it is part of human nature. The first verse talks about his hatred of rules, and how he'll forget his consequences to seek his answers. This too is part of human curiosity, or the endless hunger to have answers. He encounters a stray cat and asks it why he's alive. The cat obviously doesn't answer, but because it returns later in the song, this time drowning, it likely represents curiosity. While it seems a bit random, the cat is probably correlated with a line where he mentions that he "drinks coffee though [he] can't stand to drink it" because his empty coffee cup also reoccurs at the same time as the cat. In humans, the coffee he's forcing himself to drink is the lengths people will go to, no matter how painful, to have a satisfying answer. Once the research is complete, or the coffee finished, the curiosity is gone because there is no longer mystery about it. That being said, the coffee and the cat have the same relationship. The first time both are mentioned, the cat is alive but gives no answer, much like how curiosity is why you ask the question, but get no answers. The second time both are mentioned, the cat has drowned and the coffee's empty, since it's been consumed. Similarly, curiosity disappears once the knowledge has been learned, and if the coffee is the research, then once the research is done, the curiosity will die out because an answer has been reached. Though the song's meaning is a bit contradictory of itself, it proves that humans will find meaning in anything, even something that claims to be meaningless.

5. Literary devices

metaphors because paradichlorobenzene = human nature

cat = curiosity

coffee = research learning ig

uhhh what else

repetition, because Paradichlorobenzene

symbolism, again paradichlorobenzene, stray cat, and coffee

I'm done

for now

ehehe