Cowboy Bebop
i used to think that icarus’ death was just a tragic accident—the kind so prevalent in greek mythology, where the hero survives the most dangerous part but tragedy befalls in the most unexpected/preventable way as a result of hubris/arrogance/carelessness. but icarus’ fate was no accident. tragic, yes, but also beautiful in its inevitability: a tribute to the inexorable entanglement between love and death, desire and destruction, intimacy and decay — all of which are ultimately just forms of want and loss. after all, everything has a price, an equal and opposite reaction.
desire is synonymous with fire. it’s something i think mortals are only capable of experiencing in tiny doses: little fires in our guts, live wires down our spine, warm flushes across our cheeks. like taking very small sips of too-hot tea, desire must be drawn out over a lifetime of intimacy—lest it burn us up completely. but apollo feels things with all his immortal intensity: he is pure fire and light and heat. i am not sure there exists a purer form of love than that of the sun.
this is why icarus’ fate is no accident, nor another allegory on the dangers of hubris. it was inevitable from the start. the same way achilles’ virility and vitality was paid for with his death at such a young age, the heat from apollo’s fleeting, fatal moment of desire for icarus is the same as a lifetime’s worth of slow-burning love between two mortals.
i like to believe that icarus didn’t lose his life—not exactly. he just lived it all at once in a single, blazing moment of intimacy with the sun.
So I made an Asrian playlist. It is very 80′s-licious with a dash of 70′s. I hope it is sufficiently Extra and Dramatique™.
Careless Whisper .//. George Michael
Love Kills .//. Vinnie Vincent Invasion
As The World Falls Down .//. David Bowie
Total Eclipse of The Heart .//. Bonnie Tyler
Don’t You Want Me .//. The Human League
Every Breath You Take .//. The Police
Too Much Heaven .//. Bee Gees
Right Here Waiting .//. Richard Marx
Heat Of The Moment .//. Asia
Break Your Promise .//. The Delfonics
Hungry Like The Wolf .//. Duran Duran
Baby Come Back .//. Player
Hello .//. Lionel Richie
Starting All Over Again .//. Mel & Tim
Time After Time .//. Cyndi Lauper
Hopelessly Devoted To You .//. Olivia Newton-John
Suedehead .//. Morrissey
Take Me Home Tonight .//. Eddie Money
Who Can it Be Now? .//. Men At Work
Don’t You (Forget About Me) .//. Simple Minds
On Spotify.
Do you ever do this, you think back on all the times you’ve had with someone and you just replay it in your head over and over again and you look for those first signs of trouble?
(500) Days of Summer (2009) dir. Marc Webb
Joe Greer // VSCO
Before it was normalized as “missionary position” the old name was “Venus observa” because you were face to face with your lover and that just makes me feel 🥺
In other news, Uğur Gallenkuş