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Mirror21
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06 Aug 2012, 12:43 am

I wanted a pet rock
To color like happiness
A blue flower like a crown
A smile that never goes away
But I never got a pet rock
And if I spoke to the rock
If I had it?
They would take it
And I would lose it.
And all I said would go away.



charles52
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06 Aug 2012, 8:10 am

Well, "pet rock" is a pretty dated image, and if you're really only 29, one that's way before your time. It may be a perfect metaphor for what you're trying to say here (if I'm reading it right," but it's still pretty dated. Maybe this would work better in third person; tell us a story about somebody who had a pet rock. That way it doesn't matter if it's such a dated image; the singer isn't trying to pass it off as a story that's happening right now in 2012.

The idea that is really interesting here is the image of somebody who is, umm, under some sort of care for some sort of, umm, mental disorder, who realizes that "if I DID have a pet rock and I started talking to it, they would take it away..." Someone who needs to have a different sort of "friend" than the typical "normal" person, but who knows that if they try to have that sort of friendship, it's just going to be seen as "wrong" ty "them." Especially for Aspies and others on the spectrum, this is a HUGE issue - I know what would help me feel better, but I also know it would be perceived as something else wrong that I'm doing. Just capturing the instant when the singer is feeling this conflict.

(I do a lot of critiquing of song lyrics, so I do tend to focus in on this sort of grammatical and wordsmithy stuff, don't take this personally)



Mirror21
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06 Aug 2012, 8:06 pm

I do not take it personally at all. I chose a pet rock because of a personal fascination with inanimate objects and though this may seem like a dated imagery, I am very classical in nature. Also my culture is still more old fashion that mainstream American culture. I grew up in the country mountains of Puerto Rico, where the first TV was owned by my fathers uncle when my dad himself was a teenager.

Then it was still acceptable for kids to turn backyard rocks, sticks and leafs into toys and we did not even have internet until I hit high school age, due to terrain and lack of common interest. So for me, it is not dated imagery, but a reflection of childhood habits that diminished little over the years.

As for your assessment of

Quote:
Someone who needs to have a different sort of "friend" than the typical "normal" person, but who knows that if they try to have that sort of friendship, it's just going to be seen as "wrong" ty "them." Especially for Aspies and others on the spectrum, this is a HUGE issue -


You are very correct.



PennyDreadful
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13 Aug 2012, 7:21 pm

I'm younger than you by a decade and I recognized "pet rock" right away. It was a fad a while ago, yeah, but I think most people recognize the image.