Added essay "secret self.

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for another great essay!

I don't know exactly it this space is meant to be a discussion place. But I'll assume it is

First of all the title, simply marvellous! Then all the idea. I feel I've been trying to say those things, and didn't know how.

I will not repeat what you've already put so well. It's exactly that "secret self"; that "withdraw to survive"; that "all we can call our own"; that "escaping"; that explains so many of the reasons why I'm attracted to Suzanne's lyrics.

Just two small points where I disagree with you. I mean where you quote Ironbound and Stockings as an example of the "crawling inside the skin".

To me the first has more to do with the chopping of a life, dreams, fantasies, in an unhuman way; while the second seems to me a sign of pure erotical desire, or visual lust, if you want to call it like that.

Just two small ideas, that maybe make sense only to me.

Thanks again Bruce, I'll keep your words near me.

José Carlos

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Hi Jose Carlos:

Thanks for your note. It certainly is elusive to truly know what Suzanne's words mean. I think that her best music leads you to the edge of what she is dreaming but you can never be sure.

Hi,

I like this essay as well. Thanks Bruce! This made me think a lot. It is wonderful essay. Let me say something about it.

It is possible I didn't catch all the meaning in this essay, so maybe for someone it is obvious what I am going to say. But, please don't blame anyone for this, but me.

I know for sure that there are people who knows and dream a lot, but they don't want to share their wisdom and visions. Maybe they are afraid that all this is too hollow for others “what it turns to be hollow?” Suzanne found the best way to share her dreaming and knowledge – metaphors - and all what you call secret beneath surface. It seems that what we get not easy, tastes the best. To comprehend her work is big challenge for me and it seems for many other people. She found a way how to speak about everybody, not herself, but that this is only illusion, because such knowledge and dreaming couldn't come from outside, it must be learned by inside.

But secret self has a second face – “try to hide whatever's dirty” as Book and Cover goes. It comes to my mind “secret burning thread” from Queen and Soldier. There is no way to reveal this own secret self. We can only complain about that. So we escape a fist or maybe we are afraid or ashamed to reveal because we could lose our human face. We need masks and armour, because we are here to fight for ourselves. We make mistakes sometimes,so we fight for our secret self. This is how I see it. Suzanne is able to speak honestly and speak difficult truth about this. I agree that maybe a wonderful music made all bearable or maybe her way of being a bit cryptic made all us listeners fascinated in long run, as Bruce wrote - that makes her work grow not diminish.

So I see two sources of secret self – dreaming and “secret burning thread”. But why they are secret has a different reasons. And I truly believe we don't have to lie to hide them, sometimes only silence is left, sometimes we can take a risk and show our rich inner world and there is no need to hide it... I know, I know... Suzanne conveys her secret self and she does it perfectly. This is what good poetry is all about.... Such talents are very rare......

Thanks and be well

Anna Maria K.

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"like a shadow, I am and I am not"

Hi Anna - sorry for the slow response, but I was on a vacation and not on email.

I like what you wrote: "what we get not easy tastes the best." I agree very much with this. This is not to say that Suzanne's music is deliberately cryptic in order to create a false sense of importance or "meaning" (something which I do feel some casual listeners of her work would accuse her of) but rather, in the manner of a skilled film director, the meaning is not spelled-out, but rather, presented in terms of metaphor and symbols.

I think this is a very hard trick to pull off -- to be subtle without indulging in the crime of self indulgence and pretense.

I read once something to the effect that the introvert saves the best part of themselves for their selves and I have always felt that this was an important part of Suzanne's enigma and fascination. It is as though, to paraphrase Bruce Springsteen, that "she whispered in our ear a dream, and we are now living in that dream."