SONG: “Turn Me Inside Out.” (To download: double right-click & “Save As”)
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE: Based on “Gut instinct: Tantalising evidence that intestinal bacteria can influence mood”, The Economist, 3 Sep 2011, and “Antibiotics: Killing Off Beneficial Bacteria … for Good?”, Wired, 26 Aug 11,as used in the posts “Antibiotics: not so good for you” and “Antibiotics: not so good for your *brain*, either.”.
ABSTRACT: I guess the key to this song is probably my lack of belief in the unitary self. I believe in a lot of things, but I don’t believe that “I” is one thing. For example, sometimes I fast (as one does). I can be very hungry. The statement “I want food” is true. And I can not want to eat… yet. The statement “I don’t want food” is equally true. So “I” can only want two opposite things at the same time if “I” am not all on the same page. In other words, I’m a team. Sometimes we play well together. (This, by the way, is pretty basic Freudian and Jungian psychology. It only seems strange if you start to think about it.)
So, I’m kind of in love with the idea that populations of Lactobacillus in your intestines can somehow regulate your thoughts (notice I don’t say “control” your thoughts, just affect them). It’s almost like they’re parts of the personality… parts of “me.” And by killing them off – permanently, as it turns out – you might also be killing parts of your self.
And, maybe, parts of your relationships. I mean, anyone who’s been heartbroken knows what it’s like to feel like part of you has died. And sometimes it’s a complete mystery what happened. Why couldn’t it be because your gut bacteria stopped stimulating your sense of romantic attachment?
So. That’s what all these whispered lyrics about. The song started out as a big, droning, crunchy, noisy thing and the more I tinkered with it, the more wrong it sounded. So I don’t know how many chords this is. One? Three? Four? Not many.
But enough.