freudian horror: dye 'fantasy' analysis
i used to be good at humanities in high school and i use it for evil.
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kotte does media analysis: of course, the media is very disturbing, and the analysis very autistic. also, i got freud into this. this is going to be nsfw, for clarity. i hope minors don't read me, but just in case: go away.
what is 'fantasy' by dye?
it's a decent song from the 2011, with a remarkable music video. an interesting video some may remember being aired at night on mtv. some also remember being sent the youtube link by an older friend, or weird memes about it. it's been taken off youtube, and it's not aired on mtv anymore, probably on account of how old it is now and also the issues with the popculture and internet space i described in another essay, childsafe.
regardless of the reasons, most people my age probably saw it too young and remember being 'traumatized', and slightly older ones may remember making jokes about it; in some, i suppose, it's the long forgotten cause of their anxiety around swimming pools. it was outstanding. why? well, depends whom you ask. i consider it perhaps the best short video format cosmic horror ever created. most consider it really fucking weird, and it was. it includes sexual motives and tentacles, which in itself provides for excellent meme material. beyond the weirdness - if one bothers to look behind it - it's a great short visual cosmic horror and body horror story, with good narrative based on showing, not telling, good visual layer, and amazing symbolics.
it originated in similar era as another known 'fucked up' and borderline nsfw music video - the one for me!me!me!, a japanese song by daoko and teddyloid. i'm a big fan of that one, too; i do think its anti-pornography message is clear enough, though, that me!me!me! doesn't need a long analysis essay - it's relatively understandable once one reads the lyrics (or a translation, of course, if one doesn't know japanese - like me) - and reads the video in the correct context, being pornography addiction and instrumentalising projection of pornographic ideas onto a real, 'unideal' and feeling woman; additionally, me!me!me! may have contexts to it that stem from the japanese culture and that i would not be able to properly discuss. fantasy is a bit more unclear, and despite the anime-like visuals and the mention of tokyo in the lyrics, created by a white french artist juan de guillebon of the pseudonym dye, so it's more convenient to analyse as it doesn't require reading deeper into the culture of the country of origin.
i have to say, at this point, that i adore this kind of media overall - as you may have figured out - dark things with rich symbolic backgrounds, capturing attention for a deeper message via shock. i am a lover of uncomfortable media - hence why i like '1984', 'lolita' and other akin; it's difficult for a media to provoke emotions in me, so i value these that can make me viscerally uncomfortable because they're so well written rather than the opposite. i'm naturally drawn to morbid things and enjoy exploring them, but i don't entertain gore and edge just for the sake of gore and edge. i want something more than 'gore porn', that's boring. 'fantasy' offers a lot in this aspect.
lyrical analysis of 'fantasy'
since it's mainly the music video that's of interest here, i believe that proper analysis calls for taking a look at the song; i would like to talk about it for a while. it's very melodic and mellow, electronic (electropop?) music, with clear, audible male vocals, sung in english. playing to the video, it comes off as quite a constrast, although this is not a situation where the lyrics and video contrast with the music. the lyrics are melancholic, not graphic - music appropriate - and the video suits the vibe, despite its horrors - it's slowly developing, in muted, cold hues colouristics wise, 'serious' drawing style and animation. the video has - as i mentioned - a stylisation that reminds me of a 90s-00s era anime, albeit isn't, as far as i know, anime style per se. the composition is coherent.
the lyrics may or may not be hinting at an interpretation for the video - it can be assumed the creators wanted to put it in the context connected to the lyrics, although this connection isn't very clear and the lyrics, like the video, bear several different interpretations, certainly one 'personal' and one 'cultural'. of course, this works both ways, and the video also provides a context or framework for interpretation of the lyrics, indicating that they are supposed to be seen in context related to taboo, sexuality and innocence. they are, definitely, worth looking into.
the moon is always spying on your fears
i make it to the golden gate and fail
so then you throw your fantasy away to fade
oh and i take, take it in vain
so i fake, fake it again
to tokyo network stocks, i stream
all of my wasted dreams on the screen
oh and i take, take it in vain
so i fake, fake it again
could i not take it in vain?
could i not fake it again?
can't i not take it in pain?
can't i not fake it again?
(i've sent my heart away,
like heroes in the rain) 4x
this isn't very dark at the first glance, is it? one can certainly pick up on themes of paranoia, alienation, disappointment and (culturally induced?) depression. the subject feels alienated and perceives the world as hostile and invasive ('the walls so high and you won't feel the moon is always spying on your fears'), finds themself close to, but eventually unable to achieve their goals and dreams, giving up on them in a sense of disappointed, disillusioned melancholia ('i make it to the golden gate and fail / so then you throw your fantasy away to fade'), talks about feeling a pressure to pretend and endure, put on a face and survive unpleasant situations, struggles or perhaps obstacles ('oh and i take (...)'), attributes their alienation and disappointment to popculture ('to tokyo network stocks i stream / all of my wasted dreams on the screen'). eventually comes to talk about a sense of repression or escapism, where the subject decides to preserve what is worthy and sensitive within them by keeping it away from the world they're facing ('i've sent my heart away (...)'). that's my interpretation of it, at least - this is someone alienated by the capitalist society and popculture, struggling to stay above to surface, frequently repressing their emotions and desires the enduring hostile conditions, and convinced of hostility of the world as a whole due to it. the loose element is mainly the cultural connection - it's difficult to tell how much the subject is depressed 'in their personal right', and how much that depression is connected to popculture, capitalism, et cetera - or, in other words, how much they're blaming themself for the inability to achieve their goals, and how much they're criticising these goals as unavailable. these themes do, in fact, suit the possible intepretations of the video rather well.
the actual video
nowadays the video of interest can be found on vimeo most easily, since youtube deletes or restricts the access on account of it not being appropriate for children; or here. what happens in the video?
the answer is: a lot. the video begins with several teenagers - two boys and two girls - sneaking into a swimming pool at night. the swimming pool is either abandoned or just closed for the night; it is, however, filled with water and appears clean. one of the opening scenes immediately flashes us with uncomfortable sexuality - there's a suggestive scene with one of the teenagers fixing her swimming costume. i am now to old to perceive a teenage character erotically, but i do remember that when i was younger i didn't find that scene 'hot' either - it's uncomfortable and awkward, awkwardly sexual, and meant to be so. the teens brought some beer, and are throwing a party of sorts; you know, teenage antics. as a perpetual mental teen i do understand this behaviour. we find that the character of focus is the girl with long, dark hair, who stands out as shy, quiet and somewhat bashful. the girl is offerred beer, but refuses awkwardly; from her embarrassment one may deduce she's not used to alcohol and breaking the rules, and probably scared of 'forbidden', 'mature' things.
while two teenagers who are apparently a couple jump into the pool together and begin kissing and making out, the girl stays on the side of the pool with the other boy. he attempts to kiss her, and she is shying away - another awkward uncomfortable scene with focus on his lips; seems like the audience are to see sexuality there as invasive, awkward, and graphic. the girl is also hinted to be sexually inexperienced and somewhat 'innocent' in this scene. embarrassed and overwhelmed, the virgin protagonist jumps into the pool; meanwhile the couple begin feeling each other up (another awkward, graphic scene). in the pool, she experiences weird stomach pain, and suspicious movements around her lower stomach area: she screams and jumps back out. this is where the horror part begins.
as she jumps out of the pool, she finds herself next to the boy who seemingly has a crush on her again - he seems to try to check on her, but they both freeze in terror as they witness something approaching them. it's the couple shown in earlier scenes - his hand inside her vagina now transformed into something meaty and round, like a worm or a tentacle - the phallic associations probably very much in place - buried deep in her insides; it moves out, leaving her hollow - though still standing. the audience can now see that his fingers inside her turned into... well, this... thing. look at the fingers around its head. this thing is very invasive; it's 'bad touch' given a form.
the thing reaches and tears the underwear off the boy, upon which the other girl's head turns into a similar carnivore worm, but with razor teeth, and bites into his crotch, presumably biting off his genitalia - what a beautiful metaphor for the castration complex!
the virgin girl attempts to run away, just to find all routes of escape are locked; her friends are now a weird amalgamation of human flesh, out of which emerge more worms and tentacles. the girl chooses the only available escape: in desperation, she jumps into the pool again, and swims to the bottom of it. to her surprise, the bottom turns out to be another surface, which she emerges through, and steps out of the small lake it turned out to be; she now eneded up in some sort of a parallel, mirror-world. the closest surroundings are mostly bare rocks. there probably isn't any buildings nearby, and if they are, they probably don't resemble what we know, nor abide to the euclidian geometry. what she ended up in is, seemingly, some sort of a lovecraftian, eldritch reality, eons behind or beyond the human history and time; this is revealed as a ray of light (probably a star native to that place rather than the good old sun of the milky way) lands on her face, and she is able to look around. she witnesses a vast shape, and her expression changes to increasing horror and shock. her eyes start to bleed, then explode. the girl falls to her knees, and most probably dies. brutal.
the last scene of the video reveals a glimpse on what she saw - albeit just an outline, while she is implies to have perceived it correctly - it's a strange, huge entity of a puzzling shape, and possessing of multiple tentacles. it seems like the pool was in close proximity of the lovecraftian reality - indeed the water was where they touched and crossed through each other - and it's what affected the teenagers to cause their grotesque metamorphosis, although it's also not known whether the pool is abandoned and currently permanently 'touching' the other reality, or only coincidentally, briefly came in contact with it; and whether the 'cthulhu' figure affected the teenagers on purpose, or it was just their promixity that caused the human reality to morph according to its nature.
i lean towards the second idea on the latter - that is, i don't think the entity really thinks about some human teens, if we could even imagine what they think about and what their thoughts look like; whatever they are, there's something predatory to their nature, and well... wormy and tentacle-y, out of the lack of a better world (i'm esl, forgive me), and it probably just affected the kids passively. i don't really lean either way on the former; i kind of like the idea of an abandoned pool becoming a cosmic horror hub, but i also enjoy the idea of the kids being tragically unfortunate and just walking in at a very wrong time - perhaps they crossed the barrier between realities when entering the pool already, and hence why the electricity was on and the pool wasn't drained for the night.
anyways... yeah, well, that was fucked up, i love it.
freudian horror: the reading of this
i. the sexual
the dark haired subject is - as i emphasised earlier - notably scared of 'forbidden' things, as shown very early in the video via her response to alcohol - she got embarrassed and awkward as she refused, it wasn't a calm refusal of someone who just doesn't drink, but rather a response of someone who has strong feelings surrounding substances and drinking. it can be assumed she never drank, but was warned of it, and it scares her to participate in something forbidden, it can also be imagined she wants to try deep down - which teenager isn't curious of similar things - but her repression runs way too deep. she's a 'good girl'. her desires for the forbidden are buried very deep - she probably either had a strict, maybe religious upbringing, or had something traumatic to her that would 'stunt' her and cause deep fear of 'maturity' and leaving the comfort zone.
it's unknown why she went to the pool - perhaps she was trying to impress a boy or fit in with the group, so she might be there against her own will, out of teenage conformity and desire to be liked - or she may have wanted to go deep down, but is now feeling guilty for it. it's probably either of that; she exists in a very deep, obvious state of ambivalence - her mind is a battleground for curiosity, sexual impulses, excitement on the other side, and deep seated fear, guilt and self hate on the other. not a particularly pleasant state to be in; chances are her repressed impulses she refuses to acknowledge, recognize, name and vocalise even inside her head have broken containment and expressed themselves in the external world.
her response to the boy trying to kiss her is similar to that to the beer - she gets embarrassed and bashful, and runs away; in contrast, the other couple are overtly getting it on, probably reminding her of the elephant in the room that is sexuality and sex. the uncomfortable, graphic, in-your-face sexual themes are present in the video generally; from the pov of the girl, we see the discomfort they cause to her, but also her overfocus on them. they draw a lot of attention because of her mixed feelings - hence why the emphasis for the audience. a lot of focus is put on the other girl's skimpy clothes, the lips of the boy who tries to kiss her, and the couple being sexual with each other. the girl wants to escape sex - she's terrified, overwhelmed, but possibly curious inside. she seeks escape because she likely was taught to fear sex, maybe to associate it with sin and something to feel guilty for, or maybe she associates it with violence and trauma as a result of csa or recent sexual assault, or it's something she fixated on due to her inexperience and low self esteem while not being really ready for it. therefore she escapes - withdraws, jumps into the pool - it's an escape into solitude.
the next scene is highly interesting from the pov of this reading - whatever happens to her lower stomach that scares her. my ideas were that it could be a puberty or period metaphor - her body is maturing, becoming 'sexual', viable for sexuality, which is what scares her and makes her feel sinful or unsafe - or a metaphor for arousal. in the latter interpretation she experiences physical arousal in her sexual organs after withdrawing from the failed kiss, which - given she escaped it on her own accord - would portray her ambivalence around sex pretty well; she wants it on some level, but she's scared. whatever it is, something is going on with her body and she finds it terrifying. the boy expresses concern - assuming she's attracted to him, and knowing that he was also victim to the monsters before being 'assimilated' by them', it can be concluded he might be the focus of this, a male 'syren' that tempts her or calls her towards the forbidden. assuming she isn't, he can be a wellmeaning, non-malicious person who doesn't notice her boundaries, perhaps also because she isn't taught to express them. the couple are 'sexuals' - objects of both envy and hate; her overfocus on them results from both wishing she was in their place, was so daring, desirable, well adjusted and 'mature', and finding them repulsive, immoral, sinful and irritating due to violating her moral code and being so open about it.
the next scene confirms this reading - the couple have been, mid-sex, transformed into something terrifying. that's her perception of them - the sexual activity they indulged in changed them into something monstrous, grotesque, inhuman and non-recognizable. the girl's perception of sex here is shown in full: sex is grotesque, scary, the physical is intimidating and gross, and it changes people her age into some other kind she can't understand and is afraid of. in fact, the weird finger-worm is the best symbol for her perception of sex here - it's not very favourable; it's something invasive, a penetrating object akin to a penis, associated with touch (vide the fingers). we're witnesssing very severe sexual neurosis in a repressed person deeply scared of sex.
she watches the entities tear off the boy's underwear, after which the other girl bites his genitalia off and 'assimilates' him. this might symbolise the last close person she believed was 'different' falling to the sexualised culture, maybe in reality seduced by that other girl; there will be more place for analysis of this scene in the other reading. either way, when he 'abandons' her, the girl feels completely surrounded, and pursues a desperate escape, jumping into the same solitude she ran away from earlier. in fact, through the whole video she continues running away, from others to her inner world, and then from herself to other people, and back.
if the underwater is understood as her inner world - the inside of her mind - it's where she withdraws after invasive encounters with the forbidden at first and is surprised by something 'alien' in her body responding to it, and where she attempts to withdraw again, just to find... well. what did she find?
the answer is: she finds another world. a different, terrifying one, in fact mirroring the reality she knew, but alien, evil, amorphous. what is it? well... it's the freudian unconscious. the repressed instincts, drives, feelings and thoughts that her brain refuses to recognize - and the more repressed she is, the more content is pushed out to the unconscious and the more powerful and terrifying it gets. she's very repressed as we've witnessed, and she escapes so deep into her inner psyche that she gets.. there. in a moment of realisation, she witnesses her unconscious, and the sight, well, burns her eyes out.
...which makes a lot of sense given repressed content is repressed for a reason, and the reason is it being contradictory with what the ego wants itself to be and allows to be part of it; acknowledging the unconscious as a whole leads to destruction of the ego in its present form. that's about what happens.
as such, 'fantasy' is a great studium of repression and neurosis.
ii. the sexualised
another reading i see to this is more connected to the lyrics, and therefore moreso exploring the motif of overly sexual capitalistic culture and sexualisation of teenagers. i choose to believe the artist didn't mean to shame 'sluts' and bash sex in general (that would take a lot from the value of this as a piece of art), but rather oppose premature sexualisation of kids. i choose to trust that since i prefer that to be the case, but also because i believe he made the main subject a teenager for a reason - rather than a 'dignified' adult woman, so i will follow this route.
in this context, the above reading of her fear of sex is probably still accurate, but it results mainly from her age - she feels intimidated by sex because she's not ready for it and inadequate for her inexperience while this should be the normal state at her age. it's her peers starting out too early who are pathological - they're pushed towards this early initiation by the overly sexualised culture, while she is appropriately 'innocent'. the whole trip is a situation she's not comfortable in, in this interpretation something she pursued probably out of pure 'teenage conformity', fear of being disliked in the group of she says 'no'.
she is surrounded by vulgar, graphic sexuality, emotionless and shallow. she appears to have met someone who expresses interest in her as a person - the boy who attempts to kiss her - but he, too, is immersed in that overly sexual mentality; and falls into it fully when the other girl seduces him. interestingly, she also mutilates him, taking away his 'manhood' - it's an act meant to perhaps portray how traumatic such premature initiation can be; his appropriate development into a man is hereby broken, interrupted, his own desires and initiative devoured by the societal model of sexuality. it's not for no reason i referenced the castrational complex here earlier - according to freud, it's something related to the oedipus complex - a boy's subconscious fear of the father castrating him if he finds out about the way he feels about his mother, the father's wife. knowing the video was created by a man, it can be interesting to look at how said complex could have expressed here; adolescent male fear of sexuality, perhaps, portrayed next to adolescent female fear. it would, understandably, express differently; and a fear of not being adequate 'as a man' for the 'sexual' girls, and being 'castrated' (rejected or pushed into a submissive role, not respected in a relationship) as a result, would fit well into this.
the girl is alienated by her innocence - she notices that innocence and inexperience are what separates her from the peers and prevents connection and 'belonging'; by becoming sexual and 'mature', they've changed into something else that overwhelms her, and left her behind. there's no place for her in there, since she doesn't feel raeady. once again, she escapes into solitude, and finds... well, what does she find here? once again, perhaps, her own unconscious, expressing the societal ideas internalised - she finds that there's no real escape since the culture she hates shaped her as well, or that loneliness and isolation will not give her escape since the culture that surrounds her is overwhelming and omnipresent, and she will only become more likely to be harmed by it - i.e. groomed - if she's on her own. she doesn't manage to stand confrontation with that reality.
this interpretation is more connected to the lyrics, in that they can be interpreted as a struggle against the sexualised, consumptionist popculture, and disappointment that stems from putting one's stake in it growing up. the video might represent the way this popculture ruined innocence and developing sexuality in his own childhood, or the way he has observed it impact contemporary teens. the portrayal of the world as disillusioning and hostile expressed in the lyrics may aid this process and further push teenagers into vulgar sexuality as a way of achievement or escapism; think starting onlyfans as soon as one turns 18. something of that sort.
iii. the sexuality
interestingly this hasn't yet exhausted the potential this video has for interpretation - arguably, the girl can be portrayed as a young repressed lesbian with internalised homophobia, who responds negatively to heterosexuality - which is all sexuality she knows so far - and is forced to confront her own desires, her reality of why she isn't interested in what her peers like and the nice boys who seems to like her. it's a confrontation many gay teens from fundamentalist or otherwise conservative families do not take well; it's not without a reason that a lot of gay young adults identified as some sort of asexual growing up, when heterosexual sex was the only sex they knew and it obviously wasn't appealing and maybe even was repulsive, or the thought of gay sex made them terrified to the core.
in other possible interpretation, this may express confronting childhood sexual trauma which is at the root of the fear of sex - reminded by everything in ambiguous ways, the girl is eventually forced to confront memories of something horrifying, which have taken on a monstrous shape as a child's brain isn't capable of properly processing them; or confroting 'forbidden', pathological desires which replaced the 'norm' as a result of such trauma - hence why her body can only respond in proximity of the horror, and that response equally terrifies her. i don't think these interpretations are really necessary given the first two ones pretty much exhaust the topic, but a lot could be projected onto this video. it can also represent a fear of puberty - where the witnessed monster is one's own transformed form; this narrative would be particularly suitable if the subject suffers from childhood sex dysphoria and/or sexual trauma.
i for one hope this essay enhanced your understanding and appreciation for this music video, or at least for my autism and whatever is wrong with me. cheers.