Parsing Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman” with Maggie (7) and Henry (5)

O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad
O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad

Maggie: Why are they saying Superman?


Hi. I'm not home right now
But if you want to leave a message
Just start talking at the sound of the tone

Hello? This is your Mother
Are you there? Are you coming home?
Hello? Is anybody home?

Well, you don't know me, but I know you.
And I've got a message to give to you.
Here come the planes.
So you better get ready.
Ready to go.
You can come as you are, but pay as you go
Pay as you go

Maggie: Why are they saying that?
Henry: Their mom sounds weird!

And I said:
OK. Who is this really?
And the voice said:
This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes
This is the hand, the hand that takes

Maggie: What is the hand taking?
Henry: It takes anything, Mags!
Maggie: I have to know what it takes!!

Here come the planes
They're American planes
Made in America
Smoking or non-smoking?

Maggie: You can’t smoke on a plane.
Henry: You smoke, Dad.
Me: A little. I smoke a cigar now and then.
Maggie: Smoking will make you die.
Henry: You don’t smoke too much, right, Dad?

And the voice said:
Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall
stay these couriers from the swift completion
of their appointed rounds

Henry: What is that?
Me: Gloom? That’s like darkness.
Henry: The dark freaks me!

'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice
And when justice is gone, there's always force
And when force is gone, there's always Mom


Maggie: What is force?
Me: Force is making people do something.
Henry: Is force bad?
Me: Not always. Sometimes it is bad. Sometimes force makes people do what is good for them.
Maggie: It seems to me, because the hand can take anything, that this force is bad force.
Henry: It is freaking me.

Hi Mom!
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
In your automatic arms
Your electronic arms
In your arms
So hold me, Mom, in your long arms
Your petrochemical arms
Your military arms
In your electronic arms

Maggie: This is where the woman is running from the bad hand.
Henry: I think it is a wolf in the woods.

...

Maggie: Is it over yet?
Henry: Play it again, Dad.
Maggie: Yeah, again!

Moment of Bliss: Ze King! Ze Premiere!

Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

Rainer Maria Rilke