Life passes and makes what once was good, a shame. My love, still difficult to overcome, for the song Total Eclipse of the Heart is one of those shames. Once it was acceptable to love this song, then it was a guilty pleasure, and now people just look at you with pity.
A song is in trouble when the parody is better than the music video. In honor of tomorrow’s eclipse, I have decided to face my fears and exegete the words of Total Eclipse of the Heart. In doing so, I discovered that the song is actually a commentary on Plato’s Republic.
You are welcome:
Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit lonely
We are reminded of the moment in Republic Book I when Socrates turns around to see Polemarchus. He has come down to Piraeus with Glaucon, but Socrates is actually alone in his love of philosophy. Glaucon will side with Polemarchus and force Socrates back down to the port.
And you’re never coming round
This is the complaint that the older man Cephalus makes to Socrates when he comes back down to the Piraeus.
Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit tired
Cephalus is tired and can no longer go up to Athens. The song is now voicing his complaint.
Of listening to the sound of my tears
The old man faces death. He is sanguine, but also knows what he has lost. He tries to be brave, but death is coming.
Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit nervous
That the best of all the years have gone by
Here we see Cephalus admitting, as he does to Socrates, that he no longer finds pleasure in love. He has grown old, but he tries to put a brave face on it. Passion is gone, but he hopes it is for the best.
Turnaround, every now and then I get a little bit terrified
And then I see the look in your eyes
The conversation shifts to Thrasymachus, the angry man, who believes only in power. Socrates at the end of Book I is afraid of him and afraid for the young men who listen to this beastial philosopher.
Turnaround bright eyes, but every now and then I fall apart
Turnaround bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart
Socrates fears for the young Glaucon, whose name means “bright eyes,” and so quashes Thrasymachus using bad argumentation. Socrates has ceased to love or follow the dialectic in fear. Fortunately for Socrates at the start of Book II, Glaucon (Bright Eyes) encourages Socrates to continue.
And I need you now tonight
And I need you more than ever
And if you only hold me tight
We’ll be holding on forever
And we’ll only be making it right
This is the key moment in Book II where Bright Eyes has saved Socrates and they both agree to pursue the argument to the end. This will enable them to defend justice correctly (“make it right”) as they persist through difficulties.
‘Cause we’ll never be wrong together
We can take it to the end of the line
We now see a reference to the divided line of Plato (509d) which is the path to knowledge. We end in a philosophical vision where the visionary can never be wrong. This is done in community.
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time)
I don’t know what to do and I’m always in the dark
We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks
The song has a false culmination in the Cave Analogy of Book VII where Socrates and Bright Eyes (Glaucon) look at the nature of education. We start in the dark looking at flickering images, but we are captive and must be free.
I really need you tonight
Forever’s gonna start tonight
Forever’s gonna start tonight
And here we get to the end of the the philosopher’s quest (as summarized in the divided line, the Cave analogy, and the image of the three fingers) in a vision of the good as driven by love of wisdom. Once we see the Good, then we know and enter into an eternal rest. Yet as we see in the Republic, this theoretical ideal is far from our experience. We face within ourselves the democratic impulse: the desire for many pleasures instead of the finest pleasures. The very love that should lead us out of the Cave brings us back to darkness as we succumb to the low instead of taking the upperward way.
Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I’m only falling apart
At this point in the song, we have reached the picture of Glaucon, Bright Eyes, transformed to Glaucus: the sea beast. Love has driven him down and not up and so he becomes a creature of darkness and of the depths. Glaucus has become so covered in sea trash, barnacles have pierced his skin, that he is hardly recognizably human. The song has gotten us to this depth.
And there’s nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart
Once upon a time there was light in my life
But now there’s only love in the dark
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart
We are now at the nadir of the Republic (Book IX) when love has ceased to lead us to the good, but instead become a tyrant. The sun of Book VI and VII has gone into total eclipse and our spirited nature (the heart) is darkened. We cease to discuss (“nothing I can say) and only obey the dictates of desire.
Turnaround bright eyes, every now and then I fall apart
Turnaround bright eyes, every now and then I fall apartAnd I need you now tonight (and I need you now)
And I need you more than ever
And if you only hold me tight (and if you only)
We’ll be holding on forever
And we’ll only be making it right (’cause we’ll never be wrong)
‘Cause we’ll never be wrong together
We can take it to the end of the line
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time)
I don’t know what to do and I’m always in the dark
We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks
I really need you tonight
Forever’s gonna start tonight
Forever’s gonna start tonightOnce upon a time I was falling in love
But now I’m only falling apart
And there’s nothing I can say
This important reprise marks Book X and the introduction of a myth that might save us if we will only believe it. The great hope of Book IX is our ability to recognize our own darkness and destruction. If we can cling to each other in discussion, in the love of wisdom, the real lover of this dialog and of the song, then there is hope for us.
A total eclipse of the heart
A total eclipse of the heart
A total eclipse of the heart
Turn around bright eyes
“And thus, Glaucon, the tale has been saved and has not perished, and will save us if we are obedient to the word spoken; and we shall pass safely over the river of Forgetfulness and our soul will not be defiled. Wherefore my counsel is that we hold fast ever to the heavenly way and follow after justice and virtue always, considering that the soul is immortal and able to endure every sort of good and every sort of evil. Thus shall we live dear to one another and to the gods, both while remaining here and when, like conquerors in the games who go round to gather gifts, we receive our reward. And it shall be well with us both in this life and in the pilgrimage of a thousand years which we have been describing.”
I hope this brief introduction to the song and to Plato has fused together the ridiculous and the sublime.
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