Posts by intropist

9

An ex-JW's interpretation on "All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan

by intropist in

jw
friends

made by bob dylan and far-famed with the fantastic guitar playing of jimmy hendrix, "all along the watchtower" has been leaving great signatures in the pop history.

i want to have a chance to drop my own interpretation.

reading the below, you may need to take into consideration the fact that i'm not a native speaker in english.. [all along the watchtower] written by bob dyan - full lyrics.

intropist

To slimboyfat,

OK... OK...

As I mentioned, I'm enjoying it in my way with the supposition.

9

An ex-JW's interpretation on "All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan

by intropist in

jw
friends

made by bob dylan and far-famed with the fantastic guitar playing of jimmy hendrix, "all along the watchtower" has been leaving great signatures in the pop history.

i want to have a chance to drop my own interpretation.

reading the below, you may need to take into consideration the fact that i'm not a native speaker in english.. [all along the watchtower] written by bob dyan - full lyrics.

intropist

Made by Bob Dylan and far-famed with the fantastic guitar playing of Jimmy Hendrix, "All Along the Watchtower" has been leaving great signatures in the Pop history.

I want to have a chance to drop my own interpretation. Reading the below, you may need to take into consideration the fact that I'm not a native speaker in English.

[All Along the Watchtower] written by Bob Dyan - Full lyrics

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.
No reason to get excited, the thief, he kindly spoke,
There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and i, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

I always think that a great piece of art could be greater by appreciators' recreating interpretation of readers, listeners and viewers.

I've found that lots of interpretations have been tried by various appreciators from English or Non-English world. I read some interpretations or critics of Ivy League's English literature professors but could not find same results in one accord.

As great film directors avoid questions on their movies' meaning, as I research, Dylan thankfully didn't mention any comment on the meaning of his song.

Let us start with a supposition that Dylan was related with JW in any way, such as he studied WT or he had friends, relatives or anyone involved in JW.

I'd like to divide the poetic lyrics into 3 stanzas.

[the 1st stanza]

"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.

; In the 1st stanza, the joker is talking to the thief. Overall expressions are negative. The joker is a naive JW who recognize the situation but not know how to deal with it. The thief is a worldly JW who has led a double life but has not fixed the next step.

; Both of them are "IN" because they're talking about "OUT". Without any relief, the joker cannot help but grumble about all the confusion from JW life. Yes they are in the JW organization.

; Wine and earth symbolize Mental and Physical resource each. Their free wills based on intelligence were weakened from brainwashing and their bodies were withered from overwhelming duties. We know who are businessmen in the HQ and who are plowmen in the congregations : Governing Body and Elderly one.

; People in this organization are eager to seize a better position in the JW hegemony line while they don't know what ultimate value their struggles have. cf) In the novel of "Hope for the flowers", the two caterpillars tried to get to the top with no knowledge of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_for_the_Flowers

Today, I've translated so far here.

I will continue the rest of it, if anyone likes to read more.

Thanks.

Ray Ryu

Seoul, Korea

P.S.

The original Korean text is at http://jw.or.kr/ko/media/all-along-watchtower

10

South Korea court frees JWs who refused to serve in military

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

from the times of london website.

south korea court frees jehovah’s witnesses who refused to serve in military.

two south korean men who refused to do military service have had their convictions overturned in a landmark ruling against the government.. [snip].

intropist

As a Korean, I think this kind of change will not give the Korea JW society simple good effects spiritually.

Once young JWs go to prison and come out, they have few choices in secular jobs and get motivated to do pioneering more than ever. They can not but be isolated socially too.

I'm not sure Korean Government will really allow Conscientious Objection in this country at last. Frankly, I also hope this change to be realized only because of humanitarian reasons.

I still, from time to time, have some nightmares related with my old 3 years in prison...

5

Most Horrible Murder Done by JWs in Rep of Korea...

by intropist in

jw
friends

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/08/113_212343.html.

korean ex-jw brothers contacted the police and hinted to them that this murder could be related with wt's evil policy of shunning because.

father was an elder (ministerial overseer).

intropist

The last part, "but can recognize those are of WT" is redundant.

5

Most Horrible Murder Done by JWs in Rep of Korea...

by intropist in

jw
friends

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/08/113_212343.html.

korean ex-jw brothers contacted the police and hinted to them that this murder could be related with wt's evil policy of shunning because.

father was an elder (ministerial overseer).

intropist

To Crazyguy,

Yes, the news article itself didn't say it. That's why I didn't just drop the link alone.

I made a call to one of detectives who is dealing with this case. The officer told me their being JWs. He wanted to hear about JWs, so I frankly delivered general information on JW & WT to him. As I mentioned, I didn't insist that this murder is because of JW's evil policy but asked the officers not to skip the possibility of the relevance.

The fact that all the family memers are JWs has been reconfirmed by many other ex-JW brothers who also participated in helping detectives to learn about JW.

The interesting thing is that initial articles and TV news briefings just after the killing day, they showed JW publications and JW singing CDs and they quoted neighbor's saying the family went to church but the church was not a mainstream one, however soon those exposure faded out. I just guess the WT branch media team reacted. The reason I left two Korean links is because you can see TV briefing exposing those WT stuffs even though you can't understand what the anchor is saying but can recognize those are of WT.

5

Most Horrible Murder Done by JWs in Rep of Korea...

by intropist in

jw
friends

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/08/113_212343.html.

korean ex-jw brothers contacted the police and hinted to them that this murder could be related with wt's evil policy of shunning because.

father was an elder (ministerial overseer).

intropist

To Nathan,

Those Korean links are just for reference.

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/08/113_212343.html

This article is the main one which is of course in English. Why should I try to feed you what you can't read? I guess you could not notice the above link. Honestly did you? Kindly check it up.

As you see in the main post, I added additional relevant information which is not provided in the news site.

As a non-English speaker, I've been lurking here more than 10 years. I lost my e-mail and password, so I became to have a relatively brand-new ID.

I know the basic rule. ^^

Thanks.

5

Most Horrible Murder Done by JWs in Rep of Korea...

by intropist in

jw
friends

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/08/113_212343.html.

korean ex-jw brothers contacted the police and hinted to them that this murder could be related with wt's evil policy of shunning because.

father was an elder (ministerial overseer).

intropist

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2016/08/113_212343.html

Korean ex-JW brothers contacted the police and hinted to them that this murder could be related with WT's evil policy of shunning because

Father was an elder (ministerial overseer)
Mother was a regular pioneer
Son was a ministerial servant focusing on Chinese speaking territory
Killed daughter was an inactive JW

I can't be sure that her inactivity triggered family shunning and that shunning was the cause of that day's quarreling which ended as a murder, but I believe the police should consider alleged probability. All they said can be just faking an alibi. We all know the 21st century's JW is not such a religion believing in VooDoo things.

I posted related posts at JW.OR.KR

I'm waiting for results of the police and prosecutor's investigation.