Maygen Bazemore

English 101

6 March 2016

Phillips

Tiny Glowing Screens Part Two

"Tiny Glowing Screens Part Two" came out on June 5th, 2013 in George Watsky's album "Cardboard Castles." It's a music video with free form poetry and a few simple chords in the background. Watsky's poem can be split up into three separate parts. In the first part, he gives examples of people with issues of their own to prove his point. In the second part, he makes it known what would happen if we would all come to realization. The third part makes it clear that Watsky knows he isn't perfect either, which gives the reader/listener a connection with him. Watsky used a great deal of imagery, similes, metaphors, symbolism, and second person point of view to make it clear that our individual lives come and go so quickly that we cannot really make an impact on our own, but together as a whole, we make up the world that we all live in.

Watsky gets straight to his point in the first two lines of his poem when he says "There are seven billion, forty-six million people on the planet / and most of us have the audacity to think we matter." This makes it known that he wants to get straight to the point; he is not interested in trying to word it in a way to keep the reader from getting his/her feelings hurt. This sets up the tone and theme of the poem. Watsky is concerned about the issue, wants the reader to sense his passion, and hopefully will extend his passion to and through them. 

After his blunt opening, Watsky uses metaphors to give three examples of people who went through troubles. The first example is of a comedian who couldn't handle insults that were thrown at him. "Someone stabbed him in the heart, just a little poke." Watsky used murder as a metaphor of the comedian's conflict. The next three lines is a metaphor of the second example, which is of a screenwriter who choked on his words giving a screenplay idea. He suffered through criticism and was stuck on a terrible screenplay idea for the rest of his career. Watsky used being stuck on an elevator as the metaphor. "The earth is a drum and he's hitting it on beat" is a fantastic metaphor Watsky used to describe the last example, how the fisherman committed suicide. These three examples support Watsky's opening statement. They all were severe issues, but we didn't know anything about them. Our issues seem important to us, but other people are out there dealing with their own issues. 

The video begins with a few simple chords. Watsky's tone combined with these chords give the poem different layers of emotion and passion. Throughout the first two examples, a rolling film is shown. This is a symbol that shows that, including the examples Watsky is speaking on, there is a continuous list of many more people with their own issues. The rolling film could also be a symbol showing that even through the troubles, life goes on. The world and stories continue through all of the issues. The film clip is shown several times throughout the video, showing that through all of this, life is still continuing. There is also a child shown running in a street, which is another example of a story that isn't heard of. Watsky not even mentioning it in his poem only makes his point clearer: Not all stories are heard.

Watsky continues using metaphors in the second part of his poem. "The reason there's smog in Los Angeles...and is that a world we want to text in?" The smog mentioned in this quote is an example is a metaphor for conceitedness. These six lines in the poem show that without this "It's all about me" mindset, the world wouldn't progress. If we all realized how insignificant our individual lives are, no one would even attempt to do the things we've accomplished. 

In the video, the galaxy is shown. This simple image can be pretty overwhelming. Realizing how much is out there can make anyone feel irrelevant, which was Watsky's whole point. The next scene is running water splashing off of a spoon. The camera focuses on the bubbles, which, when zoomed in on, seem to make a big impact when they pop, but in reality, one wouldn't even notice their existence. This is a symbol of our lives in comparison to everything else around us. 

Watsky points out issues the world has in the lines "The people are hunched over in Boston ... like they've got fishhooks in the corners of their mouth." The people in Boston is about the Boston marathon bombing on April 15, 2013. He used a more recent well-known incident to point out that violence is an issue. He then admits to problems he has that other people can also relate to but would never admit out loud such as "I don't want a real girl; I want to trace her from a magazine." Watsky admitting that he is at fault too makes the reader feel like he/she can relate to him, which makes the tone of the poem feel more like a motivational rally rather than being scolded about the issue. Making Watsky relatable also makes the poem a bit more emotional. Not only does the reader get a sense of shame in his words, but he/she can direct this bit to himself/herself by making the "I" character themselves. Watsky has used the very issue that he is complaining about, narcissism, to his advantage. He knew that the reader would make this about themselves, so he used it to make him/her feel guilty.

The first scene in this part of the video is of a fish being weighed, cooked, served, and salted. This is a symbol of how we all try to portray ourselves. We "season" ourselves a certain way to get respect and approval, but in reality, we are still the slimy, foul-smelling fish that we were before. The next clips are of a type writer, Watsky's hand and microphone, his eyes, and his poem. These clips go well with the quote from his poem, "I get to choose the angle you view me and select the nicest light." The clips only show little parts of Watsky; we don't get to see everything about him. We only get to see his lyrics, hear his voice, and see his views. 

As Watsky continues explaining his faults, he restates the opening line, "There are seven billion ... and I have the audacity to think I matter." He changes the quote from everyone to the singular "I" to make it personal. Watsky then says "I know it's a lie, but I prefer it to the alternative." We all realize that we aren't the only ones on this planet, but realizing just how insignificant we are is harder to deal with than just ignoring the truth. "We're every age at once and tucked inside ourselves like Russian nesting dolls." This simile explains that our lives go by so quickly in relation to the world's existence, that it almost seems to all happen at once. Watsky continues on by using the metaphor "We live in a house made of each other." This explains how even though our lives individually aren't relevant, together we make up what we all live in. 

Both the clips of drops of liquids and the sped up video of car lights are more symbols of our irrelevant lives and how life goes by so quickly. Clips of the paint and the board being cut are symbols of how we all have our part in this world and it is all equally important. When Watsky talks about issues he has with himself, his tone of voice is what really draws the viewer in. The listener can sense the passion in his tone by hearing his voice crescendo. It makes the viewer feel the shame he feels, which will make the reader want to change so the shame will stop. 

"Tiny Glowing Screens Part Two" by George Watsky is free form poetry with a powerful message. The poem itself is very meaningful with its metaphors, similies, imagery, symbolism and second point of view. With the video, the viewer gets to hear the passion in Watsky's voice and gets to see clips of symbolism. This helps Watsky get his point across that our lives come and go so quickly we cannot make an impact on our own, but together we can.

Works Cited

Watsky- Tiny Glowing Screens Pt 2 [Cardboard Castles]. Dir. Jess Dunlap. Perf. George

Watsky. YouTube. YouTube, 5 June 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.
