Absurd Rhapsody
“Nothing really matters
Anyone can see
Nothing really matters
Nothing really matters to me
Anyway the wind blows.” -Lyrics by Freddie Mercury, Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen
Bohemian Rhapsody was a favorite song of my youth, resurfaced again thanks to Wayne’s World, and once again now thanks to the movie of the same name. Now, there’s a pretty good scene in the movie that deals with the creation of the song, and in that scene they mostly focus on the absurd aspect of the lyrics amongst other things. But let’s be honest, this is truly and Absurd song in both senses of the word. It’s got some nonsense and randomness, but it really hits at a few of the core concepts that we see repeated in Absurdist related media. They start by asking about the nature of reality, get into some extreme situations (is the killing of the man possibly related to The Stranger?) and then comes to the realization that nothing matters, and then internalizes it in the end.
Someone else at least thinks this as well. There’s a thoughtful author Alex Atkins who took apart the whole song and did real research on it, but hits at some Camus parallels several paragraphs in, and discusses the parallels between the song, Mercury’s life, Mersault, and many more, it’s worth the read:
https://medium.com/@alex_65670/what-is-the-meaning-of-bohemian-rhapsody-e150bee6bbb0
I’ll not recap everything he does, because I just wanted to relate this passage to where it resonated for me as being most Absurdist.
I enjoyed the movie, although I do have some critiques (for another time maybe). I also visited Freddie Mercury’s birthplace of Zanzibar, where there’s also a bar named after him.
Google Maps-> https://goo.gl/maps/NHHV1fwFeu92 True story.
Vice even did an article on it:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nnqqwb/visiting-the-birthplace-of-freddie-mercury-212
Let me go!
-DA
Here’s some other links:
Bohemian Rhapsody <- Really great wiki page, also mentions Camus. ;)
