"Chemical" by The Devil Wears Prada, Wednesday, July 14, 2021

In 2006 a new band released a brutal metalcore album called Plagues. That band so happened to have the name of a much less metal PG-13 movie starring Anne Hatheway, Meryl Streep, and Stanley Tucci. The movie was actually directly based on the 2003 book of the same name. The band, however, chose the name as a protest against materialism. The band The Devil Wears Prada has become a staple in Hard Christian Rock and scene hardcore metal. In 2019, they released the album The Act which expanded their sound to include more singing on ballads such as "Please Say No" and "Chemical." Clean vocalist Jeremy DePoyster had always had duties Prada songs, in a sense, rewarding listers with melodic choruses; however, "Chemical" is a radio-ready hit.

WAKE UP TO NO MEANING, I STARE AT THE CEILING. According to the band's episode of Labeled, DePoyster said that unclean vocalist Mike Hranica got the idea for this song after either watching a TED Talk or listening to a podcast. Hranica became very depressed after listening to this speaker because her coping mechanism was to remind herself that no matter whatever bad news she heard, how she felt was only a chemical reaction. To Hranica, this made him feel as if nothing was real. While it's true that whatever problems we usually face in our daily lives at home and work and back again usually seem like the biggest deal to us at the time (and sometimes they certainly hold some gravity on the future), reducing our responses to chemical reactions in our brains sent Hranica into an existential crisis. There are two ways that I think about this coping mechanism. The first is taking it to a logical conclusion: The simulation theory. In this theory I may or may not be real reacting to you people who may or may not be real. This idea is played out in movies like The Matrix. The second way I could take this coping mechanism is to belittle my problems. So if my reaction to this moment is only chemical, I can also belittle my problem nothing substantial in the greater scheme of the world's problems. I burned the dinner that I was supposed to serve at party. In the greater scheme, people are starving in the world and I have enough money to throw a feast. I could spend the money again to order take out. People could be upset with me, but at least I'm not a thief or a murderer. It's only their chemical reactions, by the way. There are certainly problems with taking this coping mechanism to these two conclusions. 

THERE'S STILL TIMES I WANT TO BREAK EVERYTHING I'VE EVER MADE. I'm reminded of a conversation I had with one of my students. In my teaching in Korea, I've seen that they have a less developed special education program than in some other countries. However, American teachers can't pass certification without knowing laws and practices for accommodating students with special needs. Min-hyuk (name changed) had many problems adjusting to life in middle school. When I first met the kid for an English conversation ability interview, I asked him to introduce himself in English. He replied, "I'm too cool for that." Next I asked him to tell me how he learned English, "It's all about money, if I'm being honest. My parents pay a lot of money for the best academies, and that's how I learned how to speak English." After finishing the interview he asked, "Do you have any snacks?" Throughout the semester, he was a pariah among the other middle school first graders. Nobody wanted to be in Min-hyuk's group. Because my school is a boarding school with about 40% of the middle school students staying on campus, Min-hyuk was placed in the English dormitory; however, after hours he created so much work for the dean, senior students, and classmates. Eventually, his parents took him out of the dorm. He came to apologize for his rude behavior during the interview, though for a subtle point I had thought was not that rude, asking me which phone games I played. "My mom said it's very rude to talk to teachers about games," he said. He opened up about the difficulties of adjusting to a new school. I said, "All of your classmates are dealing with a very hard change right now. You went from a time when you could play as much as you wanted to a time when you have to study much, much later into the night." He said, "Just because others have to deal with it, doesn't make it any less difficult for me." "Good point," I said, "You are you and you have to learn what works for you."

THERE'S A HOLE IN MY HEAD AND MY HEART. Dr. Esso was skeptical of modernist literature. "Read the classics," he encouraged his students. "And if you don't like them, read them again and again. As we get closer to the end of the anthology, we start losing value. There's something to be said about stories that have been around for 15 generations or longer. Nineteen-year-old college students come in with their opinions, 'I don't like Chaucer, he's no longer relevant. Spenser's no fun to read. We should read Alice Walker instead of Shakespeare.' But when a work has stood the test of 15 generations, the work is judging you. No matter what you say, you won't put a dent into Marlowe's legacy." Those words have haunted Allan into his professional career as a teacher. While he doesn't teach the classics, the standards of being a teacher weighed upon him, particularly in the era of COVID, when he couldn't keep up with his work. Teachers just do their work. They put in the time. They don't complain. But what would this work ethic do for him in the future? Was he placing invisible bills into a bank account, or was he working himself ragged like his grandfather had done and like his father was doing even now?

Read the lyrics on Genius.