Adding to this name-play in turn, my name John Bowie was constantly confused with my co-worker’s, Barry John, at the time of conceiving Untethered. The protagonist’s name given to him by the witness protection programme is John Barry. It also considers the decisions made based on right and wrong felt at the time and the outcomes of this. This suits, as ‘Untethered’ is largely an auto-biographical piece on identity and alternate paths walked, after facing up to moral junctions in life. The backward R or “Я” means “I” or “me” in Russian. REASON 3: Lastly… and most importantly… Broken Mirror To free from restraints: the experience untethered his imagination. To disconnect: an opinion that was untethered to reality.ģ. To unfasten the tether or release from the tether.Ģ. Un.teth.ered, un.teth.er.ring, un.teth.ersġ. This can be gleaned from the opening pages and the breakdown of the title as a whole: Or maybe his reality and direction is about to change…ĭuring the novel, the characters may be literally, as well as mentally, tied up then released… ‘Untethered’.
It also suggests the protagonist is going nowhere or pointing in the wrong direction generally. The ‘ Я‘ in the title is the suggestion of an unhinged mind, not quite right, mad and drunk to the core. REASON 2: Secondly and maybe most simply of all… Look closely and there’s also a tip of the hat to The Stone Roses, Gomez, Rage Against the Machine, Massive Attack, Happy Mondays and others that formed an unofficial soundtrack to those early years spent writing Untethered. Most of all, they celebrate the bands of the time – you’d have to be a true muso with a lot of time on your hands to find these though.
Much less obvious than the Bukowski, Paul Auster and Robert Lewis (Welsh Noir author) celebrations and namesakes in ‘Untethered’, there are lyrical clues, homages and set pieces hidden throughout the story giving atmosphere and setting a tone. I loved the album… And so, there’s a mini homage to it and a lot of the music of the time hidden in that reversed letter. ‘UNTETEH ЯED’ was initially born as a gonzo type writing project around the time of THE HOLY BIBLE being released.
I always suspected the R was reversed by the Manic Street Preachers on their The Holy Bible album in honor of their absent brother in pain, love and writing Richey Edwards… as much as for the visual purposes – suggesting a revolution. “Я” is also an aesthetic that’s been adopted by everyone from Russian Revolutionary artists, bands like the Manic Street Preachers, by western animations and many more… “Я” is a letter in all the Cyrillic alphabets for Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian languages – pronounced “ya”. So, why the backwards R in the title of UNTETHE ЯED?
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