Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Rasputin and the Poisons of the World

37 They put some poison into his wine
...
40 He drank it all and he said "I feel fine"

Morality is a flexible subject. However, you can see patterns of morality throughout history; like how murder and alcohol are always bad. Sometimes sex is even demonized and turned into something to be ashamed of, like in the monotheistic religions. These actions are often referred to as corrosive, or poisonious.

Rasputin was famously assassinated by the proletariat, or at least the oppressed. The first attempt on his life was by a former prostitute who, upon Rasputin's exit of a church, stabbed him in the abdomen revealing his entrails. She then screamed claiming that she, "Killed the antichrist." Due to intensive surgery, he recovered.

This is where history and the song depart. Rasputin was allegedly poisoned by cakes that the nobles had baked for a feast. However, in the song it is stated that he drank wine that had poison in it. Either way, after Rasputin was stabbed by the prostitute he had hyperacidity, which prevented him from consuming any sugar. He probably had neither but for the purpose of this article we'll assume he drank cyanide-wine. A couple more assassination attempts and they just shot him and threw him into an icy river.

If we are going by the logic that amoral behavior is poison, Rasputin has consumed all amoral behavior. This would naturally not affect him because he is all of these amoral things already.

2 comments:

Batman2012 said...

If it is written that he was poisoned by the cakes, why would the song write change the lyrics to wine? Is there any imagery or meaning in wine that would make the lyrics give off a certain message?

Mr. Pulse said...

I honestly think it was because Wine rhymes with Fine.