TUMBLR ASK: What does the song ‘ loveology’ by Regina Spektor mean? You recommended that as your song on replay remember? i don’t quite get the lyrics, like what is ” i’ll hum you a song about nothing at all’ and the thread of words like porcupine, girl, and train ending with ology. Maybe you wanna explain for me? Much help appreciated. ^^

Haha, I am not really an authority on song lyrics, and you have the freedom to interpret lyrics for yourself! Actually, when I listen to songs, I tend to interpret the lyrics very personally, so the songs I like may not always translate in the same way to others. But ok lemme give this a try.

My favourite part of the song is the exact part you mentioned: the thread of words that starts with porcupine-ology. I think the idea of attaching an -ology to everything is very interesting. It seems to suggest that there are various fields and disciplines that study these phenomena – like porcupines and antlers (animals) to things like love and people. While it’s logical that there are fields studying animals, love and people might seem a bit off, or irrelevant. 

But it’s so spot-on too because isn’t studying love(ology) such an essential part of who we are? It reminds me of how we are always trying to figure it out, and we can be our own authority on how these things are. And so when the speaker says: ‘Sit down class, open your textbooks to page 42,’ we might think she’s trying to impart to us the knowledge on these things: porcupines and trains and love and all that. But then the thread of words that end with -ology slowly sounds less and less like a lesson but more and more like a plea, like she’s trying her best to understand and demonstrate these things by attaching an -ology at the end of these words, when it’s just not so simple. 

So: ‘loveology, kiss-ology, stay-ology, please-ology’ and ‘I’m sorry-ology, forgive me-ology’ are phrases that really hit me because it’s such a heartrending plea from the speaker to stay, to forgive, to love. 

And then ‘I’ll hum you a song about nothing at all’ is just a way to trivialise the song, when she and the listener can both tell that it’s not really a song about nothing at all (kinda like you say ‘it’s ok’ to yourself and others when things are really not ok at all.)