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Take Everything - Soul Included?

Let's talk Shakespeare a bit, shall we?  Namely, Shakespeare's Sonnet 146.

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
[...] these rebel powers that thee array;

Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?

Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?

Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? is this thy body’s end?

Then soul, live thou upon thy servant’s loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;

Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:

So shalt thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there’s no more dying then.


By now you've probably caught wind that this sonnet is heavily referenced in the video for Enhypen's Border: Carnival 'Intro: The Invitation.'  Here's a snippet:

Purchasing pleasures
In selling hours of dross
Here
In the land of rebel pow'rs
Gloriously decorated
An invitation calls to us
From the carnival of the dazzling night
So we beat on the door of this flipped world
Brought here by fate
Whether the harvest feast of light
Or a festival of blood
Time harmonizes laughs and screams
Death once dead, there's no dying then
So we gladly swallow time likŠµ it's our last breath
...
A dizzying flicker, a light that blinds and deceives
And from the great beyond
That voice rings out again
Here, come inside the castle
Take everything

First, let's talk about the Sonnet.  In it the speaker addresses his soul and asks why it spends so much time on outward appearances while the care of the soul itself is neglected. The soul is longing for nurture while getting very little of it (it pines within and suffers dearth).  Meanwhile, the external facade of the person is getting top-tier attention (it's walls are painted costly gay ie; it's gloriously decorated).  The soul knows it should spend more time and attention on itself, but the body powerfully rebels and demands all for itself.  The soul also knows that eventually the body will die, so investing so much in it is pointless.  On the other hand, if the speaker invested more time on the soul, it could achieve immortality.  In doing so, death is ultimately defeated and does not need to be feared.

Enhypen's Border: Carnival Intro greatly contrasts with the point of the Sonnet.  Instead of "buying terms divine" (investing in the eternal realm of the soul), it talks of purchasing pleasures.  The speaker is in the "land of rebel powers" or in the place where the fleshly desires are the ones with power.  There is still the reference to immortality in the line, "death once dead, there's no dying then," but nowhere is it suggested that this immortality is achieved through investment in the soul.  Instead this immortality seems to be achieved through the manipulation of time (stay tuned for a future post...)  Lastly, the sonnet refers to the body as a "faded mansion," but the invitation calls the boys to come inside the castle (inside the gilded exterior) and "take everything."  I can't help but feel that this is an invitation to pillage the soul until there is none left.  


By the way, if you are interested in more references to Shakespeare in Enhypen's art, check out this video by Bookish Theories:  Enhypen Shakespeare References Explained.  This isn't the first time Enhypen has referenced Shakespeare while coming to conclusions that seem to be the opposite of the Great Bard's!

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