Paradox in Nirvana's Come as You Are

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BEF 4013 CRITICAL THINKING

GROUP / PAIR ASSIGNMENT: PARADOX

Prepared by:

Azad Iklas bin Ismail 035055

Karl Jeffery anak John 034548

Prepared for:

Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohd Nazri bin Latiff Azmi

Introduction

Paradox

To explain further about paradox, first we must understand the origin of the word itself which is coined from the Greek word, “paradoxon” that means contrary to expectations, existing belief or perceived opinion. A paradox is a statement that leads to a self-contradictory or a logically unacceptable conclusion (Bolander, 2013). To elaborate, any utterance or statement that looks as if self-contradictory or just outright ridiculous but in itself carries latent truth is considered to be a paradox. Moreover, they may also utilize falsehood or half-truths although at first, the reader may be distracted from this fallacy by the confusion of the paradox.

However, we must keep in mind that in a world of fiction no theory, no matter how absurd it sounds cannot be dismissed or thrown out the window because that is the actual point of fiction; to engage the imagination of its reader and to mesmerize them with tales that are too good to be true. Paradox serves this function as it draws the reader to dig beneath the surface for a deeper meaning.

Paradoxes are used extensively in various literature such as in poetry and songs to give pleasure to the readers and listeners who derived satisfaction from extracting hidden meanings out of the writings and lyrics rather than being presented to them in an uncomplicated manner. In this paper, we chose to analyze paradox in a song entitled “Come As You Are” by Nirvana.

Come As You Are

‘Come as You Are’ is a song by American alternative rock or specifically, grunge band Nirvana. It was written by Kurt Cobain and released as the second single from the band's second studio album ‘Nevermind’ in 1992. Nirvana was formed in 1987 and composed of Kurt Cobain as the guitarist and vocalist, Krist Novoselic as the bassist and Dave Grohl as the drummer. Nirvana's active career ended following the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994. Since its debut, the band has sold over 75 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling bands of all time (Gupta, 2013). Despite releasing only three full-length studio albums in their seven-year career, Nirvana has been regarded as one of the most influential and important alternative bands in history. Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, in its first year of eligibility.

Analysis

Kurt Cobain himself admitted that the lyrics of this song as contradictory (Berkenstadt and Cross, 1998), hence there are no surprises that several paradoxes can be found in it. One of the examples is the opening line of the song:

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From the line, the contradiction is pretty obvious because we cannot be the same as we were before and as we are now. People changes, either physically or mentally. However, in our opinion, this line carries a much deeper meaning. It represents the heart of grunge where it is unacceptable to sacrifice our true self and be someone else just to give in to the societies. We just need to be ourselves and ignore the negativity from the societies around us.