Hope in a Cinderblock Castle: Brick By Boring Brick

Paramore's new single "Brick By Boring Brick" tells the story of a young girl-princess who "lives in a fairy tale." This fairy-tale world is the antithesis of the real world of "taste and smell." Perhaps many Christians today could place themselves in a similar Docetic dreamland, having "built up a world of magic/because your real life is tragic." The song advises that the fairy-tale girl needs to "Keep [her] feet on the ground/while [her]head's in the clouds," in other words stop trying to fly by clutching at butterflies and only managing to rip off their wings.

This first part of the story serves as an apocalytic wake-up call: "The real world is tragic and harsh, but you can't escape it." This is an important realization, but often leads to an overemphasis of worldliness and a despair that tries to cope with brutal reality. In "Brick By Boring Brick," this despair is represented in the chorus which exhorts everyone to get a shovel and bury "the castle," the imaginary home wee've built up for ourselves in dreamland. Our new home won't be fanciful, but rather made "brick by boring brick" so no wolves can blow it down. However, how satisfying is this compromise? Certainly no one wants to live in a boring brick house, even if the alternative is vulnerability.

This is where the song takes a hopefuly and (I'd argue) spiritual turn. In the bridge, the little girl is accused of having "built up a world of magic," but then the narrator chimes in with a version of C.S. Lewis' Argument from Desire. The song explains that "If [fairly land is] not real/you can't hold it in your hand/you can't feel it with your heart/and I won't believe it/but if it's true/you can see it with your eyes/or even in the dark/and that's where I want to be, yeah." Essentially, if no fairly land existed we wouldn't be able to wish for it, but if it's real it can be felt no matter the circumstances. This realization, this hope, is the rebirth of the little girl. Here I rely on the video (which is highly recommended), as the little girl falls headlong into the grave of the castle, her adult version, Hayley (who is dressed exactly the same), walks away into a world covered in gold. The death of her perfect dream has not meant the death of her hope, even in the dark realities of life her hope shines all the more beautiful.

The world tends to have two stories: either life is perfect and doesn't need any more attention or life is terrible and nothing can be done. Either way, reality is inevitable and hope doesn't really have a place. However, Christ's Kingdom provides hope in the midst of darkness, neither is the world perfect nor irredeemable but Jesus is Lord over all. In Him we find the strength to carry on and, above that, to radiate His glory.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A63VwWz1ij0&feature=PlayList&p=E3CD7E9FA515140E&index=0&playnext=1
Lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/brick-by-boring-brick-lyrics-paramore.html