The ending of the Art Ending is a love poem for Stanley.
Okay, hear me out on this one.
What if Stanley is the essence of divine art? Like not physically but referred to as it by the Narrator in the ending. I know I sound insane, but hear me out:
There is a loooot of gay yearning in the game (part of the whole appeal). The Narrator isn't really the type to openly say "I love you" (yet?), so him basically hiding this in an ending makes sense, doesn't it? He even goes further and calls Stanley a work of art with(in) the ending.
We don't see the essence of divine art, we don't even hear it. Now this is also the case with the settings person/Timekeeper, considering that it technically speaks to us.
But what if it doesn't speak to us? What if it speaks to his creation - Stanley?
Its words are very cryptic while speaking to 'us', the settings person's/timekeeper's words aren't.
It's quite literally a (bizarre) love poem after all:
"Know that when you die,
I will personally carry your spirit across
the river blxwxn, into my garden built within
the emotions of a flower
There we will live together,
we will dance and eat and sin
and you will do improv comedy based on
suggestions from me for all eternity
This is your reward
for your work today
Go now. Live your normal human existence
and await me in the life that follows this one.
I love you.
Under cut further analysis. TW: some religious symbolism
Now. What if this love poem is one written exclusively for Stanley?
The first paragraph talks about someone carrying another person into the afterlife - in my opinion:
Know that when you die,
I will personally carry your spirit across
the river blxwxn, [...]
The river is called "blxwxn" here which could either just mean 'blown' or just a name for the river. The "spirit" is maybe Stanley himself, not the player vessel, no - the actual Stanley. I'm not sure if this is even possible, but I'm also not sure if The Narrator actually thinks of this as a possibility - maybe this is actually him knowing of the unlikeliness of it.
[...] into my garden built within
the emotions of a flower.
Now the 'garden' is supposed to symbolize the afterlife, right? But what if it's a sort of garden of Eden? What if this line The Narrator wants to tell Stanley that he would build a whole second garden of Eden for him?
Yes, we know that Stanley never really dies, but personally I think that the Narrator got a lot 'softer' in Ultra Deluxe. What if the most traumatic death endings (I would include the Zending here too) hurt him now so much that he would carry Stanley personally to a second garden of Eden/paradise that he built?
I'm not sure what ' the emotions of a flower' are supposed to be. It's probably symbolic for the way that The Narrator would carry him there - careful; like a delicate, fragile (in terms of easily damaged) flower
There we will live together,
The meaning of this one is pretty obvious. But personally I think they won't be able to actually live there. I think even if this garden exists, they would only be able to spend a certain (limited) amount of time in there - it's often implied/interpreted that the Parable has a life of its own.
we will dance and eat and sin
Now this one is especially interesting to me. While I personally am not christian, this has a very interesting parallel (once more) to the story of the garden of Eden from the bible. Adam and Eve had to leave the garden of Eden (-> paradise) because they ate the forbidden fruit - they sinned.
Now 'sinning' can have a ton of interpretations and has a very obvious sexual innuendo. But it's not just that, in my opinion. 'Sinning' could also mean not following the story - the whole 'reason' of the Parable.
They dance, they eat - things not possible in the Parable, things not meant to be possible. Things that could be considered a sin. Things that they could be thrown out of paradise for, things that could cause the Parable to throw them out of paradise for.
and you will do improv comedy based on
suggestions from me for all eternity
At first I thought of this as another one of the silly things we see in TSP (and the silly lines of The Narrator), but the more I think about it, I realized that this is one of the most important lines in the whole poem; it's a love confession from The Narrator to Stanley.
This seems a little far fetched and it's also only my personal interpretation (as this whole analysis is) but my personal HC is that The Narrator isn't particularly fond of improv comedy.
He is, however, very fond of Stanley.
That means that he would watch Stanley do silly things for all eternity. Now, one could argue that a whole reset is no eternity, but for them it is.
If we think of them actually spending time with each other (in the form of Stanley himself), if we take that literally, then that is eternity for them.
They spend time actually together, a whole reset. Like I said, I think the 'spirit' is meant to be Stanley himself, the actual Stanley. For The Narrator this is heaven - paradise, even.
The Narrator and Stanley spend time together, like described before. BUT The Narrator also spends the time that they have, eternity, by watching actual Stanley do silly things. Stanley, the real Stanley does the things he say, the silly things in a form of comedy The Narrator isn't fond of.
If that isn't an act of love and devotion (especially for The Narrator), I don't know what is.
(Again, you could disagree with me on that HC, or even my whole essay. That's completely fine)
This is your reward
for your work today
I genuinely am not sure what is meant by this one, I'm just leaving that open for your personal interpretation. This could be The Narrator 'thanking' the player for playing the Baby game to its completion and giving him the chance to 'say' those words, idk.
Go now. Live your normal human existence
and await me in the life that follows this one.
Now this one is also very interesting to me. The 'normal human existence' is nothing Stanley lives, but nevertheless - I think Stanley is meant with it.
What if the 'spirit' of Stanley, the real him, is in simulation that resembles an actual life? What if all the things we heard of this paradise - this garden - are genuinely not possible; the real Stanley is sort of 'locked away' by the Parable? What if all we heard was The Narrator's deepest desire to make this real somehow, even if it is (basically to actually) impossible?
The next part is The Narrator telling Stanley to await him in another life; one where they can be together, one where they actually can be in their garden, in their second garden of Eden. Where they can actually do all the things that would be/are impossible in the Parabel.
I love you.
And here we have The Narrator actually 'saying' those words, admitting to himself and to Stanley (and to the player?) that he does adore Stanley, that he loves him, cares for him and so much more.
I don't have much more to say about this verse and I don't think that I have to say much more regarding it.
There we have it, a whole analysis. Now you could have read this and think "This is utter bullshit, what are you talking about?" and that's alright! I just wanted to get those words out there.
Now, I want to note that I wrote the word "to say" in quotes. I did this because it's important to highlight that The Narrator doesn't really say it in his voice, he says it with a poem full of passion, yearning and feelings, he says it symbolically. I wouldn't say that he 'writes' it.
One hand he uses "The Essence of Divine Art" as a character, a sort of fake name, to hide his true feelings. This could be because he is too scared of truly admitting them, too scared of signing it himself. Too scared of binding "The Narrator" to it.
On the other hand it also could be a hiding strategy from the Parable itself, maybe the Parable would try to erase the poem otherwise. Another reason could be the fact that he isn't able to live out his fantasy like he wants to, attaching "The Essence of Divine Art" instead of "The Narrator" to it could be a sort of coping strategy for him, a way of living his dream as a fantasy in words, if that makes sense.
(Very likely it's even all of the reasons mushed together.)
But personally I also like to think that "The Essence of Divine Art" is another way of The Narrator confessing his love. He doesn't just call Stanley "art" (which he quite literally is) he calls him the essence of divine art. He calls this canonically average man not only "art", not only "divine", he calls him the "essence of divine", the "essence of divine art".
Alright, I truly don't have much to say anymore. I do want to thank my teacher that helped me to analyse poems in German class ) - she unknowingly awakened my love for poetry. That seems a bit unnecessary and weird but I really don't care, I want to thank her anyway.
So yeah, that's it! I had a lot of fun writing this and analyzing the tiniest things, maybe I'll do it again for something else TSP related sometime.
If anything seems weird in this, it's because I have a headache, I'm not a native speaker and I'm way too exhausted to look over this again. Thank you for your time.
