so ‘nefas’ is a latin word which is probably best rendered in english as ‘sin’. it's used in latin literature to refer to crimes which go against the unspoken rules of the (roman) (“civilised”) universe, often ones associated with divine law. killing one's relatives is nefas. crucially, incest is also nefas. (n.b. that latin had no specialised word for sex between relatives—even ‘incestum’ just means ‘impure sex’.)
central to my personal fascination with the concept of nefas, however, is its etymology: nefas is probably derived from the proto-indo-european root *bʰeh₂- (‘speak’)—whence also the latin verb ‘fari’, ‘to speak’. so, the most literal meaning of ‘nefas’ is actually ‘that which is unspeakable’.
outside of classical literature, the inability to speak about one's experiences is an idea that comes up time and time again in narratives of incest. noel's songwriting is no exception. it is strikingly preoccupied with the speakable and unspeakable, and in particular is built precariously around the conflict between on the one hand noel's desire/need/compulsion to express his experiences and emotions through song and on the other hand the fact that he has a vested interest in not doing so—because to express himself fully (wrt the incest, specifically) would be to jeopardise his entire life.
this conflict seeps through the cracks of so many of noel's songs once you start looking for it. the most obvious manifestation of it is the theme of being unable to express one's feelings, e.g.
“i can't tell you the way i feel because the way i feel is oh, so new to me!”
“damn my education, i can't find the words to say with all the things caught in my mind.”
“there are many things that i would like to say to you, but i don't know how” (or, as noel sometimes sings it, “there are many songs that i would like to sing for you, but i don't know how.”)
note that i am allowing some slippage here between things that should not be expressed and things that physically cannot be expressed. this conflation is not an accidental one: the combined force of an external taboo (the incest taboo) working on internal repression (noel's) can be more than potent enough to fracture language itself.
in fact, i consider noel's “nonsense” lyrics to be a manifestation of nefas—i think that the fragmentation of language and meaning that we see in his more confusing lyrics is the result of the battle between his desire to express himself and the necessity to keep his experiences secret. but i want to talk about that in more detail in its own post...
the flipside of that which cannot be expressed is, of course, that which cannot be perceived—e.g.
“it was a sound so very loud that no one could hear”
“when the night is over, there'll be no sound”
the nature of the incest taboo is such that society's default reaction to incest is denial: denial that it exists in this specific instance, and denial that it is possible for it to exist at all. so not only is our speaker unable to express his experiences, but the listener isn't even able to comprehend them.
then if you want to (and of course i do want to) you can extrapolate further and apply nefas also to the things which are so unspeakable one cannot even think them:
“only for the young is the dreams you might not have. only for the young is the things we won’t remember”
“i'm thinking things that i just can't abide”
and this calls to mind certain aspects of trauma theory, and how sexual trauma in particular often results in a gap in the memory, a thing which can be neither explained nor expressed nor consciously understood.
note how in all of the examples i've given for nefas so far, noel has skirted around the idea. he will talk about the act of not saying/not hearing/not thinking without ever touching on what, exactly, it is that is not said/not heard/not thought.
the result of this is what i like to call The Hole™️: the conspicuous absence of an indeterminate Something in noel's songwriting; a [ ] at the heart of his music that is silent in itself but still colours the lyrics around it; a sound so very loud that no one can hear, if you will.
i have so much more to say on this topic, and in particular i really do want to spend some time examining individual songs more closely, so possibly you can expect some posts like that over the next few weeks. but this will do as a brief (?) explanation of the concept of nefas and why i think it's a useful word to have up your sleeve when dealing with noel's songwriting!!!! because truly. his lyrics are absolutely rife with nefas. it's like my own personal [ ] playground 💃🌈✨
other nefas-related ideas to consider/which i may elaborate on later:
noel's preoccupation with The Unnamed
the confusion surrounding identity in his songs—very often there is a ‘you’, an ‘i’, and a ‘he’ or a ‘she’, and these figures will overlap and become difficult to distinguish
the functionality of his songs and the role of the Stage-World in all of this (rock n roll and the suspension of reality)
EVERYTHING TO DO WITH CAST NO SHADOW.
really my Thing™️ is metapoetry (or here i suppose it would be metalyricism?) so i really am chiefly concerned with the relationship between noel and his music, and how the songs function in the world, how he conceptualises his songs, etc.
very last point: the venn diagram and the abstract i've put in this post are both from narrative nefas and the taboos of incest and bestiality in ovid's metamorphoses by joseph lawrence watson!!
