The Division Bell Concept

The Division Bell

The Division Bell

"I really like 'The Division Bell' myself, although I wouldn't say it's an immediate album. You have to put a bit of work in to get out of it the riches that are there." -David Gilmour

Being familiar with the key ideas in the book, (Cybernetics and Society) and the online component of the concept, is the key to enjoying the riches (prize, treasure, bounty) of The Division Bell.
Note: You should be familiar with The Division Bell to appreciate the ideas here. For the complete lyrics click here.
On first impression, many of the lyrics seem to refer to past band members. Also, there is not much recognizable continuity of theme, from song to song, or even within songs. This changes once you are hip to what is happening. Another level of meaning hides underneath the surface throughout.
Consider the following comments by David Gilmour in Interview Magazine:

Interviewer: The album could easily be interpreted as an allegory about the split with Roger.
David Gilmour: I don't think that it is. There are a couple of hinted mentions that could or could not have something to do with him. But all that I read from people working out what they think it's about has been either fairly or wildly inaccurate. I enjoy that. I'm quite happy for people to interpret it any way they like. But maybe a note of caution should be sounded because you can read too much into it. 'A Great Day for Freedom,' for example, has got nothing to do with Roger or his 'wall.' It just doesn't. What else can I say?"

Pink Floyd is communicating to You
The music is communication from band to audience. (message) This is already apparent in "What Do You Want From Me". You means the audience. The song clearly concerns the band-audience relationship. In the next song, Poles Apart, You seems to refer to Roger Waters or Syd Barret. Seen in the new light, though, You means You in all of the songs, atleast in those verses cited by Publius. Pink Floyd is communicating to You.
Furthermore, there is more continuity of theme than meets the eye. A new level of meaning to be unearthed. David Gilmour comments:
"I suppose you could say that, you know, there's a, a theme throughout the album which involves communication. And um, *all*, pretty much, *all* the songs are connected to the theme of communication, in some way or another."

Previously, it was difficult to see how the theme of communication relates to the songs "Take it Back" and "High Hopes", for example.
[Rather than providing analyses of the songs, I'll show how new interpretations are now possible. I'll try to keep things as simple as possible, just enough to open the door.]
Cluster One (Instrumental)
Noise to Message. (Need I say more?)
What Do You Want From Me
Clearly communication from band to audience. Notice the lyrics to the second half of the song, though, including:
You can have anything you want You can drift, you can dream, even walk on water Anything you want You can own everything you see Sell your soul for complete control Is that really what you need

The only place you can have complete control is in a virtual environment. We are in cyberspace here. (controlspace)

"The research on cyberspace is a quest for God. To be God. To be here and there." -Paul Virilio

Poles Apart
In the new light, You means You in this song, as Pink Floyd fan and enigma sleuth. The music was made knowing how people would respond to the messages. Programmed to seek a goal, analogous to an automaton:

"It is easy to make a simple machine which will run toward the light or run away from it, and if such machines also contain lights of their own, a number of them together will show complicated forms of social behavior..."
-Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics and Society
Did you know . . . it was all going to go so wrong for you And did you see it was all going to be so right for me Why did we tell you then You were always the golden boy then And that you'd never lose that light in your eyes Hey you . . . did you ever realise what you'd become And did you see that it wasn't only me you were running from Did you know all the time but it never bothered you anyway Leading the blind while I stared out the steel in your eyes

Finally, having come to ones senses:

"I never thought that you'd lose that light in your eyes"

Marooned (Instrumental)
At sea.
A Great Day For Freedom

On the day the wall came down The Ship of Fools had finally run aground

On the surface, a reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Symbolically, centrally controlled, command, communist systems radically transformed into self-governing, dynamic, democratic (feedback based) systems.
In the new light, a further reflection on the band-audience relationship. Life in the aftermath of the online concept. Pink Floyd is communicating to You. Pink Floyd did not know something you don't know. You're on your own now. Pink Floyd doesn't have the answers.

Now frontiers shift like desert sands While nations wash their bloodied hands Of loyalty, of history, in shades of gray

Globalization. Through the proliferation of communication technologies and infrastructure, including the Internet, the world is more closely connected and inter-related.
Wearing the Inside Out
Human boundaries are extended, transformed, in this song. (Need I say more?) Pink Floyd is indeed "Wearing the Inside Out", as are we all in this environment.
Take It Back
The earth as complex self-regulating feedback system. (Gaia)
Coming Back to Life

While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words Dying to believe in what you heard I was staring straight into the shining sun

Remember, Pink Floyd is communicating to You. What is the real relationship of Pink Floyd (a group of human beings) and audience?
Time to get a life.
Keep Talking
"Speech is the greatest interest and most distinctive achievement of man."
-Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics and Society

Communication is a basic need and drive of human beings - the cornerstone of relationships, human progress, etc.
Not to mention the fact that Stephen Hawking, cyborg, speaks.
Lost for Words
Reflections on being in cyberspace. Or, an individual cut off, not alive to what is happening in the world through communication. Lack of communication (feedback) means a dead relationship. (progress eventually succumbs to entropy)
High Hopes
In light of universal themes of progress and entropy - applies to: Pink Floyd as band, pioneering of the Internet, human civilization, life on earth, etc.
"The Greeks regarded the act of discovering fire with very split emotions..."
"Beauty, like order, occurs in many places in the world, but only as a local and temporary fight against the Niagara of increasing entropy."
"We are but whirlpools in a river of ever-flowing water. We are not stuff that abides, but patterns that perpetuate themselves. A pattern is a message, and may be transmitted as a message."
-Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics and Society
The water flowing The endless river Forever and ever

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