in a discussion of the teleiologucal underpinnings of some random modern music,
the author was made aware of these lyrics, to wit:


"Hello Operator" is an exceptional example:

"Hello Operator
I would like to place a call"

thus there is a conceit of a siloloquy to a telecommunications service employee expressing the hope of personal connection thru a cosmos of blind indifference and utter connectivity.
since the late 90's such conceits are anachorisms, and the author of the lyric, to have substance, may be assessed as homaging previous authors of this conceit, or of manipulating search engine rankings to have a lyric conflatable with those of jim croce and chuck berry, since the direct experience of "dial 0 for operatot" is scarcely available to him as a personal reference.

first, one can examine croce's siloloquy on internalising loss:



Operator, oh could you help me place this call
You see the number on the matchbook is old and faded
She�s livin� in l.a.
With my best old ex-friend ray
A guy she said she knew well and sometimes hated

Isn�t that the way they say it goes
But let�s forget all that
And give me the number if you can find it
So I can call just to tell them I�m fine and to show
I�ve overcome the blow
I�ve learned to take it well
I only wish my words could just convince myself
But that�s not the way it feels.

croce meditates on the difference betwen knowledge and Wisdom-- the internalising of a Message. a direct parallel concerns adultery as the force of seperation, and croce witnesses to twice the level of betrayal notd by bazan: the infidelity of the friend as "lover" and the infidelity of the friend as "friend." how does croce weigh the betrayal?
:"There�s no one there I really wanted to talk to"--image adjustment, redefinition. he finds kindness--the act of kinship--with the system operator, thus is prayerful, since all acts of faith are acknowledgement of the System Operator DEsiring good for humanity.
what is his revenge? "living well":
;"I�ve overcome the blow
I�ve learned to take it well"
this is the revenge he seeks on those who have betrayed him: to connect with that which is DEsired for him by his Creator.
has he achieved it? he does not think so, "that�s not the way it feels"--and yet, on this plane of existence he has, by askling the operator "to forget about this call."

one reaches further back to berry's essay:
"Long distance information give me Memphis, Tennessee
Help me find the party that tried to get in touch with me
She could not leave a number but I know who placed the call
'cause my uncle took a message and he wrote it on the wall

Help me information get in touch with my Marie
She's the only one who'd call me here from Memphis, Tennessee
Her home is on the south side, high up on the ridge
Just a half-a-mile from the Mississippi bridge

Last time I saw Marie she was wavin' me goodbye
With "hurry home" drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye
But we were pulled apart because her Mom did not agree
And tore apart our happy home in Memphis, Tennessee

Help me information, more than that I cannot add
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had
Marie is only six years old, information please
Try to put me through to her in Memphis, Tennessee

this can be dated, from internal evidence to the early 50's when there was one highway bridge between memphis and arkansas, near the railroad bridge, and the high ground was occupied by the former slave class who hd become domestics and migrant farm workers.

berry's sense of loss is driven by the knowledge that "all is not lost"--the loved one thinks of him, but cannot connect.
the loved one is the future? the loved one is innocence? the loved one is the ongoingness of the Promise?
who is marie? probably not someone to be murdered as an act of self idolatry, possibly a type of the virgin mary, mediator to the Eternality of Love.

maloy's revenge is a bit different. he seeks to create a situtation where the loved one has no access to love, but only to the internal narrative of malloy's self-indulgence and self-empowering decider of justice.
one asks, wh has the right to say, "You should not have been unfaithful
You should not have ever f*cked with me"?
the Author of leviticus, according to the Author of levitus, Who Names Himself "Jealous" and "War". is this a transferrble right? not according to the Author.
in leviticus, the "operator", Moses, insists on taking the blame if the system breaks down.
in croce's conceit, the operator expresses eternal kinship, and is given the 10th part (you can keep the dime).
in berry's, there is only the eternal quest as purpose; to be washed in the "hurry home" drops and be born again.

self indulgence and the claim to be, if not to sit at the Right Hand, but at least be before the Voices shouting Holy can be seen in bazan:
:"but if all that's left is duty, I'm falling on my sword
at least then, I would not serve an unseen distant lord"
strikes the author as an amusingly posed version of "if You don;t show Yrself, to me, i'll hold my breath and turn blue and passout, and then U'll be sorry." which, by self-evidence demonstrates the author's utter ignorance of "duty" as a response to granted rights.
:"I hope that I'm passing, cause I'm losing steam
but I still want to trust you"
perhaps it is bazan thinking he is the Source of the steam that is causing the shortage.