[Editor’s Note] When the curator at the University of Michigan archives found this “dissertation” in a box labeled Overly Earnest Student Submissions, I laughed out loud – partly at the subtitle (Toward a Fraserian Semiotics in the Shadow of Post-Lyric Expression), mostly at the author’s initials: S.T.E. Of course. It is important to note that this PHD candidate did not receive his doctorate from U of M. Clemency Grave, I can already hear you groaning. This one’s for you.
Glossolalia Divine: Toward a Fraserian Semiotics in the Shadow of Post-Lyric Expression
Dissertation Defense Presented by Steve Thomas Erlewine
University of Michigan, Department of Obscurantist Dreampop Studies
Abstract:
In this paper, I argue that Elizabeth Fraser, voice of the Cocteau Twins, did not merely sing nonsense, she constructed an ecstatic linguistic system I call Fraserian.
This angelic syntax resists translation while demanding it.
My lexicon was developed through breath mapping, trance listening, and glossolalic immersion.
I further assert that her shift into English on Four-Calendar Café was not evolution, but fall and the exile from the ecstatic into the literal.
- “Luriluum Shaye”: Genesis of the Fraserian Tongue
“Luriluum shaye / candleem deray” – Treasure, 1984
From the first breath of “Lorelei,” Fraser offers not lyrics, but liturgy.
This is not singing: this is Divine transmission. I chose not to decode, but to enter. I repeated syllables until I achieved trance-state.
To the uninitiated, her syllables appear arbitrary. That’s intentional. Like the Eleusinian Mysteries, meaning is reserved for the initiated. I chose not to decode, but to enter. I repeated syllables until trance-state.
I mouthmapped her vowels. I watched waveforms until they formed Celtic knots.
“It was in the diphthongs I found the rapture.”
2. “Feeling Into a Microphone”: The Wire Heresy
When asked in 1993 by The Wire about her writing process, Fraser said:
“I was just feeling into a fucking microphone… I was still expressing the same things… but I wasn’t getting caught up in them.”
To the untrained ear, this is a confession of improvisation. To the true scholar, it is mythic misdirection. “Feeling into a microphone” is glossolalia in its purest form.
And her use of “fucking” is not expletive, but exegesis. She wasn’t caught up in the meaning because she was the meaning.
Her later turn to English, though, was her Babel. A fall. Heaven or Las Vegas was the tower. It soared, then cracked. The Angelic tongue withdrew.
III. “I Translate Therefore I Am”: Sample Lexicon
From my years of research, I humbly offer the following translations from Blue Bell Knoll:
- “Aloovi derranay” – (n.) the ache of loving someone you invented in a dream
- “Shimeryal taysoon” – (v.) to forgive someone for interrupting your heart break
- “Whennaleh suhn” – (adj.) the color of moonlight in an abandoned hotel pool
I have compiled 1,734 such entries. (The full lexicon is available in a laminated binder for $85.)
5. Censorship in the Cocteau Community
My work has not gone unchallenged. I was expelled from the “Pearly Dewdrops Drop-In Discord” after posting my annotated translation of “The Itchy Glowbo Blow.” I was accused of “imposing meaning where none existed.”
To which I reply: what else do you think language is doing?
6. Conclusion: Fraser as Oracle
In closing, I do not claim that Liz Fraser intended any of this. That would diminish her role as vessel. Fraser is not the author of Fraserian. She is its medium, a conduit. As Hildegard von Bingen channeled divine music in the 12th century, so too did Fraser transmit the language of an unborn aeon. The Eternal Muse is the author. Fraser did not write – she received. Fraser can be likened to Joan of Arc, leading armies of faithful while lost in her delirium and rapture.
“Listen not with your ears, but with your molars.” – S. T. Erlewine, Personal Revelation (04:17 AM, during “Ella Megalast Burls Forever”)
Appendix A: Glossary of 50 Fraserian Terms Most Likely to Summon a Past Life
Appendix B: Breath Diagram of “Musette and Drums” Mapped to Ogham Script
Appendix C: Email from Bandcamp Support Regarding My Removal from the “Obscure Shoegaze Collectors” Group (for “Fraserian overreach”)
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