Amusing, but I’m curious now about the context of the original photograph.
Powers: from a Google image search, it appears that it’s from Elana Shieldlina, a Russian Instagram model/photographer/surrealist, https://www.instagram.com/sheidlina/
Please note that some images are NSFW- Bill
I just looked at ianosmond’s link, and there are some creepy images there. How old are those models?
If anyone fails to recognize the quote, it’s from Consider Yourself in the musical Oliver.
“But there are times that you feel you’re part of the scenery
All the greenery is comin’ down, boy
And then your wife seems to think you’re part of the furniture
Oh, it’s peculiar, she used to be so nice”
(Supertramp-Take The Long Way Home)
Doesn’t the phrase “part of the furniture” speak to feeling one’s being taken for granted?
So that line from the Oliver song jumps out at me.
@Grawlix: That’s a good point. Maybe there was a shift in meaning between 1960 and 1978. It can be a cross-Atlantic difference, since both are from British writers. Or since it’s the Dodger singing, it’s a subtle clue that all is not entirely well.
We’re not looking at 1969 and 1978, though, because Oliver takes place in the 19th century. And even at that, we might be looking less at the 19th century lower class London meaning of the phrase than at “this is a lyric that fits the music well.”
The woman embedded in armchair is disturbing enough, but the plaster torso of Venus
perched atop the end-table with such slender legs is also troubling, leaving
me waiting for a crash and a cloud of plaster dust and splinters, the squeal
of a hastily retreating cat, and the inevitable reappearance of said cat,
grooming itself in innocent hauteur.
The photo artist should have stuck a head on that plaster bust.
Forniphilia making it into the mainstream? Truly we live in interesting times.
“So that line from the Oliver song jumps out at me.”
That that *isn’t* the line for the Oliver song. The Oliver song is “Consider yourself part of the family”.
This is just a play on that. I’m not aware that “part of the furniture” is a “common phrase” but its meaning of being overlooked would be self-evident and clear.
OOOps…. Never mind.
That is a REALLY weird line and makes zero sense to me at all.
…. unless it’s meant to be intentionally ironic.
Consider yourself so welcome that we won’t even notice you and will overlook you just like we overlook everyone in our family.
Maybe. Is the play that cynical?
Woozy, from the sources I found, both versions of the phrase occur.
Consider yourself at home
Consider youself one of the family
We’ve taken to you so strong
It’s clear we’re going to get along
Consider yourself well in
Consider yourself part of the furniture
There isn’t a lot to spare
Who cares?What-ever we’ve got, we share!
Oh, I see you’ve already picked up on that.
Do you still see it as negative or cynical? In context, especially with the music, I think a pretty simple positive sense comes thru.
As an amateur lyricist, I’m well aware that poor usages and incorrect meanings get into songs because when you need to match rhyme and scansion, meaning and grammar get more fluid.
Hmm…”scansion”… I’ll see if I can sneak that into my next song.
Consider yourself … in the mansion.
Consider your rhymes … having scansion.
The only times I used “scansion” in my lyrics, it wasn’t rhymed.
(from memory only, sorry)
To a world too prone to be prosaic,
I bring my own panacea,
An iota of iambic
And a tittle of trochaic,
Added to a small amount of onomatopoeia
“Do you still see it as negative or cynical?”
Well, not necessarily. But I truly can not see “Consider yourself part of the furniture” as anything but negative and belittling. ANd in the lyrics it doesn’t actually rhyme (it doesn’t even elide) with anything that I have to wonder what in the world the lyricists were thinking. I haven’t seen the play but read the book. So deliberate cynicism was a working explanation. But it probably won’t bear out.
“I truly can not see “Consider yourself part of the furniture” as anything but negative and belittling. ”
How about “quite terrifying”? See Edogawa Rampo’s classic mystery/horror short story “The Human Chair.”
““I truly can not see “Consider yourself part of the furniture” as anything but negative and belittling. ”
How about “quite terrifying”?”
The 2nd Season of the Amazon Tick had a subplot of hum furniture which was quite gross. (I wonder if it was based on the Soylent Green concept of people who prostitute themselves out for places to live are called “furniture”; which is also belittling) But that does not negate “negative and belittling”. It merely amps it up.
In any event I still stand by my assertion I can’t see it as anything non-negative…. prove me wrong, children; prove me wrong.
A vaguely poetical man
To write a short poem began,
But try as he might,
The poem wouldn’t rhyme,
And he couldn’t even figure out how to make it scan.
Reminds me of Edogawa Ranpo’s “The Human Chair”, as adapted by Junji Ito:
Comics I Don't Understand 
Amusing, but I’m curious now about the context of the original photograph.
Powers: from a Google image search, it appears that it’s from Elana Shieldlina, a Russian Instagram model/photographer/surrealist,
https://www.instagram.com/sheidlina/
Please note that some images are NSFW- Bill
I just looked at ianosmond’s link, and there are some creepy images there. How old are those models?
If anyone fails to recognize the quote, it’s from Consider Yourself in the musical Oliver.
“But there are times that you feel you’re part of the scenery
All the greenery is comin’ down, boy
And then your wife seems to think you’re part of the furniture
Oh, it’s peculiar, she used to be so nice”
(Supertramp-Take The Long Way Home)
Doesn’t the phrase “part of the furniture” speak to feeling one’s being taken for granted?
So that line from the Oliver song jumps out at me.
@Grawlix: That’s a good point. Maybe there was a shift in meaning between 1960 and 1978. It can be a cross-Atlantic difference, since both are from British writers. Or since it’s the Dodger singing, it’s a subtle clue that all is not entirely well.
We’re not looking at 1969 and 1978, though, because Oliver takes place in the 19th century. And even at that, we might be looking less at the 19th century lower class London meaning of the phrase than at “this is a lyric that fits the music well.”
The woman embedded in armchair is disturbing enough, but the plaster torso of Venus
perched atop the end-table with such slender legs is also troubling, leaving
me waiting for a crash and a cloud of plaster dust and splinters, the squeal
of a hastily retreating cat, and the inevitable reappearance of said cat,
grooming itself in innocent hauteur.
The photo artist should have stuck a head on that plaster bust.
Forniphilia making it into the mainstream? Truly we live in interesting times.
“So that line from the Oliver song jumps out at me.”
That that *isn’t* the line for the Oliver song. The Oliver song is “Consider yourself part of the family”.
This is just a play on that. I’m not aware that “part of the furniture” is a “common phrase” but its meaning of being overlooked would be self-evident and clear.
OOOps…. Never mind.
That is a REALLY weird line and makes zero sense to me at all.
…. unless it’s meant to be intentionally ironic.
Consider yourself so welcome that we won’t even notice you and will overlook you just like we overlook everyone in our family.
Maybe. Is the play that cynical?
Woozy, from the sources I found, both versions of the phrase occur.
https://genius.com/Oliver-musical-consider-yourself-lyrics
Consider yourself at home
Consider youself one of the family
We’ve taken to you so strong
It’s clear we’re going to get along
Consider yourself well in
Consider yourself part of the furniture
There isn’t a lot to spare
Who cares?What-ever we’ve got, we share!
Oh, I see you’ve already picked up on that.
Do you still see it as negative or cynical? In context, especially with the music, I think a pretty simple positive sense comes thru.
As an amateur lyricist, I’m well aware that poor usages and incorrect meanings get into songs because when you need to match rhyme and scansion, meaning and grammar get more fluid.
Hmm…”scansion”… I’ll see if I can sneak that into my next song.
Consider yourself … in the mansion.
Consider your rhymes … having scansion.
The only times I used “scansion” in my lyrics, it wasn’t rhymed.
(from memory only, sorry)
To a world too prone to be prosaic,
I bring my own panacea,
An iota of iambic
And a tittle of trochaic,
Added to a small amount of onomatopoeia
“Do you still see it as negative or cynical?”
Well, not necessarily. But I truly can not see “Consider yourself part of the furniture” as anything but negative and belittling. ANd in the lyrics it doesn’t actually rhyme (it doesn’t even elide) with anything that I have to wonder what in the world the lyricists were thinking. I haven’t seen the play but read the book. So deliberate cynicism was a working explanation. But it probably won’t bear out.
“I truly can not see “Consider yourself part of the furniture” as anything but negative and belittling. ”
How about “quite terrifying”? See Edogawa Rampo’s classic mystery/horror short story “The Human Chair.”
““I truly can not see “Consider yourself part of the furniture” as anything but negative and belittling. ”
How about “quite terrifying”?”
The 2nd Season of the Amazon Tick had a subplot of hum furniture which was quite gross. (I wonder if it was based on the Soylent Green concept of people who prostitute themselves out for places to live are called “furniture”; which is also belittling) But that does not negate “negative and belittling”. It merely amps it up.
In any event I still stand by my assertion I can’t see it as anything non-negative…. prove me wrong, children; prove me wrong.
A vaguely poetical man
To write a short poem began,
But try as he might,
The poem wouldn’t rhyme,
And he couldn’t even figure out how to make it scan.
Reminds me of Edogawa Ranpo’s “The Human Chair”, as adapted by Junji Ito: