Enlightenment

“Holocene” is a song from Bon Iver’s self-titled album. While of course the listener can interpret its meaning in a multitude of different ways, the writer of the song, Justin Vernon, hoped the title itself would effectively convey the meaning of the song, “[People] can all be different and the same at the same time. Most of our lives feel like these epochs. . . but really we are dust in the wind. But I think there’s a significance in that insignificance.” Throughout the piece, the speaker discusses parts of their life that seems to cause them pain. In the interludes between these moments, they realize over and over again that they themselves are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, and then appear to achieve some sort of enlightenment. 

Many parts of the song seemed to describe a car accident or different car accidents. In the first stanza, the lyrics, “It’s on it’s head, It struck the street” seem to describe a car as it is getting into a wreck. The last stanza before the song ends describes the result of this car wreck, if they are the same one, “Above my brother, I and tangled spines.” The speaker’s phrasing of them as above their brother give me the impression that the car flipped around, like it did in the first stanza. Their “tangled spines” struck me the most, especially the use of the word “tangled.” It gave me an image of devastation, desperation, crisis, and excruciating pain. A couple lines before it seemed to have a contradictory cheeriness to them, “Christmas night, It clutched the night, the hallow bright.” The idea of such an awful accident occurring on Christmas Eve defies the very nature of the holiday season. The speaker’s use of imagery with light can also lead the listener to different conclusions. Although they could simply be referring to Christmas lights, which would help add tragedy to the scene, it could also be describing “the light”- the one associated with death. 

The chorus of the song repeats three times throughout:

“. . . and at once I knew I was not magnificent. Strayed Above the highway aisle. Jagged vacance, thick with ice. I could see for miles, miles, miles.”

The writer’s hope to portray the significant in the insignificant comes alive in the very first line, where the speaker realizes they are not magnificent, simply dust in the wind. The second line solidifies the argument that the strife that occurs in the song results from a car crash on the highway. “Jagged vacance” may suggest the sharp, empty space the deaths of the speaker and their brother left in the lives of their loved ones. To me, the speaker says the final line of the chorus as their spirit ascends. Not only could their ability to see for miles be just as a result of the new height difference, but it could be the writer’s original vision at work. Because the speaker has realized their insignificance in the world, they feel enlightened, and can see more.