"White wine in the sun" as a metamodernist piece of art


Tim Minchin is a musician who is known for his sarcastic songs with atheist and scientific ideas. The song “White wine in the sun” seems to knock out of his common repertoire, since it reveals not only his opinion and jokes but also his true feelings. The way, how Tim unites incompatible things in one song seems really metamodernistic.

His scepticism and dislike for the church and the religion are really clear from most of his songs, such as “Thank you God” or “Good Book”, where he makes fun of peoples believes. The same idea might be clearly seen in some of the “White wine in the sun” lines, such as:

‘I don't go in for ancient wisdom
I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious
It means they're worthy’ (Tim Minchin, 2010),

where he criticizes the Bible. But at the same time, he sings about the moments in the religion he likes, because it is part of his life, his culture, and family traditions. It might be seen not also in lines like this: ‘Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords’ (Tim Minchin), but also in the whole song in general, where describes his love for his family and for the Christmas holiday. Tim’s position is clear but dualistic – hate for Christmas as one of the most popular events representing people’s credulity and stupidity, and love for Christmas as a tradition and reason to spend time with the family.

In this really sincere song, Minchin still finds a place for humour. As an example, in line ‘Than Desmond Tutu, to be honest’ (Tim Minchin, 2010) he creates a humoristic effect because of the similarity in the pronunciation of “Tutu” and “to” and a little pause before “be honest”. That combination also might be considered metamodernistic, since sometimes humour is used to talk about the hard topics in an easy way – to hide worries and pain under the sarcasm and laughter.

In the last verses of the song, Tim narrates about his daughter, who was around two years old when he wrote the lyrics according to the lines

‘You'll be handed round the room
Like a puppy at a primary school’ (Tim Minchin, 2010).

At first, he tells even when she will be thirty-one, he, and her mom and her siblings will be waiting for her at home. Then he repeats the same words but adds other members of the family – aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents, who will be waiting for her in the sun. Since it will be in 30 years, some of those people could be dead, by that time. The first time he definitely says about real life, but the second time might be about the afterlife since he and her whole family would always wait for her in the sun. In this interpretation these verses also could be considered metamodernistic – Tim doesn’t believe in God and the afterlife, but still, the hope of meeting his beloved, in the end, might have a small place in his heart. He knows it is impossible, but nobody could forbid dreaming.

 

Reference list:

Tim Minchin (2009) The Good Book. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJK7mAgINP4&ab_channel=TimMinchin-Topic (Accessed 18 November 2021)

Tim Minchin (2010) White Wine In The Sun by Tim Minchin. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q&ab_channel=TimMinchin (Accessed 18 November 2021)

Tim Minchin (2013) Thank You Good - Tim Minchin. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZeWPScnolo&ab_channel=TimMinchin (Accessed 18 November 2021)

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