Cygnus X-1 duology

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"Cygnus X-1"

Song by Rush
from the album A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres
Released	August 18, 1977 October 8, 1978
Genre	Progressive Rock
Length	28:30 (10:25, 18:05)
Label	Mercury Records
Writer(s)	Lee & Lifeson Lyrics by Peart
Producer(s)	Rush & Terry Brown
A Farewell to Kings track listing
"Madrigal" (Track 5)	"Cygnus X-1" (Track 6)
Hemispheres track listing
	"Cygnus X-1" (Track 1)	"Circumstances" (Track 2)

Rush's Cygnus X-1 Duology consists of Book I: The Voyage and Book II: Hemispheres. Book I is featured on the A Farewell to Kings album, while Book II is the first song on Hemispheres. Part one clocks in at ten minutes and twenty-five seconds (10:25), and part two is eighteen minutes and five seconds (18:05). Sometimes an abbreviated version of book one is played live with only the instrumental section, as is seen on Rush in Rio and R30.

[edit] General storyline

In the constellation of Cygnus lies a mysterious black hole that is simply titled "Cygnus X-1" (Cygnus X-1 is believed to be an actual black hole). An explorer aboard the ship "Rocinante" is curious about the black hole as it draws him in ("The x-ray is her siren song..."). Eventually, the pull of gravity is too great, and the explorer is sucked into a mysterious land.

The traveler finds himself in a world caught up in the struggle between Heart and Mind. The logical thinkers are led by Apollo and the emotional people are ruled by Dionysus. Apollo has his people build cities and explore the depths of science and knowledge, but Dionysus lures many of them into the "forests" and provides love, which many felt that Apollo's society was missing. Civil war breaks out as the two different ways of life clash. This leads up to the point where the Rocinante spins through the black hole of Cygnus X-1 and into this mysterious land. (At this point in the song "Hemispheres", a short snippet of the song "Cygnus X-1" plays, representing the place where the two pieces join.) When the explorer enters the land, he notices the fighting and becomes upset. At this point, the explorer has become invisible with no physical mass at all. Troubled by all the fighting, the "spirit" of the lost hero lets out a silent scream, which is felt by the warriors. This causes the people to cease their struggle and unite together. The explorer is regarded as a hero, and is deemed "Cygnus, the God of Balance" for his arrival that brought the two sides together.

[edit] Allusions and allegory

Although the storyline revolves around this science fiction world, it uses Greek mythology to explain the double meaning. Cygnus X-1 is primarily about the discovery of two conflicting ways of life, and two vastly different ways in which the human mind thinks (logic and emotion are separated into separate sides, or hemispheres, of the brain). The balance point (Cygnus) allows the mind to think with some logic and emotion at the same time, allowing people to be analytical, but not unemotional. This is a concept out of pop psychology.

It may be worth noting that the name of the ship, "Rocinante", is the name of Don Quixote's horse, in the novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. It is also the name John Steinbeck gives to the modified camper truck in which he travelled the country in his book Travels With Charley. It is also an anagram for the words "container" and "narcotine". Narcotine is an opioid with some hallucinogenic properties which also goes by the name Noscapine.