Words of Innocence and Experience

“Meeting Sting was like being locked in your car, with the windows shut, with a good-looking scorpion. Sting is polite, cold-eyed, intelligent, brilliant, and ruthless.”

“The cool. The mask. The soul. The beauty. The music. Those words. The voice.”

The above are two excerpts from Uncut Magazine

“I will turn your face to alabaster
then you’ll find your servant is your master
You’ll be wrapped around my finger”
–The Police “Wrapped Around Your Finger”

In the British Literature classes on Wednesday, I learned about the qualities of a Byronic hero. The modern example Professor Fei-fei gave was Robbie (Williams), whom I also fancied before. However, Robbie lacks the depth and mystery in such a figure. The first person that emerged in my mind as I listened to the professor was actually Sting–the Police Sting.

So what makes a person a Byronic hero? According to my textbook, the qualities are

Sting, in his Police times, was fatally handsome and attractive. There was a sinister quality to him that made women (and some men) extremely drawn to him. He was cold and indiffernt, a noticeable misantrope. He was also notorious as a philanderer. However, he was immensely tortured by this evil in him and constantly engaged in self-blaming and debauchery.

There are some notable differences between Sting and a typical Byronic hero, though. Sting was (and always has been) very politically conscious and claimed that he sometimes wrote songs for the poor. Sting was/is a poet, and a Byronice hero doesn’t seem to be one.

Perhaps the Police Sting is a literary Byronic hero, then. Sting is now an aged gentleman. Although still considered attractive by some women, he has lost the charm as a devil. Oh, I miss that coldness and menace in him.

I’m just a common mortal, who would be hypnotized by a charming evil spirit. If I had lived in the era of the Police, perhaps Sting would treat me with contempt… never mind.

On a side note, Martin Gore and Dave Gahan are the belles in my heart now (as if I need to mention that every day). Do they have the Byronic qualities? This is a question worth thinking.