[UPDATE]Are we really going to rehash this shit??? [IU-related][WARNING: VERY LONG]

[HugeBoi Minos Wife]

So let me start off by saying I´m not an IU fan, just a casual listener. You might have seen my comments on her threads since the controversy but I listen to her songs maybe once in a year lol l somehow became passionate with the topic and I´m sincerely enraged at all the posts trashing her left and right just for the sake of hating. I made this long thread to speak my mind for the last time on the issue. Its going to be long so please bear with me.

 

First of all, some people still seem to misunderstand the fact that Zeze was indeed abused, but not sexually. Yes, I saw a post about it 4 hours ago. So, lets clarify this for the last time with a synopsis:

 

 

It tells the story of Zezé, a young boy who lives in Minas Gerais in a very humble house with his family, consisting of his unemployed and alcoholic father, and his mother, which works to support the home and his siblings. Despite the lack of understanding, affection and the aggression suffered by from his father and school colleagues, the boy has a great skill for storytelling using his imagination.With financial difficulties, the family has to move. At the new home, Zezé finds an orange tree, which he talks every day. One of them, he tries to ride on the bumper of Manoel Valadares, the "Portuga", but is caught and spanked. The boy feels humiliated and wants revenge, however Valadares ends up understanding Zezé, which turns to share his world of fantasies, and a new friendship arises…but not for long.

 

 

Now lets break down the lyrics and try to understand IU original intention. Question: How did you guys come to know Zeze lyrics? Did you read it before and found them weird or your first read was through a PANN POST(KPKF?NB?). I said this because I read the lyrics for the first time in KPKF, basically with the Pann filter who suggested sexual references. Thats why I also thought the lyrics were about an intercourse+ the mention of Zeze...everything was so poorly explained but I´m not a fan so I didnt give a fuck at first.

 

However, when the controversy arose, I went back and read the lyrics again. I caught something with non-biased eyes: the person she was talking about had some sort of antagonism/duality to its character. Looking innocent while behaving badly, in a mischievous way. Then I was like damn! this actually reminds me of IU HERSELF: She subtly said many times that she´s not as innocent as she appears to be(23). She´s got a rebel side, just like Zeze, hence why she connected with Zeze angel vs demon character.

 

There are actually two RIGHT interpretations of this song:

 

1-FROM THE TREE POV: The tree was Zeze best friend, his comfort and he even got jealous when Zeze made a new friend, I believe it was Portuga? Anyway, IU speaks from the tree point of view and if you read the lyrics with references from the book, everything falls into pieces but people with twisted mind can only find the lyrics sexual if they dont connect them with the book!!!

 

"Climp up me": the tree in the book LITERALLY says: "You wanna feel how soft I am?[...] Climb up me."

then you would havePeople thinking she/tree wants Zeze to grope her/him...

 

"I wait for you here everyday, you sneak away": The tree was Zeze best friend and literally waited for him everyday to converse with him. Its not about longing for a 5 year-old CREEPILY!!!

 

"The things I cannot say, those bad thoughts are lovely": Reminding you that Zeze was considered a ill-behaved child. He suffered from lack of affection from his messsed-up father and it resulted in him pulling out many pranks, always making troubles...basically a "TOM SAWYER". However the tree was his source of strength and is basically Taking His Side, telling him: what you´re doing is wrong but its okay, I find it lovely. Bad thoughts not as sexual thoughts but evil mind. Always planning to do something to cause trouble.

 

"Take the youngest leaf from here with you;Pluck the one and only flower": Here, the tree is calling Zeze to play with him. In the book, Zeze used to steal flowers from the tree to give them to his teacher or using leafs while pretending they are parks tickets". This is not about fucking!!! Here an explanation from an actual brazilian who read the book and also IU lyrics:

 

 

"(i posted this on my twitter account @iedapple, but i’m posting here bc some ppl asked me to do. i’m brazilian - the book is brazilian, so i read the book in the original language and i perfectly understand the context)

well, i read just netizenbuzz and asianjunkie posts about the situation and then i decided to read ‘my sweet orange tree’ this afternoon, and after reading the whole story, i totally understand zezé’s lyrics.

my english is not that good, so, if you don’t understand something, you can ask me, okay?

first, i’ll resume the book for y'all who didn’t read it: 'my sweet orange tree’ is a sad story, i mean, zezé’s family is really poor and they suffered a lot bc of this. zezé is a mischievous boy and he’s really smart, but he’s always making pranks with his neighbors (or random ppl), and bc of this, his parents spank him, and this is a important point: when koreans say he was 'abused’, they’re talking about this. the word 'abuse’ (to me) sound like 'sexually abused’ but it’s not what happened the book.

the tree (that zezé calls 'mindinho’) is his best friend, in his mind the tree talks with him, and he always climb up the tree to play, thinking he’s a cowboy and these kid stuff, it’s his imagination.

in some part of the book, zezé made a new friend and the tree got a bit jealous bc of his new friend.

“It’s interesting

Look at you lift the corners of your mouth

I can tell just from your smile

You’re clearly a mischievous boy

Ah, ah, you’ve got a really nice name

That I want to keep calling out

Your nasty thoughts that I can’t speak of are lovely

Using your tiny fingers to touch the sound

Using your ticklish voice to sing the colours and scenery Yeahâ€

in this part, she presents the boy and talks things about him, the boy are always thinking about doing pranks and he’s always singing

“Zeze, hurry and come up the tree

Kiss the leaves

You musn’t fool around

You musn’t hurt the tree, you musn’t

Zeze, hurry and come up the tree

Take the youngest leaf from here with you

Pluck the one and only flower

Climb up me

Climb up me

Climb up me

Climb up me"

in this part, the tree is calling zezé to play with, the parts about take the leaf and flower make sense if you think about some situations in the book, like zezé stealing flowers to give his teacher or when he uses leafs to pretend are parks’ tickets

"Like the flowers that have bloomed

Look at your two cheeks that have become rosy

Although you’re really innocent,

You’re clearly cunning, aren’t you?

Seemingly transparent like a young child, yet somewhat filthy

There’s no way for me to figure out what’s living inside you

Even though right now sunlight shines above your head

I can vaguely see the dark clouds gathering inside you Oh"

in this part she’s clearly talking about he’s blooming, i mean, you see zezé growing up, zezé is a kid, ofc he’s innocent and he’s really smart (he knows how to read with only 5 years!), but in the same time he’s said a lot of "bad words†and do things who aren’t okay, but make sense bc his horrible situation, in someparts he thinks about his family hate him (and a lot of bad things)

“I want to touch you one more time

I wait for you here everyday

Come and take everything with you

I want to call out to you again

I wait for you here everyday

Even if you sneak away

You’ll come again tomorrow night to see me, right?"

as i said before, the tree is zezé’s best friend, almost in the end of the book, zezé almost died of sadness, he didn’t eat or speak for days and his family think is bc his brother said to zezé about the government taking the tree out to expand the street. before that, zezé scapes for one day to travel with his other friend. and in the end of the book their family will move to another city"

this part can be about a lot of parts of the book"

I'd like to post this too. it's from someone who read the entire book

 

 

 

2- FROM IU POV: IU relates to Zeze angel vs demon character. He´s being misunderstood just like IU was when she debuted: Young, underage and misundertood. Zeze is being punished because they dont understand his character. How can one look so innocent and doing so many bad things? Same problem with IU and her uncle fans who wantedHER to keep the innocent image forever, her agency boxing her in pedo clickbait concepts when she was still underage...I mean the whole album revolves around her past image vs new image. IU breaking free from this vicious circle and coming out as a strong woman, independent and successful, who doesnt care about what other people think anymore. She relates to Zeze´s character on another level cause she knows how it feels being misunderstood for having dual character: Didnt people call her a "sly fox" [who pretends to be a bear who pretends to be a fox?] Hummm...

 

Now lets take it further since I´m non biased and point out IU mistakes while writing the lyrics:

 

-I´ve stated many times and you can check that I wished IU didnt choose Zeze as a muse. Why? Because the fine line between 5 Year old Zeze and Zeze´s character duality is too thin. Its hard to dissociate the two unless you´ve read the book or followed IU. People who havent read the book would think the lyrics are sexual when they´re not. They would think IU is sexualizing Zeze when she´s not, rather using his character as a Parallel with herself.

 

-That "sexy" statement didnt help either. She was misquoted and reporters wrote she found Zeze sexy when she was talking about his personality traits being sexy. Its her responsibility and she should have known better. "Charming" would have been a better word to avoid controversy and she acknowledged it was negligence on her part.

 

Edit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejKERhnuCEI

 

The video provides evidence that the context of IU’s explanation of “Zeze†was omitted in the initial reports of her interview about it. The video plays a recording of IU at her “Chat-shire†showcase on October 23 explaining the song, saying: “Just looking at his character, he has a lot of contradictions, so I was pulled to the character. I’m not saying this to the young Zeze. When just looking at Zeze’s temperament, I thought it was sexy.†The video claims that the initial reports left out the part of IU saying she is not talking about young Zeze.

 

She personally emphasized in between "sexy" and said "Meiryok" (sorry for the broke romanization) "charming" two times. Even clarifying she´s not talking about the kid/young Zeze rather his character. The reporter casually edited that part and reported instead: "IU said Zeze is sexy".

 

The word sexy remains inappropriate but the malicious editing really led to the accusations of pedophilia and created the misunderstanding. Had her statement been reported exactly as she had said it, Knetz wouldnt have called her a pedophile.

 

-Zeze is an amazing song but if he had been a sad song, it would have been better. Why? Because someone who hasnt read the book, didnt watch her interview and doesnt know IU history/ past concept will automatically think about something sexual or romantic since the song has such a playful vibe. They wont understand and adding the lyrics, its a combination of a big mess in theory.

 

-IU BIGGEST MISTAKE: Purposely writing the lyrics in a way that let the listener GUESS what she meant. She wrote somehow ambiguous lyrics that left TOO MUCH ROOM for interpretation. I think thats what she meant saying in her apology that she got too greedy: SHE wanted the listener to ask himself if the lyrics are innocent or not. Thats no-no. With concepts like these, either you come out with CLEAR lyrics to make people understand your point or you dont do them. She should have relayed her message straight without mystery around it. Thats what good lyricist do. They convey emotions through lyrics in a way that does not lead to confusion. She´s young and I´m sure she will learn. She´s making her baby steps as a producer/lyricist/composer and mistakes come along the way.

 

Now for people saying she sexualized Zeze in her artwork. Here´s a sketch of the artwork she came up with and asked an expert to draw this for her:

 

There are no fishnets in these...Yes, she surely should have checked. But as someone responsible for an entire album, is it really realistically possible to check everything??? The one who made the artwok did the final product and its unfortunate her and her team okayed it.

 

BUT there is something I wanted to point out: "Perspective" is a really important word here. Why would people even think of Zeze sexually??? I confirm it to you that children DO wear fishnets without it being sexual. I´ve done an internship in a circus for children with disabilities and fishnets were worn naturally. They also wear it during dance classes or for Halloween without people being outraged by it. The minute you look through this cover with sexual glasses however, you will find ANYTHING sexual. Thats why this artwork circulated for weeks and nobody found it gross until the "sexy statement" and someone interpretating it sexually on Pann.

 

That artwork is really no big deal if you think about it. Proof is that there is another part of this artwork where fishnets are drawn but nobody noticed:

 

 

The one designing it just seems to like these kind of fishnets stockings and incorporated them in his work. Again. No big deal here.

 

Now I´m saying this to finish. The witchhunt is a reach even though she deserved criticisms for Zeze and thank God she explained herself and apologize. People on this forum calling her names like Pedophile or disgusting are ignorant... they dont even understand the fucking song to begin with. They went on NB/KPKF, read the comments and draw their conclusion without doing some RESEARCH. I bet 90% of people on this forum still dont get the song! lol

 

I´m not even a fan but when I BOTHERED researching by myself, not with the help of Pann, l understood everything! People who called her those names should be ashamed and I´m side-eyeing all of them from now on. She made mistakes but people are reaching all the way to the moon calling her a pedophile. And let me say this:

 

IU is the #1 female singer for a reason. I finally understood why. Sexualization of teenage girls are everywhere in Kpop...look at those pedo clickbait concepts flooding *Cough* April* Cough* but WHO is talking about it? WHO is criticizing it??? They´re all excited seeing teenage girls in school uniforms while wanting them to remain pure...not realizing they´re sexualizing them already. IU is not the first nor the last to suffer this but with her influence, she DARED speaking about it, using satire, images, symbols...she made mistakes along the way but she did put those creeps in their place. Which female idol could have released an album like 23 in SK???

 

Busy singing about their oppas. IU DESERVES THE ARTIST TITLE!!! The whole concept was Genius and I salute her for that. l may have become a fan throughout this mess but haters cant deny this girl´s music has content. This is my very last time speaking on this issue. Thanks for reading this long essay. IU is LOVE. Peace out.

[night vale.]

Did you mean rehash?

 

Also: the lyrics were extremely ambiguous, she should have explained earlier but her words in previous interviews were not well thought out. She apologized and so far the I-fandom seems ok about it now. Why make an essay-long post when it's dead on here?

[Mogwai]

I think you meant "rehash" or "repeat" instead of "rehearse"..? Rehearse doesn't sound right...

[Brittany]

I appreciated this. Thank you. ^^

 

#BuyMySweetOrangeTree

[i_apologize]

 

 

"Climb up me": the tree in the book LITERALLY says: "You wanna feel how soft I am?[...] Climb up me."

then you would havePeople thinking she/tree wants Zeze to grope her/him...

 

Knetz fail so much here.

[hehe haha xd]

This actually makes sense now

[Lucky Blue]

Even the publisher company expressed their disagreement, if it was 'made up' it wouldn't have been so 'huge', what she did was wrong, she apologized, hopefully she'll learn and won't do the same mistake again.

[Susu]

well there is at least one intelligent person who understands what IU meant with her lyrics 

[Lynnie]

a good read !

[bb4]

[Libidinosa]

Tell 'em Tell 'em.

[Cloud Of Perception]

She made a huge mistake like you said by choosing Zeze as a muse  if she addressed this yet I dont know but if she sincerely did not mean to sexualize the child I hope she learns from this and moves on.  As long she addresses this correctly and comes back with good music later this will not effect her greatly.

[removed929393303]

It is a huge/gross exaggeration to call her a pedophile. I've said from the beginning that I think she tried to get too intellectual and ended up fucking herself over. Because there was always a witch hunt going on for her (which is a very important thing to note because it helps explain how volatile some people reacted) people latched onto this and made it as big as possible.

 

Within all of this shitshow there has been valid criticism thrown at her and it's good that she addressed it even though netizens aren't capable of forgiveness but all of this does leave a bad taste in my mouth because it does stem from a concentrated effort by knetz to tear her down that picked up speed when her dating news dropped. 

[denizen mars]

I knew zilch about Zeze or the book before I listened to the song. I honestly thought it was just a sort of suggestive song about nothing in particular from the lyrics. Was one of my favorite songs on the ep. Then this controversy happened and I don't know what to make of it all. But I do know the witch-hunt is too much.

[byeol]

You go OP. Tell em'

[Си�у Пак]

omg I just realised I read this book when I was younger (like 10 years ago). Its called L'Oranger in french.

I remember the ending was so sad.

 

anyway, yeah the pedophelia accusations had no ground. It was just used to bash her. 

[miachu]

OP, this is a great post. thank you for your independent research and coming to your own conclusions instead of jumping on the bandwagon.

 

Even the publisher company expressed their disagreement, if it was 'made up' it wouldn't have been so 'huge', what she did was wrong, she apologized, hopefully she'll learn and won't do the same mistake again.

 

well..... I personally think the publisher does not have any right to say how someone else (IU) related to zeze and my sweet orange tree is wrong. IU obviously saw a lot of herself in zeze, and she projected a lot onto him. She, as a reader, has that right and also to write a song in response. it was in poor taste to use zeze though because her lyrics were too ambiguous that it causes discomfort for some listeners. I also hope she learns from this mistake.

 

Also, because I'm sure a lot of people don't know - IU herself had a hard childhood. her parents had a lot of money problems, and iu lived with her grandmother because her parents couldn't take care of her (fortunately, now the family is reunited). she probably saw herself in zeze in more than one way.

[alm94]

My thing is that after all the people explaining and IU's apology there are people so set on hating her for it! She made a mistake but the level of crap being said about her is horrible. Also some people are not even really offended by this, they're using this to confirm an image they have of IU, that she's some sly person who's faking being innocent.

[HugeBoi Minos Wife]

Even the publisher company expressed their disagreement, if it was 'made up' it wouldn't have been so 'huge', what she did was wrong, she apologized, hopefully she'll learn and won't do the same mistake again.

 

I did not say it was made up. Some criticisms were valid as she did not relay her message properly. I´m against those trashing her without checking facts and calling her "disgusting" like you did. I remember your comment clearly.

[Lucky Blue]

OP, this is a great post. thank you for your independent research and coming to your own conclusions instead of jumping on the bandwagon.

 

 

 

well..... I personally think the publisher does not have any right to say how someone else (IU) related to zeze and my sweet orange tree is wrong. IU obviously saw a lot of herself in zeze, and she projected a lot onto him. She, as a reader, has that right and also to write a song in response. it was in poor taste to use zeze though because her lyrics were too ambiguous that it causes discomfort for some listeners. I also hope she learns from this mistake.

What she did was wrong end of the story, the publisher had all the rights to express their thought about it lol

[Lucky Blue]

I did not say it was made up. Some criticisms were valid as she did not relay her message properly. I´m against those trashing her without checking facts and calling her "disgusting" like you did. I remember your comment clearly.

You can't stop that, the word sexy shouldn't be associated with kids in any way, that's what i find disgusting, stop defending her, her apology is the prove she did wrong and y'all still here making up lame excuses? Just stop.

[HugeBoi Minos Wife]

Did you mean rehash?

 

Also: the lyrics were extremely ambiguous, she should have explained earlier but her words in previous interviews were not well thought out. She apologized and so far the I-fandom seems ok about it now. Why make an essay-long post when it's dead on here?

 

I meant rehearse as repeating the same thing over and over again... is it wrong???

[miachu]

I meant rehearse as repeating the same thing over and over again... is it wrong???

 

I think "rehash" is the word you mean.

[HugeBoi Minos Wife]

You can't stop that, the word sexy shouldn't be associated with kids in any way, that's what i find disgusting, stop defending her, her apology is the prove she did wrong and y'all still here making up lame excuses? Just stop.

 

She was misquoted and a poor choice of words disgusting? You didnt say: "IU saying kid and sexy in the same sentence is disgusting", you LITERALLY wrote "IU is disgusting". And didnt you read my post? I pointed out her mistakes as well...inb4 people calling me delulu.

[Lilah]

I've appreciated your comments for the last couple of days, you're one of the few people who actually did some critical thinking instead of automatically jumping on the IU hate train. It kind of sickens me how quick people are to crucify her for shit they probably won't even bother to comprehend. In some aspects, her apology was pretty pointless because people aren't looking for one, they've already made their minds up and will continue to vomit out whatever garbage they can create in their minds about her. Yes, there are valid criticisms for what she has done, but the people labelling her as a pedophile and dirty are fucking disgusting. Anyway, I'm too tired to continue this shit right now, but tl;dr thanks for the quality content.