Online, I ran across a couple of mentions that “glass onion” is a British slang for monocle - like the kind you look at gems with. The idea being that John was writing about people looking too hard at Beatles’ lyrics for meaning - over-scrutinizing them.
However, despite several claims of this by non-Brits, I didn’t see any actual Brit’s post affirming this was true.
Given that people also claimed it represented several other things (glass topped coffin, Lennon’s opinion of the yogic concept of the lotus with its layered petals, a glass dildo, and so on), I thought I would poll our friends across the pond and have them weigh in.
Is glass onion actually British slang for a monocle?
Now that your question has been answered, I feel I should point out that you are referring to two different things. A monocle is an eyeglass for one eye, to improve vision in that eye (it might be used just for reading, or just for distance). Some monocles are sort of screwed into the eye when in use, some are on a handle. The thing you look at gems through is a type of magnifier called a loupe. Some of these can also be screwed into the eye socket, some must be held by hand, but the function is different from a monocle. I don’t know which thing folks thought was a glass onion.
The point of looking through a glass onion is that it distorts everything which is the opposite of what one expects from any sort of magnifier like a monocle or a loupe.
Well actually it hasn’t been answered, my question is, is glass onion a British slang for a monocle (or loupe)?
I was aware that a monocle and a loupe are two different things but the article I read made it seem as if loupes were also known as monocles, slang-wise.
I love the song and am curious to the meaning of John’s glass onion but my question was about British slang.
I wonder if JL was thinking of those ‘bullseye’ glass panes often found in leaded windows. Properly known as ‘crown glass’ they were made from blown glass rather than the modern rolled sheets.
I thought it was just a metaphor the Beatles used for one of their songs (and later used as a movie title). Like an “onion” implies increasing levels of complexity as you peel away the layers. But because the onion is glass, everything there was to see was already right there from the beginning.
@Smapti nailed it. People trying to interpret a special meaning for “glass onion” are the same people Lennon is making fun of. I’m from a seaside town, and those bottles infest the local antique shops. Looking through one distorts your view of, well, reality. Why does it have to be more clever than that?
Seeing things with perceptual distortion, perhaps even hyper-real, seems to suit the song lyrics and something Lennon would riff on, like the girl with kaleidoscope eyes. Therefore, looking through a glass bottle gets my vote. Seeing things more clearly, like through a monocle or loop, just doesn’t align with John’s modus operandi. He was an artist, not a scientist.
