Nostalgic Mtv video

General Questions
#1

About nine years ago or so, Guns N Roses had a song called “November Rain” with this really strange video featuring Stephanie Seymour. As I recall, the video told the story of this couple’s wedding and the bride died at the reception, or something. My question is, DOES ANYONE KNOW THE STORY TO THIS VIDEO??? At the end of the video there was this little thing that said it was based on a story called “Without You” by Del James. Who is Del James and where can I find this story? Please answer ASAP, this mystery has been driving me nuts for years.

“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true” -Albert Einstein

#2

I wouldn’t take the actual story of the video literally. It doesn’t quite go with the words. I kinda think the song is about a relationship, and the wedding and death are images taken from his head about the state of the relationship. The song seems to be about a girl who is not “quite” ready for the guy she is seeing(not ready to admit he is THE one), so he sees himself marrying her, but also sees the relationship dying at the same time. I don’t know about the short story though.

#3

Hmm, I had never even thought about not taking it literally. I had always assumed that they were both THE one for each other (and knew it) got married and then she died soon after. I suppose it would make it much more interesting taking it the non-literal sense though.

Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB

#4

I remember that video, and it always bugged me because I could never figure out how she died. It started raining, and Axl and the bride hit under a table, then Slash or somebody fell on top of the table and toppled over the wedding cake. Does this mean the table collapse is what killed her? I think this is one of GnR’s best songs…

#5

The other odd thing about that video is that when she’s lying in the casket, she’s in half. Serioulsly. There is a mirror next to her reflecting the one half making her look “all there”, but she’s only half a person!
On the subject of the metaphor of this song, that would make sense…BUT I’m not talking about the song, I’m talking about the video and the story that it’s based on.

“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true” -Albert Einstein

#6

The video is based on the short story “Without You” by Del James. This story comes from a book of his short stories called The Language of Fear. Now for the bad news, the darn book is out of print. It got excellent reviews and looks like something that would be quite interesting to read, but apparently it is quite difficult to find.

#7

Guns n Roses put out a Making Of video a few years back. It’s been a while since I saw it, but I remember most of it.

I’ve also read the story, which was relatively unremarkable. IIRC, it goes something like this. Girl meets Boy, Girl and Boy have temultuous relationship, Girl loses Boy and commits suicide by shooting herself (hence the divided coffin. One side of her head was, well, aestheticly unpleasant. Boy commits suicide by setting his house on fire. Warms the heart, doesn’t it? What rock n roll ballads are made of.

I’m not a big fan of Axl & Co. but the video was a minor masterpiece.