August – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 1

Welcome to the Swiftie and the Scholar, the podcast where we examine the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. I am Angela McDowell, the Swiftie. And I am Dr. Jerry Coates, definitely the scholar. Okay, we're back. I am back. I am, you know, after, what was that song? What was that song? The Albatross. Yes, the Albatross. After the Albatross and my slip about, oh, it's got to be Travis. I mean, I thought you were up in my head. It's like, do you know DMX Party Up? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Are you doing it? In my head, to my head. Yeah. I'm shocked that you know that song. I know, come on. Y'all gonna make me blow my mind up in here, up in here. No, it's not, that's not going to happen today. Okay. I am, I've got a costume. Costume change ready? Yeah. Oh gosh. There. He's back. The scholar is back. Yeah, that looks good. I've got my, my Tam on, I thought about getting my whole doctoral robes out, but they're, they're like real heavy and velvety and stuff. Yeah. It's like 90 degrees outside. Yeah. It is hot here in Texas for some reason. I don't know. But yes, I am the scholar and this is scholarly material. We will be talking about not just today, but for multiple episodes, welcome. Okay. Glad you got your mojo back. Yeah. Okay. So I'm just going to tell them, so they're going to get mad at me for even saying this up front, but Uncle Jerry has had these. We've chatted. He knows the connections. And so for the next couple of episodes, oh no. Okay. For the next couple of episodes, we are digging into the folklore love triangle. This is the most requested thing that I think we've ever been requested. I was kind of putting it off because I was worried that you would not find a ton in two of the three songs. And I think your first read through that's probably true. That is absolutely true. Yes. My first read through pretty dang disappointed. But then you spend some time. So why don't you just give us your like your top level thoughts on this? So initially I'm going to say shame on you for not trusting me people because she sends me these three songs. And you guys, I mean, I've been reading most of the comments and you guys have said, you want to see if I get the connection? Oh, it's obvious, right? You've got three poems, got three speakers, maybe three. There's possibility there only two, but probably three speakers. And yeah, it's a love triangle. And it's, it is the, you know, the now, the little bit later and the much later reminiscences of the love triangle. And I thought all that was pretty obvious. Yeah. When, when I read through Betty, I have to admit that here, here are my notes for Betty. And I got lots of notes, but initially all I did was right up in the top corner. James is a dork. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's about all I had on the first read through. However, I came to see that it is a, it is a much more complex, interwoven system of narrative. Okay. Okay. So I've talked about that right now. Do you want, yeah, sure. Why not? Okay. Okay. So I will, let me foreground this for you. And then we're going to, we're going to do the different poems and, and different episodes, I think, but yeah, you know, I mean, so I'm, how was reading through and I got, I read August and I have to admit all that was running through my head on the first read through of August was summer nights by Greece. Incredible. Okay. So I was just absolutely, yeah. That's like, this is the exact same theme. I mean, you guys, you're singing it in your head right now. I should tell the truth. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, summer, love and had me a blast. Summer, love and happened so fast. Met a girl crazy for me. Met a boy. Cute as can be. I know. Yeah. And, and they asked, you know, did he have a car and did you get busy down the sand kind of stuff? And it's like, oh, all this stuff is in that. Yeah. You're right. It's just a reworking of summer love. Yeah, that's hilarious. But, but no, it is, it is far more complicated than that. So, so you should ask me, but what makes it more complicated? Dr. Uncle Jerry, but what makes it more complicated? Dr. Uncle Jerry. Thank you for asking. It is this the unique fact that we have three narratives that that describe events in the same in the same in the same time frame, but disjunctured by time and and separated by point of view. So, I mean, this is such interesting stuff. I started running things off. There's so many papers. I know. Well, so years ago, I read this article and it's still it's still up. I mean, you can get it. It's called the the Rashomon effect where ethnographers disagree and the author is Carl Heider. It's from 1988. And it's really about ethnographic studies where you have different ethnographers going and look at isolated groups and they have different conclusions based on their own different perspectives. And that's what's happening in these three songs. We have what is called the Rashomon effect. OK, so what the heck is the Rashomon effect? Wait, can we can we pause for a sec? What's an ethnographer ethnographer? An ethnographer is someone who studies different ethnicities. OK, OK, that sounded too obvious to me. But OK, like there would be an isolated Aboriginal tribe in the Philippines and I want to go in and study them. And so I'm an ethnographer. I go in and I watch how they interact, how what, you know, what do they eat? How do they live? What are their daily habits? Kind of wish that was my job. It's it's pretty cool. Actually, I knew a guy who did that at the International Linguistic Institute. So yeah, that's cool. It's it's really cool. OK, so the Rashomon effect. The Rashomon effect is actually named after a movie by a caracorisawa. Oh, so current carisawa. Carisawa, one of my favorite filmmakers, carisawa made Seven Samurai, which is one of my favorite movies, and it's the movie that the movie, the magnificent seven with the old Brenner or the or the more modern one, the remake of the remake. Yeah, yeah, it's based on that. It's it's a story of seven samurai who go in and save a village. In Rashomon, you've got a murder and the story is told from four different perspectives. Right. And so and each person who tells the story has a different perspective based on their point of view, based on who they are, based on their character, based on their relationship with the murder or based on their interrelationship. And and what we have going on here are three different perspectives about a series of events. And the perspectives are very different. It is the Rashomon effect. OK. It is. In effect, there is there's a story that's, you know, thousands of years old. It's it's called The Blind Men and the Elephant. OK, no. OK, so it's it's in a lot of Indian literature. So in The Blind Men and the Elephant, you get these blind these blind men in a village are told, oh, there's an elephant in town and they say an elephant. Well, you know, obviously, they don't know what an elephant is. They'd never experienced an elephant, so they want to experience the elephant. And one of them walks up and grabs a hold of its tail and he says, oh, an elephant is like a snake. OK. And another one walks up and grabs a hold of its leg and says, no, an elephant is like a tree. And another one grabs a hold of its ear and says, no, it's like a giant leaf. And another one bumps into its side and says, no, an elephant is a wall. Oh, my gosh. OK. Yeah. It's the Raishamon effect. Yeah, I got you. I got you. You only have the the immediate perspectives as you are allowed as a human being. Yeah. And that's going to be true of all of our narratives in these songs. So what makes it so magical? Well, now what makes it really fascinating is, you know, is this Raishamon effect? Is this idea of so, you know, what's what penetrates and makes the Raishamon effect so fascinating is that it's an examination. It's an epistemological examination of truth. Totally. It was right on the tip of my tongue. It's a it's a if you want the word philosophical examination of truth. OK. You know, so, for example, the blind man who grabs a tail and says, an elephant is like a snake. Is he lying? No, because that's how he's. I don't want to say sees it. That's right. That's his truth. Yeah. That's his procedure. Getting into the truths again. This this doesn't. I love it. This doesn't work. I can't. Where's my hat? I got my hat back on. This is like Cassandra all over again. Yeah, everybody has their own truth. Everybody. Everybody's got their own truth. So, yeah, you know, the guy who grabs a leg and says, that is his truth. And so for for however the narrative goes, when we look at the three songs, you know, the narrator of August, that's going to be her truth. The narrator of Betty, that's going to be his truth. The narrator of Cardigan, that's going to be her truth. And although the three truths may not always interest, they may not always be parallel or adjacent, they nevertheless intersect. Kitty. A great story like Monsters, Inc. stays with you forever. And Disney Plus is where you'll find your next great story from the return of the award winning hit series, Rivals. Welcome to the naughtiest show on television to the unmissable crime drama, High Potential. Got a dead body. Got to go. A lifetime of great stories awaits. This spring on Disney Plus, 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Are your ad campaigns lighting up the dashboard? But not the pipeline. That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out in dashboard confessions. My boss asked for results. So we opened my dashboard for the only positive sounding metric I had. Impressions. Cut the bull spend. See revenue, not just reach. LinkedIn delivers the highest return on ad spend of major ad networks. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend 200 pounds on your first campaign and get a 200 pound credit. Go to LinkedIn.com. Slash lead terms and conditions apply. Yeah. Isn't that fun? Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, yeah, I think you could characterize this as an examination of truth via the Rai Shaman effect. OK, so I love this. You know, Taylor, are you doing this intentionally? Or is it something just falls down out of the sky because it's what happened? And she writes, I don't know. I don't know. We do need to get around and talk. Yeah, I know. This is like, I feel like an urgent need to ask questions. You know, the Rai Shaman effect. And do you like Carisawa? OK, other things that make it more than just your average run of poetry. You remember disnarration? Yes, I remember you talking about it. Yeah. Disnarration. So I'm going to read you a little statement and say because I was making notes. It's like a dramatic performance. And you hear it a lot in song lyrics because what they do is they establish a discourse structure, right? And and listeners, the person listening to the song overhears the the pretended conversation, the construction of events. And and we reconstruct the performer's meaning. But in songwriting, we only eavesdrop on the narrative. OK, yeah. So we're only invited to conceptualize the different roles and scenarios and events. OK. OK, so this narration can leave out parts of narration so it disrupts the narrative flow. So when you think about these three poems together, which is what ultimately came to do, you know, is it creates a kind of disnarrative because although we hear all three of them, we don't get every bit of information from any one of them. From all three. Yeah, OK. OK. Yeah. It is also nonlinear narrative. OK, yeah. Yeah. OK. Because it's not linear in time. There are time disjunctions. So with the first poem, August, and maybe this is too much right off the bat. No, it's OK. I think we're good. OK. OK. With the first poem, August, it's in the near future. So these two people apparently have a summer liaison in the month of August. And I think she is remembering it, although the pronoun isn't is explicit. Nevertheless, I think she is remembering it on a scale of a month or a season or maybe not quite a year later. Right. Yeah. OK. But in Betty, we have the dork. I mean, James. We have James remembering it. The immediate fall afterward. Right. Yeah. When they're back at school. But in Cardigan, we have the narrator remembering it probably years in the future. So we have three sets of memories, three sets of narratives. And there is a time disjuncture that creates a nonlinear narrative. OK. Yeah. That's what's cool. So cool. It is. I'm going to take a drink. You're already already exhausting yourself. So what what I came to when I started looking at them cumulatively is that there are a series of collective themes that all three share and supplement. OK. But we're not going to talk about that till then till the end. OK. Yeah. So so what you will hear me talk about are things like the, you know, the disnarration, the nonlinear narrative, the Rashomon effect, and then just who the narratives are, what the nature of their personal truth is and how they develop their own perspective. And in the middle of all that, I'll talk about them as poetry. You know, and honestly, if I had just read Betty or if I had just read August, I think that I I think they would have been just OK. I mean, Betty is is maybe not a great poem for me in isolation. Yeah. In tandem with the others. It fulfills a really important role. Yeah. So great. Yeah. You know, so I think that'll be fun. OK. All right. Ready. Yeah. OK. So let me let me just like give a little pre set this up a little bit. So we have three songs because I feel like right now, August and Betty are going to take precedent. This will there will be a part two of this. So come back next week, at least a part two, maybe more. We'll see how this goes. But I think we are just going to talk about them with the knowledge that we we know all three of them. We know all three of the stories we were there, but we'll just kind of do what we normally do starting out with August and Betty. And I did wear my cardigan for the very nice for the occasion. Felt right. And I just want to say that these three songs were written by and produced by Taylor, Jack and Aaron Dussner all together. Like there's different. So August was Taylor and Jack. Betty was no, sorry. Cardigan was Taylor and Aaron. And then Betty was all three of them, which is very fun. August is Jackie Antonoff's favorite song that her him and Taylor have ever worked together. Really? Well, we also have a lot to watch on these. So we will watch the lyric videos. Cardigan has an actual music video filmed in 2020. We're going to be here all day. Yeah. Yeah. And then there are areas to performances of all of them. And there's long pond performances of all of them. Oh, boy. So I have I've chosen what will what will watch. So we're not going to watch all three of all of them. But did you hear the irony in my voice when I said, oh, boy. Yeah. But yeah, so I guess like take it away. Also, this is a thing that I asked, like probably in October or November, I asked people like, hey, what order should we do this in? And everyone gave us different opinions, of course. And I threw all of those opinions out the window and just gave them to you in the order that I wanted to go, which I think was alphabetical order. Yeah, you gave me Betty. I'm sorry, August Betty and Cardigan. And yeah. And that is not the order that they're on in the album, like in the track list. But I just want to put that out there. Anyway, you take it away wherever you want to go next. OK. You know, OK, so let me just give you a little fore forewarning. At the end, I think I'd like to talk about the album. I mean, I'm wondering if because I do remember there, we've done a song from the album already. And I wonder how that interplays with this interwoven narrative. Yeah, I was actually I'm glad you said that because with these three, I think we're going to be halfway done with folklore. So I'm wondering if we should just stick it out or switch it up. So we'll get there. But yes. August. Now I've got them out of my own order. Oh, dear. August. Here she is. It's from the folklore album. And so, you know, of course, the title is August and it is a month of heat. It can it is a symbol of transition. It is named after the Roman Emperor Augustus. Yes. It is also sometimes seen as a month of love because it is typical of end of summer romance. Right. And so that's why I started hearing songs from Greece in my head. And and in fact, this is a end of summer romance. Yeah. Right. The the deal with August is time is running out. Right. You're all have. Yeah, you have to go to the next thing after August. Your other life or your other girlfriend or boyfriend. Or if you if you were going to make a move and hadn't yet, you're impelled to make the move now. Yeah. You know. So it's it's kind of fun that it's August. It's it's also from the folklore album. All three of these are from folklore, as you mentioned. And really, one of the questions that I ask is, is this folklore? OK. OK. Because folklore generally tends to be a collaboratively developed sequence of stories or story. OK. OK. So. The ballads of Robin Hood are folklore because they're developed over a period of hundreds of years by by many contributors, you know, and and that's not necessarily true for these. OK. Yeah. You know, I think what the way that it does qualify as folklore is because it's a it's this disjointed narrative, otherwise a split narrative. OK. Because it's a split narrative, because the story comes from multiple individuals, I think that you can credit it as a collaborative narrative because of the multiety of voices. So one on its own, not folklore. Probably three of them together. Three of them together creates folklore. Yeah. Yeah. It also creates a kind of of dramatic irony. OK. OK. So here's your, you know, your next big term for the day. Dramatic. There are different types of irony. OK. So verbal irony is when you say something, but mean the opposite. Like, I really like your sweater, Angela. Really? No, I really like your sweater, Angela. Right. So one is one is a statement and the other is irony. That's a verbal irony. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I made her feel uncomfortable. I'm like, oh, no, don't. And that was intentional. Cut the camera. She's my niece. Come on. So. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or listener knows more than the character or speaker in the text. OK. OK. Because once once you read August, you know that there was a summer romance. And then you go to Betty and you read James's narrative of the summer romance. And now I know more than the characters in the text. Yeah, because I know I know August's perspective and I am listening to James, but I know what happened. You know, and then you already have background information on what James is now saying. Yeah. So it creates dramatic irony. There is there is a dissonance between what, you know, all the information that I have and the lack of information. Sometimes the characters in the story. Yeah. Mm hmm. That's really fun. Yeah. OK, so I'm going to say yes, it's folklore. OK. OK. That's all I needed. So let's talk about the poem. OK. All right. And I'm sorry to have to stop so often and and give these, I don't know, elaborate explanations because I'm going to stop after the first two words. Of course. So the first two words, salt, air, comma. And I swear to you, I read the first two words and I said, oh, yeah, this is a Taylor Swift song. Yeah. Because she's got this thing where she likes to use a Saishura. OK, the break in the middle of a poetic line. It is it is endemic to our language. It is part of English that we use the Saishura, the break in the middle of poetic line. Everybody does it. And it goes all the way back to Anglo-Saxons. When Anglo-Saxons wrote poetry, they had three major literary devices. They had a literation. OK. OK, because Anglo-Saxons was not a heavily inflected language. It doesn't have a lot of vowels, so it can't rhyme like those beautiful romance languages, but we got a lot of. D's and T's and F's and G's. All right, we've got a lot of consonants. So we have a lot of alliteration. Secondly, we have what's called Kennings. A Kenning is kind of word riddle. So it's like it's a metaphor that's also a riddle. OK, so, for example, in the text of Beowulf, Beowulf says they got in their boat and they sailed and they went on the whale road. Oh, that's kind of fun. Yeah. So a whale road is the open sea. Yeah, right. And then they went up a swan road in the sky. Swan road is a is a river. Oh, a swan road. Right, because the swans are on the river and the whales are on the sea. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. And then they attack these people and they destroyed their mead benches. So they broke up their furniture. Where you sit and where you sit and drink. Yeah, drink your meat. Yeah, well, they're not breaking the furniture. They're killing the men. See, it's a little riddle. It's a metaphor and a real. Oh, my goodness. OK. Yeah. So so she uses metaphors a lot. She uses alliteration a lot. And the third big Anglo-Saxon element is the break in the middle of the line. And they they literally would separate the line, for example. And I've shown you this before. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You look at Bayle, you've got this big blank in the middle. So you're saying that Taylor is an Anglo-Saxon poet. And pretty much. You know, when when we get conquered by the French, we when the Anglo-Saxons, you know, when the when the Norman French come in, then they introduce rhyme and more greater rhythmic pattern. Anglo-Saxons had rhythm, but, you know, I got rhythm. You see it? No, I got. OK, never mind. Got too much to do here today. So. So, you know, the the French will introduce other poetic elements and modern English poetry blends them all together in this really nice package. But yeah, she uses the Saishira a lot and she phrases her songs this way. So I am telling you, I know how she's going to sing this opening verse. I will say that Uncle Derry called me like two days ago and said, I need to talk about this folklore situation. And he called and he said, OK, Betty in August, at first, it was not that impressed. I can already sing them. And then he started singing them without ever hearing the songs. Don't forget. And I was like, yeah, that's actually exactly how this. Yeah, I still haven't heard the song, but but I know how she's going to sing it. Yeah. Because she's going to say, solved air. And the rest on your door. I never needed anything more. Whisper. Oh. Are you sure? And then she's going to kick it up for the chorus a little bit, right? But but yeah, I mean, how many songs have I heard her sing now where she does that? You know, she takes the first, the first verbal elements, separates it from the second, throws a Saishira down in the middle and sings it that way. Yeah. Plus the word whispers in the third line gives me that kind of like she's going to sing this in a breathy whisper, right? So, yeah, it was not hard to figure out. So, yeah, it's and I wonder if that's part of her songwriting technique. You know, it feels like she writes the lyrics and then has people match music to it. Up next, it's bread flan, his new band. Oh, my God, I'm back again. On that back, you see, no, everybody's been going to bring new games in a show. You know, new game party. Find new dropping hits every week. Find the new slots on that back. You see tonight. 18 plus, the gambler, where at all? That's right. Yeah, or the other way around. There's already a track and then she just like writes her melody and lyrics over it, you know, which I think is the case. It might have been the case for some of these. I don't know. When we watch Long Pond, they'll talk about it a little bit more or three of them. But yeah, I think and I also think that she she cares as a musician, like she cares that we that we hear her stories more than I think she. Not I'm not saying she doesn't care about that. So how the song sounds, of course, she does. But like, I think she wants the lyrics to be the star rather than the music to be the star. Yes. Yeah. Yes. I was thinking about saying that, but I didn't want to offend our millions of fans. I'm already on a hot streak this weekend anyway, so I'll offend them away. Most I don't want to offend Angela. But, you know, having covered thirty three of her songs or so now, I do have to say that two or three or four of them are very similar musically. Yeah. And I will say I've been thinking about that. And I think part of that is a function of when the red album came out, the red was her fourth album. And it's I still think to this day it holds up. I love it still like it's still one of my top three out Taylor albums. And she did not win Album of the Year at the Grammys that year. And she I think she really thought she was going to. And then they told her that the the like all the critics were saying that the album wasn't sonically cohesive. So there was like too much variation in in track to track, because this is when she was still technically country, but she was like on her way to pop. So there was just a lot of different sounds on that album. And I think she then corrected that and said, well, on an album, they're all going to sound the same. Yeah, if it needs to be corrected. I mean, she's the artist. Right. Yeah. But I you know, and at that time she was like 21 years old, you know. So I think she's like, oh, all these people know what they're talking about. I'm going to go do that. You know, she didn't do it. The Grammy probably was jump up on the stage and grab a mic. She did not do that. You're correct. So, yes, I am going to say that this is very typical Taylor Swift rhythmic phrasing with the use of Saishura. First two words are salt air. Immediately you get that seaside image of Vacation Town sort of image. Yeah. And and she starts us off with a series of sensory images that are going to go all through the song. OK, yeah. You can see the sand. You can hear the ocean. You can smell the salt. Yeah. You know, feel it on your skin. Right. Just the first two words. Yeah. And it's it's very simple. It's very nice poetics. And I think that goes back to your point is I think she's more lyrically driven than she is musically driven, as you say, not that she doesn't care about the song as music. But that's why you brought me in. Yes, because she that's why I know I like I know this about her because she taught me to care about lyrics, you know. And like I I know she cares a great deal about like the messages and the stories that she's telling in the songs that she's singing, which is why I know that you would we could we could have something here. Honestly, it's why I'm interested. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Hang around. Yeah, he keeps keeps inviting me back. So we've already done the first two words. All right, we're cruising along. And the rust on your door. OK, because I am a steeped in Taylor Swift's lyrics, I immediately thought of champagne problems. Oh, right, because Midas touch on my Chevy door. Is that great? Yeah. And we've got I know it's crazy that I'm starting to put this together. Where will I be in a year? I've literally never made that connection. Really? Well, it's maybe it's because I have a limited. Yeah, maybe. But that's good, because that's ever more. That's these are these are sister sister albums. That's what I thought too. I thought, hmm, interesting. And I it is a little bit ambiguous. Like it feels like it ought to be a car because it's a teen romance as we see later. It could be a house door on a house, but I think it's a car. Also, we see cars in I didn't have time to list all the songs we've we've already seen cars so many. Right. Yeah. I never needed anything more. So we have an eye speaker. I think it's a she talking about this summer relationship. Whispers of are you sure? Never have I ever before. OK, so they're whispering. She's whispering. There are quotations. So a whisper implies a secret. It implies intimacy. So are they in the car? Is this like a backseat romance? Possibly, you know, she asks or he asks, are you sure? Are you sure about what? About about love, about me, about having sex? Yeah. Right. You know, any one of them or three of them. And then another one says, never have I ever before. So they are young, inexperienced. Yeah. You know, I don't think that. And of course, never have I ever before is a is a party game. Yes. Right. So. Never have I ever. Yeah, never have I ever. And, you know, the most popular questions to apply with that have to do with sexual performance. So. Teenagers, you know. What can you do? I do recall. Let's see later on, we'll see this. Maybe I'll bring it up then. When I was at a party as a teen, we played between the sheets. Have you ever done between the sheets? No. So you take a song and you add the phrase between the sheets. Like 16 candles between the sheets. Or, you know, I don't know, you just. Take Prince's song, kiss between the sheets. OK, OK. Yeah. If you are, if you're really an irreligious wag, then you open up a hymnal. Oh, and then you put it into the church. So you start looking at different church dogs, you know, can't come now, found of every blessing. You know, and you guys just play it, you know, just keep going. That's where I'm stopping. OK, so let's go back and look at the poetic elements again. Door, more sure before she's got very heavy rhyme scheme. And it's just a a a. Yeah. Right. So she's really hitting the rhyme. And I wondered why she did that. But then I looked at the nature of the rhyme, the or more sure before the sound is an elongated sound. And I, you know, I thought of it more as assonance, more as she's using the vowels in tandem with the alliterative ours, OK, to extend the sound, to stretch it out. That was another clue to me that this is going to be, you know, a slow, whispery, soft. Yeah. So the drawing it out, that that kind of makes it feel like you're a little bit like uncertain. You're in like, absolutely. Yeah. In uncharted territory, you know, like. Yeah. Are you sure? Yeah. So, you know, poetically, I love the first stanza. I was curious about the rhyme scheme. But then, like I said, I started thinking about its elongation of sound and thought, oh, that's that's actually really nice as a poet. So, you know, five stars, Taylor, the chorus. Yes. But I can see us lost in the memory. Oh, Lordy, there's memory. Your favorite. It really is. Yeah. There needs to be this comprehensive memory study. And she says, but I can see. So now she's using the present tense verb. So, you know, you can see in the second line, I never needed anything more is OK. Yeah. Right. But this is a reminiscence. It is a memory. Oh, yeah. Because she's looking back at those moments. She's looking back. So this is our first introduction to the nature of the split narrative. And it's also our first introduction to the Raishamon effect. OK. Right. Because now we're beginning to realize we're only going to get her perspective on these events and the perspective is slightly skewed because it's it's a few weeks or months afterward. It's also certainly dependent on her personality. It's dependent on her experience. It's dependent on the questions that are asked. Are you sure? Never have I ever. You know, so it's dependent on her inexperience. You know, the verb shift is really important there. Yeah. And for me, so fun. I keep saying it's fun, don't I? You know, when I first read these, they seemed so simple and. Academics love complicated. Yeah. Right. I mean, we've we finished simple when we got out of comic books. Yeah, yeah. And give you the meat. Right. Give me something more fun. What did you guys comment? And as a matter of fact, in your comments, you said that, you know, that you've you've started listening to songs and analyzing them rather than just like turning your head off and enjoying them. Yeah. And I've had students tell me the same thing. They say, well, do you ever read a book or go to a movie and just sit back and enjoy? And I try to explain, but the greatest joy I have is by turning my mind on by ramping the amplifier all the way up and catching it all. Right. Given the analysis. And so what makes it fun is is the complexity. She says August slipped away into a moment in time. So it's a memory and it's a memory that's past. OK, you can't recall old memories. You can't draw back old events. And I guess there's just this hint of a question which you want to, you know, which you want to draw back this moment of time. Because it was never mine. See, I just I love that. It's, you know, the the notion that the memory is gone. You know, note that the word it is ambiguous. Right. What's going? Yeah, like, is it the the moment is gone? August wasn't yours. The boy wasn't yours. The memory wasn't yours. Time wasn't yours. The the impetus of the event didn't really belong to you. You're manipulated. Yeah, what is the it, you know, and we academics love ambiguity. Take a drink. And I can see us twisted in bedsheets between the sheets. Yeah. And I think that this is both literal and metaphorical. Agreed. Right. So she's literally twisted in a bedsheet, you know, because apparently they had they they, in fact, have done it before. And or it's metaphorically that they are twisted up there intertwined. Yeah. And then I love the change of word. August sipped away like a bottle of wine. OK, so we go from slipped to sipped because, you know, you're drinking a bottle of wine. Yeah, so good. So fun. It is fun. And of course, like a bottle of wine is similarly, you know, why use the similarly for wine? Well, because it's the color of blood. It's it's tasty. It's an inebriant. It makes you relaxed. It makes you more pliant. I mean, there are a lot of reasons why wine would be here in this in the stanza. And then she says, because you were never mine. Yeah. So he changed from it was never mine to you were never mine. So now we know that the summer fling was just that and she has subsequently lost the guy. Back up and look at the rhyme scheme. Memory, time, mine, bedsheets, wine, mine. So time, mine, wine, mine. Yeah, yeah, kind of fun. And I I I is is a more pointed sound, you know, rather than the oars rather than the extension. OK, dreamy nature of whispered memories. Yeah. Yeah. So the poetics here are at a very high pace. OK. OK. First two. You're like this. Yeah, it's fun. I've been so nervous about these. You you're back beneath the sun. Guys, there's not exactly what this song sounds like. Well, shit. Right. I could write my name on it. And I like, again, the visual imagery is fun. It underscores the nature of the month. It's hot. His back is revealed. They're sunning. And I don't know if you've ever done this. Give it a try. It's fun. Someone wants it to me. Your aunt. You take sunscreen and you write something on the person. Is this literally what I picture every time I see this song? Every time I hear this song, I picture like either in the sunscreen, writing August or whatever in the sunscreen or door. Or whenever, you know, after you've been in the sun for a long time and you get burnt, then you can like trace on skin, you know, and you can like see what you've written because you're really red and it makes the red go away. That's what those are the two things I always wonder if she's talking about. Yeah, I mean, I think it's fun. You know, so either way, she's writing the name. It's, you know, like a tattoo written in sunscreen or traced across his burnt back. Tattoos. And we see a tattoo later on. Yeah, the songs are so nicely linked. We, of course, we get getting into the car later on. So which is the end of the first line with the rusted door. Yeah. Yeah. And of course, it's rusted because of the salt air. I didn't say that. But. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's I like the tattoo image. I like that she underscores the heat of the day. Will you call when you're back at school? I remember thinking I had you. You know, summer love and is temporary. Yeah. Yeah. Had me a blast, but it just doesn't last. Yeah. But so now now we're getting another. So she's remembering back. So there's more memory that she thought that he was hers, that he was hers, that it was hers. August was hers. Yes. Yeah. And so you see how we get how we play with memory here. Like he like she's remembering what she remembered at the time. Yeah. Yeah. We have layers of memory, which is pretty great for the song. And she talks about when you're when you're back at school, you know, I guess even then she must have been wondering what happens after. Yeah. Right. So and you have to, right? August is nearing its end. And the question is what happens at the end of August? So are we still going to stay in touch? Are we still going to be boyfriend or girlfriend? Or does it all just fray apart? And well, I think the. Rhythmically, you've got this very strong, you know, but you've got Iambic elements, your back beneath the sun. Wish and I could write my name on it. Will you call when you're back at school? Yeah. Yeah. And you'll see the same thing in the chorus, but I can see us lost in the memory. Lost in the memory tends to be more back tillic. But it's it's kind of the same as it runs through. And this is all the same, right? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly the same as the first one. And then we get the bridge. The very first word of the bridge is back, you know, and it's about memory. Yeah. Right. We're moving backward in time, back when we were still changing for the better. Wanting was enough for me. It was enough. You know, and so who's she talking to here? You know, is she talking? She's not talking to him. Well, I think she's talking to herself. You know, is she? Right? Yeah. And it's just in her head, like in her eyes. She's remembering. Yeah. Right. And she talks about when we were still changing for the better, when we're transitioning from youth to adult, from adolescence to a more mature life, which as my psychology friends tell me comes earlier for women. Yeah. Agreed. We'll get there with Betty. I don't know if James ever gets there. Wanting was enough. And of course, the word that we don't see here is having, right? Yeah. She wants him, but having is not. She doesn't have him. And in fact, she's not ready for marriage. She's not ready for commitment, right? Yeah. Because she's still changing for the better. Yeah. You know, for her, just living in that moment, just having these experiences is really what adolescence is about, which is interestingly a very mature analysis of these events. Sure is. Yeah. Isn't it? Yeah. And I want to say that, like, I feel the same about the way that Taylor is able to write songs, like going back to the red album again, you know, she has a song, like she has a song called 22 About Being 22. And it it's it's like a glitter gel pen song is not a serious song. But there's a lyric like we were happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time. And I just don't know that many people are able to take the moment that you're actually in and like memorialize it without the without having the perspective that comes later. And I just feel oh. Sorry, I think about this a lot because that is extremely well put. Yeah, I just I just it's just not a normal thing to be able to do. And I feel like Taylor does it so well, like she captures the actual moment. And I feel like that's what August is doing. Yes. Yes. And, you know, that's OK. So with the bridge, I really wondered if we had a second time shift. OK, OK. Because so she's describing events that occurred in August in that summer, but she's describing it sometime after and wondering if, you know, yeah, will you call when you're back at school? But then this feels like even later. It does, you're right. Yeah. And so that there is a secondary time shift in the poem. Yeah, well, she's a little older now and wiser. Yeah, yeah. Well, and she doesn't she doesn't disown the I don't even want to call it mistakes of the past. She doesn't disown her experiences of the past. You know, they are the experiences that make make us who we are. Right. And for whatever they are, you know, they give us hope that our lives are continuing to to progress. They're continuing to change for the better. And so the very next line to live for the hope of it all. Beautiful, right? It is. It's lovely. Yeah, I did when I was making my notes, I just circled the word hope. And I I didn't need to put a yeah, yeah, it's just, you know, you you live for the hope that as you progress through this life, you're getting better. Yeah, you're learning from the experiences, no matter how they felt in the moment. Yeah, the hope that things get better, that things work out, the things that are supposed to find you will find you. And I hope that you make those things work out, right? Yeah, yeah, the agency. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so, yeah. Cancel plans just in case you'd call. These are those little things you do just like sitting home waiting, drumming your fingers. Yeah, like where's the phone? Where's the phone call? Watching you rerun a Beverly Hill billy. And then you have to pause. I always have to pause and look at the poetics. Look at the nice alliteration with cancel case cause. Yeah, yeah, that's that's fun. You know, hoping that he calls and I feel like we're almost sliding back into the first time. Right. So the time is a little bit slippy. Yeah, she's yeah, she's this is this is this does feel like it's just the memory of canceling her plans. Right. Like she's she's looking at this from from the future. Right. Yeah. So she cancels plans and say, meet me behind the mall. OK, so here's a mall again. Wait, where was the light? Yeah, just in that mall. Yeah, in the 90s. You know, it feels like we're going to get in our car and meet behind the mall. Why behind the mall? Well, because it's clandestine, you know, they they want to be secretive. It's why she's whispering in line three. People are going to love that you just said clandestine. Oh, are they? Yeah, that's a lyric, a word and a song on folklore. Oh, is it? Yeah. A song called that I think you could tie to these three called Alicent affairs. Oh, OK. Yeah. Well, clandestine people. It's a good word. Also, I just want to say that maybe behind the mall, I think I've talked before about how she said she just has like notes and notes of fun lines that she likes, that she keeps, you know, hidden in like her notes up on her phone or something and that she'll pull out that she wants to use someday. And I think maybe behind the mall was one of those. Like she's like waiting for a place to use it, which is kind of fun. Yeah. So didn't we see a sign where she meets meet some beside or behind the church? Yeah, it is the damn season. She parked between the school and the Methodist, the Methodist and the school that used to be ours. Yeah. And what album is that on? Evermore. It's interesting. And it's a song about her in the present time, going back and reliving a past relationship. Sure is. Oh, no. Amazing. This is what I want to get to at the end. I'll be quiet now. OK. So much for summer love and saying us. So they're no longer together. No longer is no longer us. It's no longer we. You know, she loves pronoun play. I'm glad she does. It's very poignant to use it here. And again, you know, stop and look at the alliteration. So summer saying us. Yeah. Pause. Yeah, work, mind, lose. Yeah, all the S's, you know, kind of a lot of M's, too. Lots of M's. Assenance at the last line. You weren't mine to lose. No, you to lose. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think she never forgets her poetics. Yeah. It's nice. So summer passes. Summer love, you know, is gone and we don't say yes. No longer we. And and you weren't mine to lose. He apparently always belongs to someone else. And that's a realization she has had to come to. And we all come to that in Betty as well. Yes. And then the chorus is here. The chorus is the same. And then we get to the outro. Because you were never mine, never mine. So it's almost never mind. Right. So it's it's almost as though like she's lamenting that he was never hers. But this is past, so never mind. Interesting. That's that's fun. I like that. Yeah. But you can't you can't not mind. Right. Right. It's like saying, I'm not going to remember that anymore. Yeah. Yeah. That's not a thing that you can choose to do. Right. Yeah. That that this was always a lost cause and not remembering is a lost cause. But what she wants to know is does he remember? Right. Was it meaningful to him? Did he learn anything from the experience? Does he remember her at all? What does he remember about her? And now we're getting back into the Rashomon Effect or the split narration, you know, because we're going to hear narratives who are going to describe the same event. And we're we're it's it's incumbent on us, the listener, the reader, to analyze how how do the narratives differ and where do they overlap and how are they similar? And why? What is this reveal about the nature of their characters, about the nature of the events? You know, just a simple question, but do you remember? And it implies what do you remember? How do you remember? How you know, and by remembrance, how do you analyze it? Because she wants to stress the word, the very next word in the next line is remember. Mm hmm. Right. She wants him to remember. Like remember when I did this, right? You know what? That makes me think of all too well. Oh, does it? Yeah. Because the end it's like, I mean, the whole thing is like, it was rare. I was there. Like I was there. I remember it all too well. Like why don't you remember it the same way I remember it? Why don't you feel the same things that I'm feeling because I was there and I experienced all this and I know you were there too. Right. It's because we're just blind people feeling an elephant. Yeah, yeah. Don't go too far with that. But that is great. Yeah, it does sound like all too well. Right. Yeah. So she says remember and then she says remember again, remember when I pulled up and said, get in the car. Which I mean, when I really thought, yeah, baby, I want to when I was 17, I wanted a fourth right young woman. You feel like getting my car. You know, she wants to be remembered when we were extemporaneous. Remember when we were flying in the moment? Right. You know, can you can you be that in your adult life? Well, not always. You have to have a little restraint and and then canceled my plans just in case you called. So we're, you know, re-echoing that. And back when I was living for the hope of it all, for the hope of it all, meet me behind the ball. So she's like she starts almost rolling the song together as her memory goes over the events. Yeah. Yeah. Meet me behind the mall, get in the car, cancel my plans. Hope of it all. Meet me behind the mall, get in the car, cancel my plans, living for the hope, for the hope, for the hope, for the hope, for the hope of it all. Yeah. You know, and so, you know, via memory, you know, through the transcendent value of whatever memory is, she's trying to reassess this relationship, wondering what he thought of it and really wondering what she makes of it. Yeah. Like what what what was I doing? Like what what was I really feeling in that moment or something? Right. Yeah. Because I mean, I think that's an important point worth drawing out a little bit. You don't always know what your motivation is. Yeah. You know, you don't. It's not it's not purely carnal here. You know, you do wonder if she knew the other girl, if she wanted to possess the guy, if there are a lot of ifs that we don't know. And that's the nature of disnarration. Yeah, this leaves parts out. Right. It leaves parts out. The disnarrative element is we're not sure about all those peripheral things that would give us a better insight into the nature of her assessment of memory. That's what makes it fun. That's why it's tantalizing. So fun. And that's all I have to say about that. Oh, August, I will say that I think this is, I would say the most popular opinion is that August is the favorite of these three. Oh, OK. I don't know if that's the case for me. I think I might like cardigan better. But when I was talking to this about this with Chase last night, he said Betty is his favorite. And I said, of course, it was because it's a boy's point of view. Four words. Names is a door. But I mean, he's just a teenage boy. I know. Let's talk about it. Yeah. You know, I was 17 once and I do remember at all 17 year old boys are jerks. Yeah, we're all dorks. Yeah, I will own that. Yeah. OK, do you want to do you want to just go into Betty? Or do you want to listen to the song? Or do you want to talk more? Or like, what's the vibe? What do you feel like to listen to August? I need to see if I'm absolutely right about my about my phrasing of the soft air. OK, I think what we'll do then, I think we'll just watch the lyric video so you can hear it. And then when we're done, we'll watch all of the things like together. We'll watch the long pond and we'll watch the era's performance. OK, sounds great. OK. OK, then we're going to go listen to August and then we'll be right back with our thoughts if you are not on Patreon and you want to see Uncle Jerry's reactions to whether he's right or not. About what August sounds like. This the full reaction is on Patreon and otherwise we'll be right back. This is your latest project. It's heavy with information, data and exactly 36 pages of waffle. But with Acrobat Studio, you can create a PDF space, an AI powered workspace that turns documents into summaries and insights and even generates reports or presentations out of it. So you can cut through the waffle, work smarter and save time. Do that with Acrobat. Learn more and try it out on Adobe.com. It's funny because there are, you know, there I was saying that. That the song felt like some of the others that we had already read. And that's how I kind of understood where it was going to go lyrically. But but I like it. Yeah, it's it's it's more a beat. It's got a little bit more. I think that's that's why that's Jack's favorite, because it's like when we watch him later on Long Pond playing this, you know, he's the star of the show on that. Like he's like, oh, really? Like having a great time. And it's like it really is like fun to listen to like that. What it just kind of soars. And then it's, you know, it just kind of gets dreamy. And I don't know. I just love it. Well, it's fun because it's it is an adolescent memory. And, you know, you don't it wasn't awful. It wasn't evil. It wasn't, you know, it's just adolescence. It's what we learn from. It's how we move on. Yeah. So I did write down themes, OK, important themes in in August. And you told me that they refer to her by name. Yeah. So in Long Pond, we hear them talking about it. And Taylor says she likes to just call her August or Augustine. OK. Yeah. So we don't know her name. OK. Well, I'm I'm glad it's a female because one of the things I asked was, is it is the narrative? Oh, yeah, yeah. It's not explicitly the name is female. Yeah. Is it a female? Yeah. It's not explicitly the name is female. Is the interlocutor the person she's talking with male, you know. But, you know, themes, obviously the power of memory, you know, the memories never go away. They fade. They change. They become part of us. They guide us. But and we reassess them as we move through time, you know, which is an important element. The temporary joys are temporary joys. Enjoy the moment. Yeah. You know, gotta be present. Yeah. I don't think that she I didn't get the feeling throughout this poem that she necessarily wanted to upjour to remove herself from these memories. She wants she wants to know if he remembered, but she doesn't want to divorce herself from the memory or the experience. Yeah. Like it like it's not like a traumatic, like, break up, you know, one that hurts super bad. Like it's almost wistful and like longing maybe for like a simple summer, you know, but I mean, wistful is a really good word. Yeah. Just that that image of her like tracing a name across his back. You know, I mean, to me, that's kind of a lovely memory. Yeah, they're kind of sweet memories. Yeah. Yeah. And the lingering question for me is, did he remember and was the experience meaningful for him? I mean, I think that's an implied question. Yeah. In the, I mean, it's literally asked, you know, does he remember, but yeah, the implied question is, was the experience likewise meaningful for him? Did it build on his maturing character? And we don't know. Yeah. Because it's just narrative. Yeah. And we don't, and even in Betty, that's in the moment. So we don't, we don't get James's perspective later on that we might get from Betty and possibly August in parts of this. Right. And I did make a list of something else. I kept saying early on that this is very typically Taylor. So I made a list of typical Taylor. Okay. Typical Taylor. It's about memory. Okay. It has teen characters. Okay. It has Saishura inverses, strong rhyme and rhythm, liberal use of alliteration, assonance. It has really good sensory imagery, the smell, the sound of the salt, sea, the ocean, almost the seagulls, the rusty hinges, the sunscreen. The sunscreen. Yes. The taste of the wine, the touch on the back. You know, so you have all the senses are engaged and it has a car, wine, a mall, a bed and a whisper. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Right. All of which we've already seen. And there are no vampires. Oh man. Yeah. I know. No. You couldn't find any in there. Unless the sheets refer to ghosts. No. I saw no ghosts. Yeah. No phantoms, no ghosts. No ghosts, no vampires. What was atypical Taylor? Okay. I think I might have to start making a list. I was going to say like this makes me feel like you've, we've all learned so much here. Typical Taylor versus atypical Taylor. What is atypical Taylor in August is the lack of the modified cliche. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. We didn't see any of those. You're right. Yeah. And there are very few comparatives, metaphors and similes. Right. I mean, I think there's explicit simile, a couple of them. I think that there are statements that are metaphorical, but they're not directly stated metaphors. Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And the lack of the kind of complex verbal elements that I think reflects the teen narrative. Okay. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I think that we don't do the wordplay. She does sipping and slipping. Yeah. And that's kind of it. Yeah. But she doesn't do the wordplay involving the alteration of cliches or the advanced use of metaphorical comparatives because we have a teen narrative. Interesting. Yeah. I think, you know, that'll come as she changes for the better. Oh, I know. Oh, yeah. There you go. Beautiful. There's August. Okay. Yeah. Really fun. I keep saying that, but. I mean, I liked it as a poem initially and then as I kept going over and over and over it, especially compared with the others, even on its own stands is a really good poem. Yeah. Okay. Beautiful. So we're going to do grading and we're just going to grade August as a separate poem. Okay. As a standalone as a standalone. So because I kind of like to regrade all three of them as this cumulative trilogy, the folklore trilogy that gives us all these other rather more advanced ideas like the Rashman effect and split narratives and disneration and all of those things and how they interact. It's kind of, I mean, it's a little bit weird. It's like, it's like taking a trilogy like the Lord of the Rings and just doing one at a time. Yeah. But I mean, I guess you do want them to stand on their own without being a whole thing. Okay. Grade for August from folklore. First up is lyrical strength. Lyrical strength. Typical Taylor uses I sure have strong rhymes, strong rhythm, very appropriate use of all iteration, assonance 97. Okay. Narrative and structure. The time slip narrative that leaves us questioning. When is she thinking this? When is she remembering it? You know, advanced complex and I think looking at her reflection on the idea of movement from young adulthood to adulthood, all very interesting elements. So 98. Oh my goodness. Okay. Production and atmosphere. I like this song more than I thought I would. Yeah. I mean, at first I thought I'm so clever. I can practically sing it. Well, you did the first two lines. But it gets more fun. It gets more fun later on and I love the outro where she does this sort of rolling memory and she's just like four elements, you know, mall car and she rolls over them over over over. So I'm going to say it's a fun song 97. Okay. Lore and literary references. So not a lot of literary references here. Obviously. Yeah, I think if we go back and say, oh, she's a lot of imagery and things like that, but no specific allusions to other literary references, you know, but strong, strong writing. So I hate to give it less than a 90. Yeah. Okay. And then emotional impact. Although maybe I should. I should back that up. Okay. Yeah. Because it is, it is a a seaside salt side kind of reminiscence and it falls into that genre of so many, you know, works like the opening of Greece or like the movie, movies summer of 42 or things like that. So I think I'll give it a 92. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Emotional impact. Oh, it did make me think about being 17 and and, you know, being in a car and or twisted up being twisted up both literally and metaphorically emotionally. So 95. Okay. That gives us 96. Yeah. It's a good poem. Yeah. Fair. I like it. All right. Okay. We're going to save all the extra thoughts for later. Yes. But once we have all three done. Sure. We'll we'll knock all three out and then we'll do a few extra thoughts at the end of hard again. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So y'all know what's coming next week. Stay tuned. Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss it. You can subscribe everywhere. YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts, all the places where you get your podcasts. You can follow us on Instagram and Tiktok at Swifty and Scholar Pod. And then you can follow Uncle Jerry at Dr. Uncle Jerry. You can follow me at Angela Wyatt McDowell, both on Instagram. And we will see you next week for more Love Triangle Talk. I'm looking forward to it. This is fun. Okay. Bye.