Last year, M invited me to listen in on a Vienna, VA bookstore lecture via zoom, which was informative, fun and empowering. We took a tour of myths and legends of the sea, and the many, mostly feminine, creatures: selkies, sirens, Calypso, Circe, russalka, the Lorelai. We browsed a collection of lit on the topic, and then M and I made some connections with our favorite songs, T V series, movies and stories we never realized were assc. w/ oceanic folklore. It was fun discussing extraordinary feminine creatures that haunt history with tales of their suffering and vengeance, and also broadening my understanding of the world around me. While some of creatures are so fantastic, I feel they must be allegories or representations of universal truths, some of the contemporary historical-fiction novels present the argument for real-life legendary women of the sea: I still have to check out The Island of Sea Women, which tells the tale of a group of Korean divers from the WWII era to present. That's on my list for today. But, since we are a music blog and one of our favorite groups to support is Car Seat Headrest, I wanted to mention my thoughts on "Bodys" by Car Seat Headrest, because its a total, total favorite. Going to this lecture helped me remember a little thought that is in the back of my mind sometimes about "Twin Fantasy." Here are my two speculations for why "BODYS" is (artfully) misspelled on the Twin Fantasy album (which is ever so fun to discuss.) To me, the misspelling is a sticking point, and I'll repeat the title over and over in my head, trying to decide how it's meant to be pronounced. Sometimes, as it echoes up there, I light upon mythological sea creatures, and it is fun trying to validate my instinctive connection with the bare-all trials of love on the album. So my theories unfold: Why? 1. It's "awk..." like the kind of new, insecure sexuality this artist reflects on and revels in/despairs over/embraces/despises, it's "cringey" or self-aware. Our minds/mouths slow to a crawl and attempt to wrap ourselves around this funny-spelled word. We are trying something new and it's bending our minds. The artist appeals to our feelings of angst, and insists dancing really helps shake out the feels. I kind of favor this interpretation because it suits the subject matter of the song. 2. But I also want to glorify the song, and imagine it's actually very sleek and cool, and instead of struggling over the pronunciation, I pronounce it in a more sleek, glib and sexy way, like "bodice." Bodys. And when I do that, and think, well, being awkward was part of my grand plan all along, I am suddenly transported to another place altogether -- the Classical mythical battle of man vs. the sea in Scylla and Charybdis! Am I making a stretch? (I don't care, I'm just having fun.) Our songwriter insists lovers are actually going into each others' mouths, being eaten when they embrace each other! There is imagination saturated in mythos, transporting me to the past, painting the drama of relationships with numb, distance, and with help from Homer and Odysseus. The concepts fill me with wonder and endearment. Erring lovers, for we are deeply predisposed to love, become embattled in a crazy vortex of force comparable to like, the awesome musical power of the second half of the "Twin Fantasy" album! The intro to this album makes a perverse comment on the functions of mythology, folklore, legends on society: that they are cautionary tales that don't work. I kind of agree that no matter how much we've read or learned, "hindsight is 2020," and it's easy to be taken as unawares as Odysseus, in situations every bit as emotionally tumultuous as a pair of giant, neighboring whirlpools. The ancients saw it coming You can see that they tried to warn them In the tales that they told their children But they fell out of their heads in the morning (Beach Life-In Death) What happened to him/ the speaker? Simplest explanation? "He got eaten." One of my takeaways from the folklore lecture was learning to appreciate the origins of myths and legends and lore, appreciating the stories for what they belie about their cultures of origin, and dwelling for a moment on what role lore and legends play in society? Why do they come about? What need to they meet and in what manner do they meet it? How do they work? Who is the intended audience?
I like imagining that this song, facing up to death and asking us to give the opposite, to dance! is so much fun, and literally, "epic." Appealing to a common memory of our parents and grandparents reminds me that generational relationships are how we keep stories, traditions alive. It's from them that we learn to be humans!
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AuthorWe are Kieran and Michelle, two 32-year-old William & Mary grads living in Virginia. Archives
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