Fiction, Reality, and The Beautiful South
Nicolas Cage in Adaptation
I’m preparing to send out a newsletter about (among other things) something called Reader-Response Criticism, i.e. looking at a book and subsequent analysis of it through the lens of — surprise! — readers. (If you’d like to subscribe, head over here.)
I’m really intrigued by “the role of the reader,” but on the flipside, I’m also very intrigued by how “real life” infiltrates fiction — or not. I’ve been revisiting some favorite music from high school lately, and the song Song for Whoever by The Beautiful South and its cynical take on, yes, the music industry but also on artists who do things in order to infuse these events into their art, has been on repeat lately. Where’s the line between *drawing on* experience and regurgitating it back to the masses?
Here are the lyrics to Song for Whoever, which chronicles a song writer and the women he woos so that he can write about them. (Yes, it’s terrible, but it’s also a very chipper melody. That’s sort of their MO á la The Smiths.) Happy Thursday…?
“I love you from the bottom, of my pencil case
I love you in the songs, I write and sing
Love you because, you put me in my rightful place
And I love the PRS cheques, that you bring
Cheap, never cheap
I'll sing you songs till you're asleep
When you've gone upstairs I'll creep
And write it all down, down, down, down
Oh Shirley, oh Deborah, oh Julie, oh Jane
I wrote so many songs about you
I forget your name, I forget your name
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I forget your name
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I forget your name
I love you from the bottom of my pencil case
I love the way you never ask me why
I love to write about each wrinkle on your face
And I love you 'till my fountain pen runs dry
Deep so deep, the number one I hope to reap
Depends upon the tears you weep, so cry, lovey cry, cry, cry, cry
Oh Cathy, oh Alison, oh Phillipa, oh Sue
You made me so much money, I wrote this song for you
I wrote this song for you…”
originally published on instagram