{"id":407,"date":"2022-05-01T22:11:21","date_gmt":"2022-05-01T22:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/?page_id=407"},"modified":"2022-05-01T22:16:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T22:16:51","slug":"trevor-otis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/trevor-otis\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Viola\u2019s Playlist: Songs for When Your World\u2019s Been Turned Upside Down&#8221; (Trevor Otis)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"407\" class=\"elementor elementor-407\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-9dfb4e5 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"9dfb4e5\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-1dec8a6\" data-id=\"1dec8a6\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a44d284 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a44d284\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: Viola\u2019s Playlist: Songs for When Your World\u2019s Been Turned Upside Down\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"380\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/4BzE1PBH4UDqPvfutHKAQc?si=73cf8dea352c4345&utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-a8b8793 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"a8b8793\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-bdaecb0\" data-id=\"bdaecb0\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8c49213 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8c49213\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>1. \u201cWith your ghost underneath the boat<br>What was you is now burnt bones<br>And I cannot be at home<br>I&#8217;m running, grief flailing\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Viola\u2019s grief over Sebastian\u2019s apparent death is not emphasized at all in the original play, it seems a sacrifice in service of getting to the comedy more efficiently. The film, on the other hand, does take more time to dramatize their relationship and Viola\u2019s feelings after he appears to have drowned. In either case, it seems likely that regardless if it\u2019s shown, Viola must be facing some feelings of grief and difficulty at moving past her loss. A Crow Looked At Me is an album that really expresses the emotional difficulty of moving past the loss of a loved one. Phil Elverum, recording under the moniker Mount Eerie, wrote the album in the aftermath of the death of his wife to cancer, and it is a heartbreakingly intimate encapsulation of his grief and struggle to move forward. Even though it\u2019s not really in the text, I feel like this song really captures some of the emotions Viola would have been feeling having just presumably lost her twin brother. I\u2019m not wholly sure about including this song because it feels tonally out of sync with the rest of the playlist as well as the play itself. Was Viola really haunted by memories of her brother as the narrator is in the song? Even if she is resolutely holding on to the idea that her brother might be alive, it doesn\u2019t ring emotionally true to me for her to not grieve in the slightest. Regardless, I feel this is song that would resonate with her at least a little bit.<\/p>\n<p>2. \u201cGirls who are boys who like boys to be girls<br>Who do boys like they&#8217;re girls, who do girls like they&#8217;re boys<br>Always should be someone you really love\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I included Boy and Girls largely for its chorus, which I believe succinctly captures the atmosphere of frivolity and the complex layers of deception and attraction that characterize much of the play. This song first sprang to mind in relation to Twelfth Night when I acted out a scene (Olivia and Viola\u2019s first meeting) at the Shakespeare Tavern. In that scene, I was a boy pretending to be a girl who is pretending to be a boy talking to a boy pretending to be a girl who found themselves attracted to a boy who was actually a girl. All I could think of while I was playing the scene was this song. So it seemed a really appropriate song for both the play as a whole and Viola specifically. I also love how unjudgmental the song is about the sort of gender bending free for all it describes, as it says that it\u2019s all okay, so long as long as it\u2019s with someone you really love, which Viola I think would 100% agree with.<\/p>\n<p>3. You could be me and I could be you<br>Always the same and never the same<br>Day by day, life after life<br>Without my legs or my hair<br>Without my genes or my blood<br>With no name and with no type of story<br>Where do I live?<br>Tell me, where do I exist?<br>We&#8217;re just<\/p>\n<p>[Chorus]<br>Im-ma-ma-material, immaterial<br>Immaterial boys, immaterial girls <\/p>\n<p>One of the main themes of SOPHIE\u2019s work, especially on this album, is the mutability of identity, especially with regards to gender. This song in particular, captures a feeling of joy and euphoria at the limitless possibilities that come with disregarding strict limits on identity and gender, and embracing the possibilities that come with the recognition of our freedom to be anything we want. These themes I think connect well to Viola\u2019s decision to embrace a male identity. Her decision to do this doesn\u2019t have any apparent plot motivation, but I imagine Viola taking a page from this song and, having found a place where no one knows her &#8211; she takes the opportunity to reinvent herself. In doing so, she plays with the bounds of gender identity, much like SOPHIE does in this song. She has, effectively, \u201cno name\u201d and \u201cno type of story\u201d and as a result can be anything she wants. SOPHIE revels in this freedom, and I believe Viola does as well.<\/p>\n<p>4.&nbsp;<span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">White noise, what an awful sound<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">Fumbling by Rogue River<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">Feel my feet above the ground<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">Hand of God, deliver me<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Oh, oh woe-oh-woah is me<br>The first time that you touched me<br>Oh, will wonders ever cease?<br>Blessed be the mystery of love<\/p>\n<p>How much sorrow can I take?<br>Blackbird on my shoulder<br>And what difference does it make<br>When this love is over?<br>Shall I sleep within your bed<br>River of unhappiness<br>Hold your hands upon my head<br>Till I breathe my last breath<\/p>\n<p>Mystery of Love is a song that beautifully encapsulates simultaneously both the heady rush of a new love, and the pain that comes when that love is not returned. This is an emotional state that I believe would resonate with Viola as she dealt with the incredibly emotionally difficult situation she finds herself in, in which she is in love with Orsino, and at the same time wooing another woman on his behalf. You can hear this in the lyrics, the beautiful subtle guitar line that runs through the piece, the gorgeous piano, and Sufjan\u2019s delicate, whispery vocals.<\/p>\n<p>5.&nbsp;<span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">\u201cO love as long as love you can,<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">O love as long as love you may,<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">The time will come, the time will come<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">When you will stand at the grave and mourn!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Be sure that your heart burns,<br>And holds and keeps love<br>As long as another heart beats warmly<br>With its love for you\u201d <br>\u201cO lieb, so lang du lieben kannst\u201d \u2013 Ferdinand Freiligrath&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This gorgeous piece by Liszt is entirely instrumental, but it was inspired by a poem, which I have quoted above, and which gives insight into Liszt\u2019s intention in writing it. The piece to me has always expressed a deep passionate love, and the poem it is originally based upon expresses a similar sentiment. Liebestraume translates to something like \u201cLove\u2019s Dream.\u201d It\u2019s a passionate, moving, stunningly beautiful piece that builds to a powerful emotional climax, and I think Viola would find solace in it while ruminating on her impossible love for Orsino. It is also a song I could easily imagine Orsino resonating with, it could very well be what he\u2019s listening to as he delivers his \u201cIf music be the food of love\u201d monologue. But while Viola would perhaps better understand the sort of deep, unconditional love that\u2019s described in the original poem, Orsino might also find within it a reflection of his own, much more superficial, melancholic lovesickness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe pined in thought,<br>And with a green and yellow melancholy<br>She sat like Patience on a monument,<br>Smiling at grief. Was not this love indeed?<br>We men may say more, swear more, but indeed<br>Our shows are more than will; for still we prove<br>Much in our vows but little in our love\u201d (2.5.124-130). <\/p>\n<p>Viola lays out her idea of what love should be in this passage, which to me perfectly aligns with the vision of love expressed in Liszt\u2019s piece. In particular the phrase \u201csmiling at grief\u201d is a perfect description of the emotional state Liebestraume expresses in its exquisite melancholy. When I listen to this song I feel this same emotion, of loving someone who cannot love you in return, but with a passion so deep that you do not care. Crucially, in this passage, she is explaining this to Orsino, who does not seem to understand, and so just as they have differing interpretations of what love should be, I feel they would have different relationships to this piece.<\/p>\n<p>6. [Verse 2]<br>The drunken politician leaps<br>Upon the street where mothers weep<br>And the saviors who are fast asleep, they wait for you<br>And I wait for them to interrupt<br>Me drinking from my broken cup<br>And ask me to<br>Open up the gate for you<br>[Chorus]<br>I want you, I want you<br>Yes I want you, so bad<br>Honey, I want you <\/p>\n<p>One of the aspects of I Want You that makes it such a compelling and beguiling song is the contrast between the lyrical content of the verses as opposed to the chorus. The verses are typical 60s Dylan: oblique, surreal, and populated by a menagerie of strange characters, including the \u201cDrunken Politician\u201d \u201cThe Queen of Spades\u201d and the \u201cGuilty Undertaker.\u201d But out of these strange verses comes a plain spoken, straight forward, desperate declaration of love that rings pure and true. This contrast, to me, perfectly captures Viola\u2019s affections for Orsino. In the midst of all of the play\u2019s foolery, strange characters, switched identities, and misperceptions, Viola holds a deep and abiding love for Orsino. A love he clearly does not deserve in the slightest, but that\u2019s another story. Her feelings stand in contrast to the fickle and fanciful affections of the other characters in the play such as Olivia and Orsino, who switch their loves as easily as they change their clothes. Like Dylan\u2019s chorus, Viola expresses a conception of love that cuts through the nonsense and expresses something real and true.<\/p>\n<p>7.&nbsp;<span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">Every time I think of you<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">I feel shot right through with a bolt of blue<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">It&#8217;s no problem of mine, but it&#8217;s a problem I find<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">Livin&#8217; a life that I can&#8217;t leave behind<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">There&#8217;s no sense in telling me<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">The wisdom of the fool won&#8217;t set you free<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">But that&#8217;s the way that it goes and it&#8217;s what nobody knows<br><\/span><span style=\"text-indent: 0em;text-align: inherit\">Well, every day my confusion grows<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Every time I see you falling<br>I get down on my knees and pray<br>I&#8217;m waiting for that final moment<br>You say the words that I can&#8217;t say<\/p>\n<p>This song finds its narrator, much like Viola, stuck in a bizarre love triangle. In particular the line \u201cthe wisdom of the fool wont set you free\u201d as particularly apropos to Twelfth Night. It\u2019s a song that captures the confusing emotions and frustrations Viola experiences as she navigates the situation in which she finds herself. She finds herself desperately confused and waiting for that final moment in which time will untangle the knot she herself cannot untie. Additionally, the scene in which Orsino\u2019s talks about Cesario\u2019s beauty seems aptly summed up by \u201cYou say the words I can\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1. \u201cWith your ghost underneath the boatWhat was you is now burnt bonesAnd I cannot be at homeI&#8217;m running, grief flailing\u201d Viola\u2019s grief over Sebastian\u2019s &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6346,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-407","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6346"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":415,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/407\/revisions\/415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/higinbothamlitmixtapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}