Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself; I am large - I contain multitudes.

— Walt Whitman song of myself

Contrast these two different treatments of people quoting a phrase from Walt Whitman's "song of myself" --

Lana Del Ray criticised for literary references

In Del Rey’s Twitter bio, there is a quote: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself; I am large - I contain multitudes.” That’s a Walt Whitman line that’s become such a platitude—who earnestly quotes Whitman in 2019 other than TV parodies of pretentious literary men

— Lana Del Rey Says She Never Had a Persona. Really? - The Atlantic

Ah... seems a bit harsh to me -- does this author go on to attempt any more character assassination for the heinous crime of (checks notes) quoting the greats? -- how about this snippet?

But maybe the hackneyed nature of Del Rey’s reference points—as Powers wrote, “no shout-out to Sylvia Plath can feel new, not since about 1981”—is not knowing after all. Maybe Del Rey has no interest in cliché as cliché. Maybe she wants to remove the meta-meaning and get back to the meaning. She just wants to say that she contains multitudes.

Wait, what?

Is this a serious quote from something a human seriously put down, and an editor let it slip by?

Does adding more context reduce the stench from this foul turd of a phrase?

And its lyrics, as always with Del Rey, similarly recombine references, not to make them fresh, exactly — no shout-out to Sylvia Plath can feel new, not since about 1981 – but to put them in our faces as old friends, old adversaries.

That kinda made if worse.

What if we add more context?

This is in the WAMU revieew of "Norman Fucking Rockwell!" -- an amazing record -- let me tell you how amazing.

It came out the same day as a much anticipated TOOL album.

I was mesmerised by how good this TOOL album was.

But NRF!? This, this became the record that dominated my ear experience for the next six months.

Absolutely shatteringly, achingly, beautiful album.

Here is a little more context for the WAMU reviewoo.

Many people have called NFR! a 1970s throwback, but its songs barely dip into that era’s experimental sounds, instead touching down in the baroque-pop 1960, the cyborg 1980s and the G-Funk 1990s without distinguishing between its reference points. And its lyrics, as always with Del Rey, similarly recombine references, not to make them fresh, exactly — no shout-out to Sylvia Plath can feel new, not since about 1981 – but to put them in our faces as old friends, old adversaries."

We inhabit separate spheres.

Lana Del Rey wasn't alive in 1981. When Lana's earthly form finally arrived among us, in 1985, was she supposed to somehow just osmotically obtain the wisdom that it would be hackneyed to ever once, in her entire life, quote Sylvia Plath, or Walt Whitman, or Bob Dylan? How very dare she mention Led Zeppelin's houses of the holy with her sacriligeous lady mouth.

I wonder if old white men are judged as harshly as young women? (I wonder if Del Rey has written some powerful songs on this very topic?)

I mean -- it was hackneyed in 2019 to go around quoting Walt Whitman, so hackneyed that it could only be done if you have have no sense of irony. The greats, as one example, would never do such a thing. I mean Bob Dylan, who in 2016 won the Nobel Prize in Literature, would never do such a thing!

Oh wait.

"I Contain Multitudes" is a song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, the opening track on his 39th studio album, Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020).

— I Contain Multitudes - Wikipedia

Four years later, Bob Dylan puts out a song "I contain multitudes". Of course -- we can expect it to be universally panned, since quoting Whitman was proven hackneyed four years earlier.

The "critical reception" section of that article states:

• "a kind of literary folk 'My Way', a porch chair portrait of a life fully lived", [in which Dylan] "peels away the details of his journey with the grace and conciliation of a master making his peace"
• "a list of sometimes funny (we often forget that Dylan is funny) and preposterous brags of the singer's power and prowess that evoke the blues""
• "paean to unassailable self-knowledge [that] is sung like a man at peace with every detail"
• "Actress/singer Rita Wilson included the song on a Spotify playlist of her favorite romantic Bob Dylan songs when promoting her 2020 single 'I Wanna Kiss Bob Dylan'"

Note that Dylan wasn't always so revered. From "the Zimmerman letters" (reveal about his birth name and exposing the many fictions he's told reporters in the early 1960s...) to the heavy panning of his spiritual awakening in the 70s, he was criticised harshly right through the 1980s -- finally, a near death experience around 1997 -- had the critical mass change their key, and begin to worship him as a sacred relic.

I wonder if we live in a world where such could ever happen to Del Rey?

External sources

• Lana Del Rey Says She Never Had a Persona. Really? - The Atlantic
• Wikipedia: I Contain Multitudes
• Wikipedia: Zimmermann Telegram (this is very different to the Zimmerman letter)
• Lana Del Rey Lives In America's Messy Subconscious | WAMU

See also

• On Recognizing Assertiveness.