We're not what we appear to be

"We couldn't resist it just because of the way it looked. She'd caught these two beetles f*king, and then the significance hit us. We saw that pun, yeah, thought why not?" (1997) "It was just a funny shot," Paul protests. "To me, they were just a couple of insects." (2010) "Linda took a photograph of two beetles copulating. Of course, this got totally misconstrued, because for us it was just an amazing wildlife picture. Linda just took it as a photo and we liked it, so we put it in." (2021)

Now, most of the fandom and mainstream media believe that this "symbolized how McCartney felt the other Beatles were treating him." But if that was the case, then why deny that it was intentional? Why? What would be the harm in admitting that? And why backpedal from an obvious pun that he openly admitted in 1997? If the meaning was harmless — band turmoil, diss tracks, Apple drama — Paul would have no reason to pretend it was “just insects.” He’s talked openly about Beatles conflict for decades.

But his evasiveness makes sense if A)  It carried a meaning he didn’t want people to think too hard about. B) A meaning deeply tied to John, not “the Beatles.” C) A meaning that today’s audience is much more aware of and attentive to. In 1997, before mainstream discussion about John and Paul’s emotional dynamic existed, Paul could be more casual: “Yeah, we saw the pun.”

And always keep in mind that Paul once said this:

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Thank you, anon!

I do not have the imagination to make that shit up, lol. Paul, from a July 2001 interview:

“Everyone thought John was the hard, working class hero. As you know, if you look at his house, he was actually the middle class one, from Woolton. We were the scruffs. He had the full Works Of Winston Churchill: nobody any of us knew had that. A set of encyclopedias was the most that anyone in our class had. But he had The Works Of Winston Churchill, and he’d read 'em, I think.”

(Arguably they were Mimi’s complete Works of Winston Churchill, but anyway. And I believe John himself claimed he’d read them by the time he was 10 or 11, but I can’t find a citation for that right now.)

Even as the most famous men on the planet, the Beatles were generally flattened down to all being of the same (working) class, or even just “British”/”English” outside of the UK. However, they themselves were of course acutely aware of the various nuances of difference between their social classes and early home lives - funnily enough, the usual members’ name order of John Paul George and Ringo matches up with their approximate class ranking - and that’s very interesting to me.

This nice set of books too pricey for the rest of them that John had had the opportunity to read at home, mentioned right alongside the more obvious class markers of the better house and street address, was a memorable detail to me, and has clearly stuck in Paul’s sieve of a brain also. (Maybe it was John mentioning Churchill’s name during the group wanking.)

For this fic,I sort of cross-pollinated this with Paul’s very interesting contributions to the BBC’s Arena documentary from 1998 on Brian Epstein. (I’m sure he’s barely thought about John and Brian in Spain never even crosses his mind.)

And this Paul quote on class and attraction, which seems painfully obvious to me (re. his romantic and sexual attraction to John. (Same as Jane, and Robert Fraser, and Brian, and Linda, and Nancy, and...)):

“John’s family was rather sort of middle-class - there was a lot of his appeal to me. I still am attracted to… hum, that type of person.  [...] And John had relatives up in Edinburgh, and one of them was a dentist and somebody worked in the BBC! After all, now, come on! None of us knew people like that! So I was kind of attracted to that!”

“So he gave me a tree as a present. It's a big fir tree, and it's by my gate. As I was leaving my house this morning [December 11], I get out of the car, close the gate and look up at the tree and say, 'Hi, George. ‘“—Business Insider

“John used to go on and on about George. About what a nice boy he was and how I’d like him. He went to great lengths to impress me with George. ‘Give you anything, George’, he’d say.” -John’s  Aunt Mimi

“I was going to Boston because my daughter had a brain tumor, and I said, ‘I’ve got to go to Boston.’ And he said, ‘Do you want me to come with you?’ Those were the last words I heard him say.” —Living in the Material World

“There were moments when it felt like we were the only two people in the world. The love we had was real and beautiful.” —Wonderful Tonight

“George and I shared a connection that went beyond words. It was a quiet understanding, a deep love that didn’t need to be spoken.”

— “Concert for George”

“It’s impossible to not feel his presence every day. The things he taught me, the way he lived, it’s all still here. I carry that love with me wherever I go.”

— People Magazine

 “Like a film flashing by, everything comes to my mind since I met him more than 30 years ago. His childlike quality, his shy but naughty little smile, his passion for all the music he loved and the serious quest for religion“—George Harrison: Behind the locked door

“George was a good friend of mine, a true friend. He had a lot of love in him, and it was always a joy to be around him. I miss him deeply.”

— Rolling Stone (2001)