6: “Opalite” — all that glitters is not . . . opal?

On the surface, “Opalite” sparkles — a feel-good, danceable love song about moving on and finding happiness. But when you look closer, both musically and lyrically, the shimmer seems to be only skin deep. The happiness she’s portraying is not entirely real — it’s manufactured, just like opalite itself.

In this episode, we dive into chapter three of the showgirl’s story and uncover a tension between the joyful chorus and the unresolved verses that mirrors the lyrics’ emotional undercurrent. What does it mean when your “sky is Opalite”? This image captures the tension between manufactured happiness and authentic emotion and reveals a sense of resignation lurking behind her casual exuberance. 

Listen in as we unpack another unreliable narrator, the distinction between opal and opalite, and the nuances of this song's most revealing lines.

Plus, writing prompts for memoir and fiction!

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Transcript

1:18

Welcome to Lit one 12, the Life of a Showgirl where we treat Taylor Swift's latest album like a novel, I'm your host, Mara Eller, a literature and writing teacher with 16 years of experience at the high school and college level. I just retired to focus on editing and book coaching, but when I started getting requests for this series on social media, I couldn't resist. Whether you're a veteran swifty or just an AP lit nerd like me who happens to like her music, all are welcome here. I've even got something for you. Writers, creative prompts inspired by the subject of each lesson. You can find them at the end of the episodes. So grab your metaphorical notebook and let's unpack this record together, chapter by chapter, song by song. Today's lesson is about"Opalite," chapter three. The song opens like a dream you've heard before, a shimmer of nostalgia that calls us back to the 1970s. You can hear shades of Fleetwood Mac's"Dreams" in the opening bars, a hint of Abba's disco gloss, even a touch of early Beatles' charm, and definitely a clear nod to the Ronnettes in the chorus. It's retro, but still fresh and incredibly danceable. And yet there's no resolution in the verses musically. So again, there's this discomfort she's playing with. The chorus feels so happy, but the verses leave us a little unsettled as do the lyrics if we read closely. Like Elizabeth Taylor, this song mentions lovers. It's explicitly about romantic love, but there's a clear difference in tone. While track two was minor key, full of longing and sadness, this one is much lighter. It's a groove, a bop as it were. It makes us wanna dance and sing along. There's a new maturity in her voice and lyrics as well. A sense that she's come to terms with the struggle that felt so painful in the previous song. She's older and wiser now, though probably still in her early twenties, And she has a bit more perspective. We get a sense of that perspective in the first line where she's looking back at how she used to be. The song begins, I had a bad habit of missing lover's past. My brother used to call it eating out of the trash. it's never gonna last. She answers the question asked in the last song. Is it forever? Nope. when the relationship passes its expiration date, as it inevitably will, it's time to throw it into garbage and move on. Interesting to note here too, that each verse has five lines rather than the typical four, a little like how"Ophelia" had five bars instead of four. Might contribute to that sense of unsettledness that I mentioned. The song continues. I thought my house was haunted. I used to live with ghosts. She used to be haunted by the ghosts of her former lovers asking her what if, what if, what if we had done something differently? Could this have been better? Why didn't it work out? But she's not haunted anymore. And all the perfect couples said, when you know, you know, and when you don't, you don't. Know what? Maybe know someone is the one? So if you don't know, then it's a no. If you're unsure, it's a no. It's time to let go. It's move on. Pre-chorus: and all of the foes and all of the friends have seen it before, they'll see it again. It gives us this sense that everyone's watching people who take her side and people who villainize her for her love life. They've seen her in and out of relationships many times already, and she expects they'll see many more to come, which means she's not expecting to find lasting love at this point. She's resigned to the fate of cycling through lovers. She's made her peace with it. Life is a song. It ends when it ends. That's such an interesting line. Life is a song. It's a pretty thought, but then it ends when it ends, so nothing really matters. It seems like she's saying, don't take it too seriously. It's all just a performance, a good one or a bad one, and you can't really control when it ends. And maybe you can't control that much in the middle either. Then she sings, I was wrong. This line is a bit of a conundrum. What was she wrong about? It could be interpreted many ways, but my instinct is that she's referring to her fixation in the previous song with wanting something to be forever. This song is all about loosening your grip and making the most of what you have, knowing nothing lasts forever. Then we come to the chorus. But my mama told me it's all right. You were dancing through the lightning strikes, sleepless in the Onyx night, but now the sky is opalite. I read this as encouragement from her mother who is maybe comforting her after yet another breakup. It's all right. You've done incredibly well dancing through all the storms of life that have tried to strike you down. You've lost so much sleep over all of this, but better times are here. It's a reference to the sleepless nights she dreamed of in the fate of Ophelia, only those weren't so dreamy. Onyx is a gemstone that's mostly black, but has bands of white, maybe like lightning in a dark sky. Opalite is manmade opal. You may have heard that opalite is Travis's birthstone, but the October birthstone is actually opal, not opalite. A distinction will unpack later in this episode. for now, what I want you to notice is that Opalite is light in color. a milky white with iridescent blue purple or pink tints to it. So we have this classic imagery of night and day, dark and light, also dark and sort of rainbow. Symbolizing hard or sad times versus fun, easy, happy times. I'll take a moment here to address the accusation that there's racism embedded in these choices. According to many people I respect, this really is a stretch given that dark and light have been used symbolically for eons to represent good and bad, sad and happy, Yes, they have been used about race in very problematic ways as well, but that doesn't mean that every time they're used, it's talking about race. Plus these stones, onyx, and Opalite are not actually simply black and white. onyx is black and white, and Opalite is actually more of a rainbow. So there's nothing else in the song to indicate any kind of race-based reading, therefore, I reject that interpretation. What's more relevant is that Opalite is a manmade substitute for the true gemstone opal. What does it mean that her skies are Opalite, not opal or diamonds? indicates that the happiness she's experiencing is manmade, something she's created for herself, perhaps, which is good. Happiness is a choice, right? But there's also a motif of it being fake or not entirely genuine. Is Opalite as good as opal? She seems to be convincing herself here that it is. The chorus continues with the Ronnettes style oh, oh oh oh. A clear showgirl nod here. the first time I heard that, I thought it was actually ha ha ha ha. Because it's kind of like, ha ha, ha ha. Like she was laughing, but it's a very bo sort of theatrical laughter. When you read the lyrics, it's clear that it's oh, oh, oh. But still, I think it's an interesting thing to consider. Either way there's a sense of falseness or performativeness there that I don't think is accidental. The chorus continues, oh my Lord. Never made no one like you before. You had to make your own sunshine, but now the sky's opalite. This is still her mother talking to her. Same first chorus. She's saying you're unique, you're special. You have had to work so hard to make your own sunshine, your own happiness. But now the sky is Opalite. Wait though. If Opalite is manmade, then is that actually different? She used to have to make her own sunshine, but now the sky is still manmade? Or now the sky is Opalite? Does that maybe mean it was made by a man like a man, man, like her new lover? Possibly. We might be tempted to think, yes, this is Travis who is a man making her truly happy at last. And sure, that's certainly a layer of this song, But in the context of the album as a larger narrative, this is still only chapter three. We're not even halfway through. She has not met her forever night stand yet. And in fact, verse two I think makes that really clear. You couldn't understand it, why you felt alone. You were in it for real. She was on her phone. And you were just a pose. At this point, it seems like she's probably talking to her current lover who is perhaps recovering from his own breakup. Maybe his previous lover was only half present using him as arm candy, something to help her strike a good pose, all about appearances with no substance behind it. She continues and don't we try to love, love, we give it all we got. Such a great line. We try to love, love to invest in it fully to enjoy it, but it begs the question, why do we have to try? As Elizabeth Taylor knew, if you were head over heels in love with someone, you do not have to try to love them or to love, love. You finally left the table and what a simple thought. You're starving till you're not. Leaving the table represents leaving the relationship, but might also make us lit 112 students think of fames, a fickle food leaving the banquet. That doesn't actually satisfy. You're starving till you're not. You are desperate for something until suddenly you're disinterested. You've had your fill or maybe your tastes change. The simple thought part gives a sense of acceptance of that's just how life is, and at least now you realize it. The use of you here implies this goes for not only the person she's talking to, but also maybe everyone, the universal you. Then we come to the pre-chorus, and all of the foes and all of the friends have messed up before they'll mess up again. Life is a song. It ends when it ends. You move on. It's slightly different from the first time. Everyone messes up. You just have to move on. And that's when I told you Now the chorus is her singing to her lover, cheering him up with the words her mother previously offered to her. It's all right. You were dancing through the lightning strikes, sleepless in the Onyx night, but now the sky is Opalite. Never met no one like you before, you had to make your own sunshine, but now the sky is Opalite. Then we come to the bridge, which has this soaring melody drifting over the beat, a sense of peace, but also detachment. This is just a storm inside a teacup. This is the British version of a tempest in a teapot, the American version. It means a big fuss about a trivial or unimportant matter. Much ado about nothing to throw in a Shakespeare reference. It also continues the storm metaphor from dancing and the lightning strikes. She continues. But shelter here with me my love, thunder like a drum. This life will beat you up, up, up, up. It's rough out there. There's no way around it. But take shelter here with me while you wait for it to pass. Don't bother with all those things because you can't change them. So just come hang out with me probably in my bed and try to forget about it all. This is just a temporary speed bump, but failure brings you freedom. Another great line. How could failure bring freedom? Maybe failing in the previous relationship brings freedom from that toxic dynamic. How else might failure bring freedom? Maybe Once the worst has happened, your what ifs have answers. And I can bring you love the music here, particularly the drum line is extremely similar to that in the Beatles song Twist and Shout. it builds until she says, don't you sweat it, baby. And it's back into the chorus. Don't sweat it. Stop worrying. Just enjoy the present. Just let me love you and stop worrying about the past or the future. I always picture Stevie Nicks in this song, partly because of the Fleetwood Mac sound, but also because my understanding of her was that she lived this kind of take life as it comes lifestyle. Lots of lovers, always partying. She was driven to become a famous singer and made it happen, but only by making her art the most important thing in her life, which meant everyone else was secondary. I see the showgirl here trying to embrace the life she has, to accept the transience she fought against in the previous track. Nothing is forever and that's okay. Just have fun while it lasts. There's a maturity here, but also a resignation. It's not gonna get better than this, so just make the most of what you have. She offers this advice to her new lover, but also to herself. And I get the sense she doesn't always feel quite so satisfied as she tries to convince us that she does in this song. Also, think about what's still missing in this song. She's talking to her mom and her lover, but where are her friends? She still doesn't seem to have any real friends. Not the kind she can talk to. There's still a sense of haunting loneliness. Only now she's accepted it as the way life is. She's accepted that nothing is forever, not even. Diamonds, maybe she's settling for Opalite, not even opal Natural, genuine opal offers a play of color making it very different visually. The way light defract through it creates flashes of rainbow colors that shift and change with movement. It's sometimes called a living fire, and no two opals are ever identical Opalite, on the other hand, is mass produced glass. Where Opal requires millions of years to form and is relatively rare opalite is the cheap product of industrial manufacturing, and while Opalite has a pleasant, milky blue or golden glow and held to light, it lacks that dynamic play of color found in natural opal. The appearance is uniform and static with a simple opalescent sheen rather than the living fire of genuine opal. Its glow is pretty, but flat, static beauty without depth, a smooth illusion instead of something alive. Especially since fire is often used to represent romantic passion, both in literature generally and by Taylor Swift specifically, I think that's an important element to notice here. Opalite has no fire, no spark. It's pretty, but kind of boring. The contrast between Opalite and genuine opal captures the tension between manufactured happiness and authentic emotion and reveals a sense of resignation lurking behind her casual exuberance. The happiness. she's found isn't organic, it's crafted, it's a performance, at least in part it's resignation masquerading as peace. Our showgirl may be having a little more fun than she was in the previous chapter, but she's far from fulfilled. Instead, she's performing happiness, both for herself and for her lovers, And of course for the public too. She's living the dream and from afar it looks ideal, but look closer and it's flat, bland, lifeless, repetitive. Just like the verses that go back and forth between two chords, never resolving into the home chord of the G major key. I get the sense that she's lost, but pretending that she knows what she's doing, She is pretending that she has it all together and desperately hoping that if she pretends hard enough, she'll convince herself too. Now as an individual song, the interpretation is much more positive In that light, you can definitely see it as being about Taylor's relationship with Travis, about finding each other after other failed relationships. There are a couple lines that I mentioned here that I think are still a little bit problematic for that interpretation, but most of it works pretty well. Taylor said during an interview with Hits Radio that"Opalite is a song about forgiving yourself for having gone through something that didn't pan out the way you wanted it to. It's giving yourself permission to not have it all figured out or to not marry the first person you ever dated." She continued. When we go through something that doesn't work out, we oftentimes look at it as this major setback, but I've found that so many of those instances in my life can catapult you forward in growth and wisdom and perspective." that part is, I think, applicable for both interpretations of the song as a love story about finding Travis And as chapter three in the larger narrative where the showgirl is coming out of a really dark time after the initial excitement of success has faded, and she's just had her heart broken several times, and now she's tougher, wiser, but maybe a little jaded too. And in the next song, her toughness gets put to the test. So that's it for today's lesson. But before I go, let me give you your writing prompts for memoir, think about a time when you went through a breakup. What did people say to you to try to help you feel better? What have you learned through your failures, either in relationships or in other ways? How has failure brought you freedom? Pick one example and try to tell the story of how you thought about your life before the failure, and what you learned through that failure. What is the wisdom that it has provided you? And if you're a fiction writer, put your character in a post breakup scene Have someone comfort them and write out what they might say. Experiment with the option of that failure in the relationship, actually leading them into freedom and trying to communicate that possibility to this hurting character. Let me know how this lands for you. I'd love to hear your thoughts, your interpretations. I would definitely love to hear if you try the writing prompts, how they go for you. and until next time, keep an open mind, turn the music up loud, and have fun. That's it for today's class. if you're loving these deep dives. Make sure to follow the podcast or come join the discussion on social media. My links are in the show notes. I'd love to hear your questions, comments, and insights. class is always about bringing you into the conversation, helping you to do your own thinking and come to your own conclusions, so I'd love to see you involved. Until next time, class dismissed.