someone tell me if this is so ridiculous it's actually great or so ridiculous it goes full circle back around to the other side of being overthinky cringe.
so, like. the odyssey but make it mclennon. basically.
where paul is odysseus and john is penelope. and george is telemachus??? maybe??
ok but wait! it makes sense! (sort of.) like, paul's out there, being a sort of great swimmer and climber of things and touring having bizarre adventures (with some side flings). hanging out at a remote farm thing for a while as he gets his feet back under him. but mostly he is just keen on getting back with / to john. and john is, like. essentially househusband-ing his time away, fending off suitors/advisors — because then you can fit in not only cyn and yoko and may (who i don't think "canonically" you can fairly argue are anywhere close to the destructiveness / "threat" of the suitors in the odyssey) but also the maharishi and magic alex and klein and, idk, janov even. the attraction to hard drugs itself as a means of escapism and a fix to his problems. like, all the ways / the people john sought help / insight from, due to his need to make sense of his life and himself. jann wenner. dick james and lew grade. aunt mimi! she can also be in that bunch of People Who Influence John. but all the time, deep down, he just wants paul back.
angry bitter depression gremlin in new york. folding himself up to sit weirdly in chairs. fiddling with his marriage cloak unfinished demos. watching his life and the beatles' legacy become ugly and intolerant and falsified bc of the leeching "suitors" (or, you know. john """watching""" this happen. and/or in reality actively contributing to it bc he is an aforementioned angry bitter depression gremlin bc paul hasn't returned). but also constantly seeking reassurance from his tarot guy / oracle to tell him, nah man, you're totally right, keep deluding yourself believing; paul definitely still loves you and wants you and is going to divorce linda is coming back soon.
paul is (not) dead!!! rumours and all that.
and then you have george who has been with them since he was a kid, uncertain in his own abilities, and going on his own self-growth adventure to gain much needed confidence and independence, coming into his own as a person. frustrated with and hurt by and resentful of paul, and feeling betrayed by john (but still loyal to him). suspicious and disdainful of the people john surrounds himself with that take away from their "family" that is the four of them.
really you can just get all sorts of fun parallels to john's insistence that they all still love each other actually, and paul's struggles to reconnect with john, and that whole homeric romance concept of "we share one mind".
granted, i don't think john would be too great at devising public "tests" that prove paul is paul. at least not how it goes in the original poem. at least not in a way that convinces anyone besides john. but it's also not like john didn't love a good "prove you love me" game. i also can't see paul doing the whole "now let's slaughter everyone" bits. but, look, i've not read the odyssey beyond the abridged, for-kids version like 30 years ago (*pauses to stare off into the distance at the size of that number for a minute*) so maybe there's something there and i just need to brush up on my lore.
but yeah! 1970s mclennon odyssey au.
why is this the idea that popped into my head rather than just like. write them being cute in liverpool / hamburg / early touring days insanity. pls someone either feed this or take this away from me or gently tell me to put down tumblr.
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