The Manuscript
- The Manuscript / Red (Eras Tour, Liverpool)
- Long Live / New Year's Day / The Manuscript (Eras Tour, Vancouver)
“But the story isn't mine anymore”
“But the story isn't mine anymore”
“Dart boards on the backs of their doors”
“And the slow dance was alight with the sparks”
“Afterwards she only ate kids' cereal and couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed”
the manuscript
“Now and then I reread the manuscript, but the story isn't mine anymore”
Uncle Jerry reads the crumpled-up piece of paper in All Too Well as an early draft of the image The Manuscript returns to years later, the speaker rereading a story that, as its closing line has it, isn't hers anymore.
death of the author
“the story isn't mine anymore”
Angela connects The Black Dog to The Manuscript's closing the story isn't mine anymore, hearing in TTPD's final song the Barthesian idea that a work, once finished, slips its author's grip.