WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. So usually when 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.419 we start one of these, I am sitting here behind 00:00:05.419 --> 00:00:08.640 like a fortress of paper. Right. A mountain. 00:00:08.759 --> 00:00:11.380 A mountain. Exactly. I've got stacks of articles, 00:00:11.560 --> 00:00:15.500 maybe a few heavy hardback biographies, some 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:18.120 academic journals printed in, you know, font 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:21.100 size six. We usually measure our prep in pounds 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:23.280 of paper. That is the standard operating procedure. 00:00:23.579 --> 00:00:26.929 But today. But today is different. I am looking 00:00:26.929 --> 00:00:29.929 at a single sheet of paper. Well, not even paper. 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:33.030 Not even paper. You're right. It's a single URL, 00:00:33.289 --> 00:00:35.109 a web page. And honestly, if you saw it on my 00:00:35.109 --> 00:00:36.909 screen right now, you would probably just you'd 00:00:36.909 --> 00:00:38.229 close the tab. You'd think it was a mistake. 00:00:38.469 --> 00:00:40.490 It doesn't look like much. I'll admit it's stark. 00:00:41.000 --> 00:00:43.799 It's very functional. We are looking at a Wikipedia 00:00:43.799 --> 00:00:47.520 disambiguation page, specifically the disambiguation 00:00:47.520 --> 00:00:50.039 page for the name Yves Saint Laurent. Agrees. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:51.960 Now, before you roll your eyes and check your 00:00:51.960 --> 00:00:53.539 podcast feed to see if you clicked the wrong 00:00:53.539 --> 00:00:56.179 show, stick with me. Because we are going to 00:00:56.179 --> 00:00:59.659 argue that this simple list of blee links is 00:00:59.659 --> 00:01:02.140 actually a map. It is a map. And more than that, 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:05.180 I'd say it's a forensic crime scene of identity. 00:01:05.540 --> 00:01:08.879 A crime scene? Wow, that's a heavy opener. Okay, 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.200 maybe autopsy is a better word. Look, most people 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:14.439 think of a disambiguation page as just a nuisance, 00:01:14.579 --> 00:01:16.519 right? Sure. You type in a name, you hit enter, 00:01:16.620 --> 00:01:18.280 and instead of the article you want, you get 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.719 this traffic cop. You get a list that says, stop, 00:01:20.920 --> 00:01:22.780 which one did you mean? Right, it's the internet 00:01:22.780 --> 00:01:24.780 just asking for clarification. Did you mean the 00:01:24.780 --> 00:01:28.620 guy? Yeah. The store? The movie? Exactly. But 00:01:28.620 --> 00:01:31.819 you have to ask why that page exists. It only 00:01:31.819 --> 00:01:35.659 exists when a single name has fractured. It's 00:01:35.659 --> 00:01:37.879 there because a human identity has become so 00:01:37.879 --> 00:01:43.019 large, so unwieldy and multifaceted that a single 00:01:43.019 --> 00:01:45.620 biography just can't contain it anymore. Okay. 00:01:45.700 --> 00:01:48.340 I see. If I search for John Doe and he's just 00:01:48.340 --> 00:01:50.780 a guy who lived and died, I go to his page. That's 00:01:50.780 --> 00:01:52.640 the end of the story. But Yves Saint Laurent. 00:01:53.390 --> 00:01:55.829 That name has exploded. So our mission today 00:01:55.829 --> 00:01:58.049 is to analyze that explosion. We are going to 00:01:58.049 --> 00:02:01.109 treat this disambiguation page like it's, I don't 00:02:01.109 --> 00:02:03.170 know, a piece of ancient scripture. Yes. We're 00:02:03.170 --> 00:02:05.510 going to read the metadata, the syntax, the dates, 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:08.069 the categories, all of it. We are going to see 00:02:08.069 --> 00:02:11.250 how a man becomes a brand, how a brand becomes 00:02:11.250 --> 00:02:14.030 a legend, and how that legend eventually, you 00:02:14.030 --> 00:02:17.039 know. fractures into a simple list of links. 00:02:17.219 --> 00:02:19.020 And we actually have a lot to cover, even though 00:02:19.020 --> 00:02:21.599 the text itself is incredibly short. We have 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:23.680 a biological human, a corporate institution, 00:02:24.099 --> 00:02:27.620 a cinematic battle. And a physical monument. 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:30.120 The four pillars of a modern legacy, really. 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.960 Okay, so let's pull up the source material. Section 00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:36.659 one, the overview. The page is just titled Yves 00:02:36.659 --> 00:02:39.219 Saint Laurent, and it immediately divides the 00:02:39.219 --> 00:02:42.080 world into four buckets. Designer, fashion house, 00:02:42.219 --> 00:02:45.129 film, and museum. And you have to just pause 00:02:45.129 --> 00:02:47.710 on that hierarchy for a second, that order. That 00:02:47.710 --> 00:02:49.430 can't be an accident. I think it's intentional. 00:02:49.729 --> 00:02:51.629 Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It traces a trajectory. 00:02:51.650 --> 00:02:53.990 You start with the designer, the creator. Then 00:02:53.990 --> 00:02:55.849 you move to the fashion house, the creation itself. 00:02:56.030 --> 00:02:58.469 Okay. Then the film, which is a reflection of 00:02:58.469 --> 00:03:01.650 the story. And finally, the museum, the monument. 00:03:01.849 --> 00:03:04.430 It's almost a perfect life cycle of fame. It's 00:03:04.430 --> 00:03:06.930 chronological in a way. The man has to come first. 00:03:07.129 --> 00:03:09.509 He has to. Without the biology, you don't get 00:03:09.509 --> 00:03:12.310 the commerce. It all starts there. So let's look 00:03:12.310 --> 00:03:15.530 at the biology. Section one, the man versus the 00:03:15.530 --> 00:03:19.129 house. Let's read the text verbatim. Okay. The 00:03:19.129 --> 00:03:21.310 very first entry on the list, I'm going to read 00:03:21.310 --> 00:03:24.330 it exactly as it appears here. Yves Saint Laurent, 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:28.669 designer, 1936 -2008, French fashion designer. 00:03:29.150 --> 00:03:31.430 So much is packed into that one little line. 00:03:31.569 --> 00:03:33.729 Yeah. Let's start with the parentheses, 1936 00:03:33.729 --> 00:03:36.110 -2008. It's the first thing your eye hits, the 00:03:36.110 --> 00:03:39.150 dates. That is the boundary of the human experience. 00:03:39.889 --> 00:03:43.639 72 years. It's a finite container. It tells us 00:03:43.639 --> 00:03:46.159 that there was a biological organism that began 00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:49.500 respiration in 1936. And ceased respiration in 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:52.319 2008. Exactly. It's stark. It is stark when you 00:03:52.319 --> 00:03:54.340 see it written down like that. It implies a closed 00:03:54.340 --> 00:03:57.460 loop. The story started. The story ended. Full 00:03:57.460 --> 00:03:59.500 stop. And look at the label the source assigns 00:03:59.500 --> 00:04:01.319 to that closed loop. French fashion designer. 00:04:01.620 --> 00:04:04.159 Right. That is his function. That's his economic 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:06.530 utility in the world. If this were a normal person, 00:04:06.629 --> 00:04:08.250 that would be the end of it, right? You live, 00:04:08.449 --> 00:04:10.550 you do a job, you die. But then your eye drifts 00:04:10.550 --> 00:04:12.650 down, what, literally one millimeter on the screen. 00:04:12.770 --> 00:04:16.529 Yeah. The second entry. And this. This is where 00:04:16.529 --> 00:04:19.189 the split happens. This is where the ghost leaves 00:04:19.189 --> 00:04:21.930 the body. Entry number two. Yves Saint Laurent. 00:04:22.389 --> 00:04:24.569 Fashion house. Notice the difference in the title. 00:04:24.790 --> 00:04:28.269 The first one is designer. The second is fashion 00:04:28.269 --> 00:04:30.509 house. The name is identical. The letters are 00:04:30.509 --> 00:04:32.629 exactly the same. But the entity is completely, 00:04:32.750 --> 00:04:34.250 completely different. And the description for 00:04:34.250 --> 00:04:37.649 this one reads. A luxury fashion house founded 00:04:37.649 --> 00:04:40.529 in 1961 by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, 00:04:40.730 --> 00:04:42.670 Pierre Bourget. Okay, let's go back to the dates 00:04:42.670 --> 00:04:47.629 again. The man, 1936 to 2008. The house, founded 00:04:47.629 --> 00:04:50.769 in 1961. And does the house have an end date 00:04:50.769 --> 00:04:53.509 listed? It does not. It is open -ended. It's 00:04:53.509 --> 00:04:55.810 still going. So we have a finite human life. 00:04:55.949 --> 00:04:58.410 And inside of that life, specifically at the 00:04:58.410 --> 00:05:01.170 age of, what, 25, he spawned something infinite. 00:05:01.449 --> 00:05:03.189 Let's just dwell on that age for a moment. 25, 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:05.790 do the math. Born in 36, founded the house in 00:05:05.790 --> 00:05:08.709 61. That is just wild to think about. I'm trying 00:05:08.709 --> 00:05:10.810 to picture myself at 25. I think I was struggling 00:05:10.810 --> 00:05:13.290 to figure out how to, like, file my own taxes. 00:05:13.649 --> 00:05:15.709 I definitely wasn't founding a global empire. 00:05:16.089 --> 00:05:19.209 Well, context matters here, too. The source calls 00:05:19.209 --> 00:05:23.009 it a luxury fashion house. Now, Wikipedia editors, 00:05:23.290 --> 00:05:26.069 they are notoriously pedantic. They don't use 00:05:26.069 --> 00:05:28.269 adjectives lightly. They didn't say clothing 00:05:28.269 --> 00:05:31.110 shop. They didn't say apparel company. They chose 00:05:31.110 --> 00:05:33.189 the words luxury fashion house. And what's the 00:05:33.189 --> 00:05:35.449 implication of that specific phrasing, do you 00:05:35.449 --> 00:05:39.089 think? Luxury implies high stakes. It implies 00:05:39.089 --> 00:05:43.810 exclusivity, a certain status, and house, or 00:05:43.810 --> 00:05:45.910 maison in the French tradition, that implies 00:05:45.910 --> 00:05:48.699 an institution. Okay. An institution. A structure 00:05:48.699 --> 00:05:50.740 that is designed to outlast its inhabitants. 00:05:51.060 --> 00:05:54.100 A shop opens and closes. A house is built to 00:05:54.100 --> 00:05:56.860 stand for generations. And he built this foundation 00:05:56.860 --> 00:05:59.360 at 25 years old. And it's still standing. The 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:02.860 man died in 2008, but the 1961 entry is still 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:05.000 present tense. It's alive. It's more than just 00:06:05.000 --> 00:06:07.120 standing. I would argue it has. Yeah. It has 00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:09.540 consumed the man. If you stop a random person 00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:11.339 on the street today, let's say a 19 -year -old, 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:13.920 and you say the words Yves Saint Laurent, what 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:16.259 image pops into their head? The handbag. The 00:06:16.259 --> 00:06:19.720 logo. Maybe a bottle of cologne. Exactly. They 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:22.339 are thinking of the entity in line two. They 00:06:22.339 --> 00:06:25.120 aren't thinking of the man in line one. The house 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:28.160 has eclipsed the designer. The creation has become 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:31.720 larger and, well, more durable than the creator. 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:34.279 I noticed another little detail in that second 00:06:34.279 --> 00:06:36.240 line that I want to pick at. The what? The mention 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:38.829 of the partner. Pierre Berger. Yes. Right. In 00:06:38.829 --> 00:06:40.949 the first entry, the one about the man, it just 00:06:40.949 --> 00:06:42.709 says Yves Saint Laurent. He stands alone. But 00:06:42.709 --> 00:06:44.449 in the second entry, the one for the fashion 00:06:44.449 --> 00:06:48.230 house, it explicitly says founded by Yves Saint 00:06:48.230 --> 00:06:50.850 Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berger. It is 00:06:50.850 --> 00:06:53.350 a crucial distinction. The source material is 00:06:53.350 --> 00:06:55.589 being incredibly precise about giving credit. 00:06:55.829 --> 00:06:58.589 Why, though? Why list him there? Usually these 00:06:58.589 --> 00:07:00.750 disambiguation pages are trying to be as brief 00:07:00.750 --> 00:07:03.389 as possible. Why include the co -founder? Because 00:07:03.389 --> 00:07:06.589 the fashion house is a distinct legal and operational 00:07:06.589 --> 00:07:09.949 entity. You can be a genius designer in isolation. 00:07:10.230 --> 00:07:12.149 You can sit and draw sketches in your bedroom. 00:07:12.290 --> 00:07:15.129 But you cannot build a luxury fashion house alone. 00:07:15.310 --> 00:07:17.769 That requires structure. It requires business 00:07:17.769 --> 00:07:21.209 acumen. It requires a second pillar. So the text 00:07:21.209 --> 00:07:23.709 is acknowledging that the institution from 1961 00:07:23.709 --> 00:07:27.189 is a partnership, even if the legend from 1936 00:07:27.189 --> 00:07:30.110 is a solo act. Precisely. Pierre Bergé wasn't 00:07:30.110 --> 00:07:32.810 the designer. He wasn't making the dresses. But 00:07:32.810 --> 00:07:35.230 he was the architect of the house. I see. He 00:07:35.230 --> 00:07:37.290 was the one who ensured that the structure would 00:07:37.290 --> 00:07:40.689 survive. And the fact that the source lists him 00:07:40.689 --> 00:07:43.290 creates a separation between the art and the 00:07:43.290 --> 00:07:45.709 business. The art was Yves. The business was 00:07:45.709 --> 00:07:48.160 Yves and Pierre. It almost makes the house feel 00:07:48.160 --> 00:07:50.779 like a machine. Like, the man provided the fuel, 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:53.339 the creative genius, but these two guys built 00:07:53.339 --> 00:07:55.959 an engine that was designed to run forever. And 00:07:55.959 --> 00:07:58.920 that engine did not stop in 2008. That's the 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:02.139 key takeaway. When the man died, the parenthesis 00:08:02.139 --> 00:08:05.019 closed on line one, 2008. But line two just kept 00:08:05.019 --> 00:08:06.959 scrolling. The house didn't attend the funeral. 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:08.879 Or rather, it attended, and then it went right 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:10.620 back to work the next morning. It's kind of a 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:12.720 dark thought, isn't it? The idea that you create 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:15.000 something that eventually renders you, personally, 00:08:15.300 --> 00:08:18.459 unnecessary. It is the ultimate goal of a legacy 00:08:18.459 --> 00:08:21.980 brand. You want to become unnecessary. If the 00:08:21.980 --> 00:08:24.639 business dies when you die, you haven't built 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:26.620 a brand. You've just had a very successful career. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:28.980 That's a great distinction. Yves Saint Laurent 00:08:28.980 --> 00:08:31.180 built a brand. He made himself replaceable by 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:33.120 his own name. So we have the man and we have 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:36.080 the house. But the source text doesn't stop there. 00:08:36.480 --> 00:08:39.100 It moves from the boardrooms of Paris to the 00:08:39.100 --> 00:08:42.360 red carpets of Hollywood. Section two, the cinematic 00:08:42.360 --> 00:08:44.889 mirror. This part of the list genuinely confused 00:08:44.889 --> 00:08:46.529 me when I first looked at it. I had to read it 00:08:46.529 --> 00:08:48.490 twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things. It 00:08:48.490 --> 00:08:50.409 is a statistical anomaly. It really is. Okay, 00:08:50.429 --> 00:08:52.330 so under the header film, we have two entries. 00:08:52.750 --> 00:08:56.450 Entry one, Yves Saint Laurent film, a 2014 film. 00:08:56.909 --> 00:08:59.730 Simple enough. Right. And then looking down on 00:08:59.730 --> 00:09:02.230 the see also section, we have another one, Saint 00:09:02.230 --> 00:09:05.909 Laurent film, a 2014 film about Yves Saint Laurent. 00:09:06.149 --> 00:09:09.429 Two biopics. About the same man. Released in 00:09:09.429 --> 00:09:11.549 the exact same year. 2014. Let's look at the 00:09:11.549 --> 00:09:14.529 timeline again. He died in 2008. So that's, what, 00:09:14.570 --> 00:09:16.970 six years? Six years. Now, Hollywood is not known 00:09:16.970 --> 00:09:20.669 for its speed. Development takes years. Oh, yeah. 00:09:20.990 --> 00:09:23.509 Scripts get stuck in rewrite hell. Funding falls 00:09:23.509 --> 00:09:26.690 through. To have one major biopic released six 00:09:26.690 --> 00:09:29.269 years after a global icon's death is actually 00:09:29.269 --> 00:09:32.570 pretty fast. To have two competing productions 00:09:32.570 --> 00:09:35.610 from different teams racing to the doc's office 00:09:35.610 --> 00:09:38.820 in the same calendar year. That is extraordinarily 00:09:38.820 --> 00:09:41.799 rare. So what does that tell us about the state 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:44.480 of his legacy in 2014? What was happening? It 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.240 tells us that there was a battle for the narrative. 00:09:46.379 --> 00:09:48.580 It was a land grab. Land grab. A legacy grab. 00:09:48.899 --> 00:09:52.720 In 2014, the meaning of Yves Saint Laurent was 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:54.860 still up for grabs. He was gone, so he couldn't 00:09:54.860 --> 00:09:57.080 control the story anymore. Right. And the vacuum 00:09:57.080 --> 00:09:59.519 he left was so massive. And the public interest 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:01.620 was so high that the market could apparently 00:10:01.620 --> 00:10:04.379 support two simultaneous interpretations of his 00:10:04.379 --> 00:10:07.120 life. It's like the volcano versus Dante's Peak 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:09.659 thing from the 90s, but for high fashion. A crude 00:10:09.659 --> 00:10:13.120 analogy, but yes, absolutely. Or Capote and Infamous. 00:10:13.379 --> 00:10:16.179 But here, the subject is a brand as much as a 00:10:16.179 --> 00:10:18.899 man. And look at the titles provided in the source. 00:10:19.179 --> 00:10:21.440 This is where the nuance gets really, really 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:23.860 interesting. Okay, let's unpack the titles. The 00:10:23.860 --> 00:10:26.259 first film, the one in the main list, is titled 00:10:26.259 --> 00:10:29.950 Eve's Celeron. The full name, first and last. 00:10:30.129 --> 00:10:32.889 The second film, the one tucked away in C also, 00:10:33.190 --> 00:10:35.970 is just Saint Laurent. Just the surname. Why 00:10:35.970 --> 00:10:38.289 the difference? I mean, they're both about the 00:10:38.289 --> 00:10:41.350 same guy. The source explicitly says a film about 00:10:41.350 --> 00:10:44.470 Yves Saint Laurent. So why drop the Yves in the 00:10:44.470 --> 00:10:46.409 title of the second one? Think about what happens 00:10:46.409 --> 00:10:49.190 when you drop a first name. When you refer to 00:10:49.190 --> 00:10:52.370 someone by a single name, you're elevating them. 00:10:53.179 --> 00:10:55.399 You're removing them from the realm of the personal 00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:57.039 and placing them in the realm of the iconic. 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:02.019 Or Madonna. Or Cher. Or historical figures. We 00:11:02.019 --> 00:11:04.559 say Mozart. We don't usually say Wolfgang Amadeus. 00:11:04.559 --> 00:11:07.700 We say Picasso. We say Einstein. When you drop 00:11:07.700 --> 00:11:10.860 the specific identifier of Eve's, you're suggesting 00:11:10.860 --> 00:11:13.559 that the subject has become a kind of. deity. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:15.440 He is no longer a person you could have coffee 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:18.159 with. He's a statue. So the film titled Yves 00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:20.179 Saint Laurent might be trying to tell the story 00:11:20.179 --> 00:11:22.519 of the human being, the man. Right. And the film 00:11:22.519 --> 00:11:24.500 titled Saint Laurent is telling the story of 00:11:24.500 --> 00:11:29.720 the icon or the brand. Remember, by 2014, Saint 00:11:29.720 --> 00:11:31.799 Laurent was the name on the door of the shop. 00:11:31.899 --> 00:11:34.340 It was name on the tags. Ah, good point. The 00:11:34.340 --> 00:11:36.600 second film title aligns the man with the product. 00:11:36.980 --> 00:11:39.860 It suggests that the transformation is complete. 00:11:40.250 --> 00:11:42.129 And the source material, this disambiguation 00:11:42.129 --> 00:11:44.570 page, it doesn't know how to resolve this conflict. 00:11:44.669 --> 00:11:47.289 It just lists them both. It says here is one 00:11:47.289 --> 00:11:49.870 version and here is the other. Good luck. It 00:11:49.870 --> 00:11:52.029 creates a choose your own adventure. For the 00:11:52.029 --> 00:11:54.750 user, which version of the truth do you want? 00:11:54.850 --> 00:11:56.830 Right. Do you want the authorized, maybe more 00:11:56.830 --> 00:11:58.990 sanitized biopic, which is usually the one with 00:11:58.990 --> 00:12:01.769 the full name? Or do you want the edgy, unauthorized 00:12:01.769 --> 00:12:03.710 interpretation, which is often the one that takes 00:12:03.710 --> 00:12:06.870 more liberties? The disambiguation page is agnostic. 00:12:06.909 --> 00:12:09.210 It just holds up the mirror and shows you the 00:12:09.210 --> 00:12:11.190 fracture in the reflection. It really emphasizes 00:12:11.190 --> 00:12:14.230 that post -death boom. You die in 2008 and suddenly 00:12:14.230 --> 00:12:15.970 everyone wants to own a piece of your story. 00:12:16.250 --> 00:12:19.269 It is the rush to define the legacy. As soon 00:12:19.269 --> 00:12:21.700 as the person is gone, the interpretation begins. 00:12:22.019 --> 00:12:24.279 The filmmakers, the studios, the biographers, 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.919 they all rush in to say, no, this is who he really 00:12:26.919 --> 00:12:29.700 was. And clearly in 2014, there was a lot of 00:12:29.700 --> 00:12:31.259 money on the table for whoever could win that 00:12:31.259 --> 00:12:33.799 argument. So we have the man from 1936, the house 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:36.299 from 1961, and the battle for the narrative in 00:12:36.299 --> 00:12:40.159 2014. But the list takes us to one more destination. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:43.779 And this time, it's a physical place. We have 00:12:43.779 --> 00:12:45.840 to leave the screen and go to the map. Section 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.879 three, the geographical anchor. The last main 00:12:48.879 --> 00:12:52.039 entry on this list is... Yves Saint Laurent Museum 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:55.000 in Marrakech, Morocco. Okay. Now, I want you 00:12:55.000 --> 00:12:57.159 to scroll back up in your mind to the very first 00:12:57.159 --> 00:12:58.779 entry. What was the descriptor we talked about? 00:12:58.980 --> 00:13:03.360 French fashion designer. French. France. Paris. 00:13:03.899 --> 00:13:06.440 That is the assumption, right? That is the national 00:13:06.440 --> 00:13:09.559 identity stamped on his passport. But the museum, 00:13:09.740 --> 00:13:11.960 the main museum listed here is in Marrakech. 00:13:12.139 --> 00:13:14.960 Morocco. North Africa. This is a significant 00:13:14.960 --> 00:13:17.139 geographical shift. It's not a small detail. 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:20.700 So why does the source include this specific 00:13:20.700 --> 00:13:24.019 museum? I have to assume there are exhibits or 00:13:24.019 --> 00:13:27.340 archives in Paris. Why does the Marrakesh Museum 00:13:27.340 --> 00:13:29.779 get its own bullet point on the disambiguation 00:13:29.779 --> 00:13:32.580 page? Because it territorializes the legacy. 00:13:32.759 --> 00:13:34.940 If you were just a French designer, you belong 00:13:34.940 --> 00:13:38.519 to Paris. That's your box. But to have a dedicated 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:41.580 standalone institution bearing your full name 00:13:41.580 --> 00:13:45.139 in Morocco, that implies a kind of dual citizenship 00:13:45.139 --> 00:13:47.519 of the soul. It breaks the national boundary. 00:13:47.659 --> 00:13:49.899 It totally does. Yeah. It suggests that while 00:13:49.899 --> 00:13:51.559 the business might have been headquartered in 00:13:51.559 --> 00:13:54.379 Paris, the inspiration, or perhaps the heart 00:13:54.379 --> 00:13:56.919 of man himself, lives somewhere else. And the 00:13:56.919 --> 00:13:59.399 source uses the full name again. Yves Saint Laurent 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:01.820 Museum. It's like it's cementing the whole identity 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:04.899 into the landscape. Legacy in stone. That's how 00:14:04.899 --> 00:14:07.120 I think of it. A film is ephemeral. You watch 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.279 it, the credits roll, it's over. Right. A fashion 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:11.139 collection is seasonal. It changes every six 00:14:11.139 --> 00:14:13.759 months. Yeah. But a museum, a museum is built 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:16.309 to stay. It is a claim on the future. It's a 00:14:16.309 --> 00:14:19.409 permanent anchor in the ground. Exactly. By listing 00:14:19.409 --> 00:14:22.129 this museum, the source material is telling us 00:14:22.129 --> 00:14:25.049 that Yves Saint Laurent is no longer just a person 00:14:25.049 --> 00:14:28.710 or a company. It is a destination. It is a place 00:14:28.710 --> 00:14:31.110 you can physically go to. You can buy a plane 00:14:31.110 --> 00:14:34.210 ticket, fly to Marrakesh, and walk inside Yves 00:14:34.210 --> 00:14:36.389 Saint Laurent. That is a powerful transition 00:14:36.389 --> 00:14:38.870 when you think about it. From a person you talk 00:14:38.870 --> 00:14:41.669 to, to a house you buy from, to a movie you watch, 00:14:41.789 --> 00:14:44.460 to a place you visit. It is the ultimate cementing 00:14:44.460 --> 00:14:46.940 of a legacy. When you have a building with your 00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:50.019 name on it in a foreign country, you have achieved 00:14:50.019 --> 00:14:53.019 a level of global permanence that very, very 00:14:53.019 --> 00:14:55.659 few people in history ever achieve. You become 00:14:55.659 --> 00:14:58.379 a landmark. So it effectively says, to understand 00:14:58.379 --> 00:15:00.580 the French designer, you must go to North Africa. 00:15:00.820 --> 00:15:03.659 The source creates that bridge for you. And it 00:15:03.659 --> 00:15:06.120 forces the user to acknowledge the global footprint. 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:08.419 You can't just keep him in the 8th arrondissement 00:15:08.419 --> 00:15:11.480 of Paris. He is trans -Mediterranean. He belongs 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:13.659 to two continents. Okay, so we've traveled from 00:15:13.659 --> 00:15:16.379 France to Hollywood to Morocco. We've seen the 00:15:16.379 --> 00:15:19.460 physical and the cinematic. But now, now I want 00:15:19.460 --> 00:15:21.179 to get really nerdy. I was waiting for this. 00:15:21.179 --> 00:15:23.080 This is my favorite part. I want to talk about 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:26.080 the see also section. Because if the main list 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:28.299 is about building a legacy, the see also section 00:15:28.299 --> 00:15:31.460 is about watching that legacy shatter into a 00:15:31.460 --> 00:15:34.100 million pieces. Section four, the fragmentation 00:15:34.100 --> 00:15:37.220 of identity. The source lists three specific 00:15:37.220 --> 00:15:39.519 disambiguation pages in the see also section. 00:15:39.840 --> 00:15:42.320 And honestly, this is the part that just blew 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:45.799 my mind. Number one, Saint Laurent disambiguation. 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:50.440 Number two, Eve's disambiguation. And number 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:54.149 three, YSL. disambiguation. This is the most 00:15:54.149 --> 00:15:56.909 profound part of the entire document. Why? I 00:15:56.909 --> 00:15:59.529 mean, on the surface, it just looks like a list 00:15:59.529 --> 00:16:01.990 of other lists. What's so profound about it? 00:16:02.049 --> 00:16:04.210 Think about what it implies. Think about your 00:16:04.210 --> 00:16:07.250 own name. If I search for it. I might find you. 00:16:07.269 --> 00:16:09.049 I might find another person with your name. Sure. 00:16:09.169 --> 00:16:11.029 But I won't find a separate page for your first 00:16:11.029 --> 00:16:13.230 name, separate page for your last name, and a 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:15.350 separate page for your initials. That just doesn't 00:16:15.350 --> 00:16:17.710 happen. No, definitely not. These links exist 00:16:17.710 --> 00:16:21.029 because every single component of his name has 00:16:21.029 --> 00:16:23.570 become a standalone cultural force. Okay, let's 00:16:23.570 --> 00:16:26.990 take them one by one. Eves. Disambiguation. The 00:16:26.990 --> 00:16:30.370 first name, just Eve, stands alone. It suggests 00:16:30.370 --> 00:16:32.940 that he is the gravity well for that name. If 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:35.500 you say Yves in a fashion context, you don't 00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:37.279 even need the last name. Everyone knows who you 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:40.240 mean. Okay, then Saint Laurent. Disambiguation. 00:16:40.240 --> 00:16:43.539 The surname. But it has detached from the man. 00:16:43.759 --> 00:16:46.039 Saint Laurent is now a brand. It's an aesthetic. 00:16:46.200 --> 00:16:48.919 It's a vibe. You can say, oh, that look is very 00:16:48.919 --> 00:16:51.100 Saint Laurent. You're using his last name as 00:16:51.100 --> 00:16:52.919 an adjective. And then the big one. The one that 00:16:52.919 --> 00:16:55.860 I think really defines the modern era of the 00:16:55.860 --> 00:17:01.059 brand. YSL. Disambiguation. The acronym. The 00:17:01.059 --> 00:17:03.120 three letters. This is the branding triumph. 00:17:03.240 --> 00:17:07.220 The fact that there is a YSL disambiguation page 00:17:07.220 --> 00:17:11.000 means that those three letters YSL have taken 00:17:11.000 --> 00:17:12.619 on a life of their own. They don't need the man 00:17:12.619 --> 00:17:14.559 anymore. They don't even need the words Yves 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:16.380 Saint Laurent. They just need the shape. Yeah, 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:18.500 you're right. People don't say, look at my Yves 00:17:18.500 --> 00:17:20.339 Saint Laurent bag. They say, look at my YSL. 00:17:20.799 --> 00:17:24.900 Exactly. The acronym has become a noun. It has 00:17:24.900 --> 00:17:27.829 become a distinct entity. that requires its own 00:17:27.829 --> 00:17:30.569 clarification. There might be other things in 00:17:30.569 --> 00:17:33.009 the world called YSL. I don't know, maybe a tech 00:17:33.009 --> 00:17:35.630 protocol or a scientific term. But the fact that 00:17:35.630 --> 00:17:38.029 it is listed here, linked to him, shows that 00:17:38.029 --> 00:17:41.230 his initials are a key part of this fractured 00:17:41.230 --> 00:17:44.109 legacy. It's incredibly rare, isn't it? I'm trying 00:17:44.109 --> 00:17:47.309 to think. Just looking at this, how many historical 00:17:47.309 --> 00:17:50.609 figures require disambiguation for their first 00:17:50.609 --> 00:17:53.430 name, their last name, A and D, their initials? 00:17:53.430 --> 00:17:57.539 Very, very few. JFK, maybe. FDR. Yeah. But even 00:17:57.539 --> 00:17:59.000 that is different. Usually initials are just 00:17:59.000 --> 00:18:01.880 shorthand. Here, YSL is a logo. It's a visual 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:04.460 stamp. The source text acknowledges that YSL 00:18:04.460 --> 00:18:06.980 is a search term in and of itself. It's distinct 00:18:06.980 --> 00:18:08.660 from the man. So the man has effectively been 00:18:08.660 --> 00:18:10.759 cloned into three separate versions. There's 00:18:10.759 --> 00:18:13.599 the Eves, the Saint Laurent, and the YSL. And 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:15.400 the user, the listener, or the person on Wikipedia 00:18:15.400 --> 00:18:17.680 might be searching for any one of them. The source 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:19.420 has to account for all these fragments. It's 00:18:19.420 --> 00:18:21.660 like a mirror that is shattered. But every single 00:18:21.660 --> 00:18:24.240 shard still reflects the same core image. It 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:27.099 really is a fragmentation. It's not just one 00:18:27.099 --> 00:18:29.460 guy anymore. It's a whole galaxy of related terms. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:31.940 And that galaxy isn't just in English. And this 00:18:31.940 --> 00:18:35.420 brings us to sort of the edge of the map. Section 00:18:35.420 --> 00:18:38.829 5. The global context. You noticed the sidebar 00:18:38.829 --> 00:18:41.369 on the page. I did. On the left side of the source 00:18:41.369 --> 00:18:44.670 page, there is a list of languages. Now, usually 00:18:44.670 --> 00:18:46.890 I just ignore this. I speak English. I read the 00:18:46.890 --> 00:18:50.089 English page. But you told me to look closer. 00:18:50.190 --> 00:18:52.529 Read the list. Just a few of them. Okay. We have 00:18:52.529 --> 00:18:55.529 Dansk, which is Danish. Francais, obviously French. 00:18:56.049 --> 00:19:00.269 Italiano. Netherlands is Dutch. Lithuanian. But 00:19:00.269 --> 00:19:03.309 then we leave Europe. We have Korean, written 00:19:03.309 --> 00:19:06.259 in Hangul script. We have Thai. written in Thai 00:19:06.259 --> 00:19:09.440 script, Ting Viet, which is Vietnamese, Bahasa 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:12.500 Indonesia, Turks, Perkis. Let that geographical 00:19:12.500 --> 00:19:14.779 spread wash over you for a second. It's everywhere. 00:19:14.940 --> 00:19:17.819 It's truly global. It's not just Europe. It is 00:19:17.819 --> 00:19:19.680 not just the French fashion designer. We have 00:19:19.680 --> 00:19:23.299 significant representation in East Asia, Southeast 00:19:23.299 --> 00:19:25.920 Asia, the Middle East, Eurasia, Northern Europe. 00:19:26.039 --> 00:19:28.119 And this is just based on the interface options 00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:30.519 available on this one specific page. Correct. 00:19:31.069 --> 00:19:33.250 These are the available translations or the linked 00:19:33.250 --> 00:19:35.970 articles. It confirms the global status of the 00:19:35.970 --> 00:19:38.630 topic strictly from the interface. You don't 00:19:38.630 --> 00:19:40.869 need a sales report to tell you YSL is a global 00:19:40.869 --> 00:19:43.029 brand. You just need to look at the Wikipedia 00:19:43.029 --> 00:19:46.529 sidebar. It's amazing that a guy born in 1936, 00:19:46.809 --> 00:19:50.509 a French designer, has an article about him that's 00:19:50.509 --> 00:19:53.609 accessible in Thai and Vietnamese. It speaks 00:19:53.609 --> 00:19:55.769 to the export power of the fashion house we talked 00:19:55.769 --> 00:19:59.410 about earlier. Ah, right. The man, 1936 -2008, 00:19:59.490 --> 00:20:01.369 might have stayed primarily in France and Morocco. 00:20:01.849 --> 00:20:06.250 But the house, 1961, the house traveled, the 00:20:06.250 --> 00:20:08.269 house got on a plane, and it landed in Seoul. 00:20:08.390 --> 00:20:11.410 It landed in Jakarta. It landed in Bangkok. So 00:20:11.410 --> 00:20:13.390 the languages are essentially footprints. They 00:20:13.390 --> 00:20:15.109 show us where the brand has walked. Exactly. 00:20:15.130 --> 00:20:17.930 And where the interest lies. Someone who speaks 00:20:17.930 --> 00:20:20.650 Vietnamese is actively looking for Yves Saint 00:20:20.650 --> 00:20:23.170 Laurent. That implies a connection that spans 00:20:23.170 --> 00:20:25.630 continents and cultures. It proves that the luxury 00:20:25.630 --> 00:20:28.109 fashion house succeeded in its mission of permanence 00:20:28.109 --> 00:20:30.470 and expansion. Okay, I want to step back and 00:20:30.470 --> 00:20:32.309 get a little meta for a second. We've been analyzing 00:20:32.309 --> 00:20:34.630 the content of the page, but I want to analyze 00:20:34.630 --> 00:20:37.329 the nature of the page itself. The medium is 00:20:37.329 --> 00:20:40.670 the message, of course. We are looking at a disambiguation 00:20:40.670 --> 00:20:43.450 page. That is the technical term. I want to read 00:20:43.450 --> 00:20:45.230 the definition that's found right at the bottom 00:20:45.230 --> 00:20:48.089 of the source. It says... This disambiguation 00:20:48.089 --> 00:20:50.609 page lists articles associated with the title 00:20:50.609 --> 00:20:53.390 Yves Saint Laurent. Okay. And then it gives a 00:20:53.390 --> 00:20:55.930 warning. The warning is the key. It says, if 00:20:55.930 --> 00:20:59.230 an internal link led you here, you may wish to 00:20:59.230 --> 00:21:01.630 change the link to point directly to the intended 00:21:01.630 --> 00:21:04.269 article. Point directly to the intended article. 00:21:04.809 --> 00:21:06.849 That is the challenge, isn't it? What do you 00:21:06.849 --> 00:21:09.650 mean by that? The source is admitting its own 00:21:09.650 --> 00:21:12.670 confusion. It's admitting the difficulty of pinning 00:21:12.670 --> 00:21:16.250 down Yves Saint Laurent. It is asking the user, 00:21:16.750 --> 00:21:19.430 What did you actually mean? Which one did you 00:21:19.430 --> 00:21:21.109 want? Did you mean the guy? Did you mean the 00:21:21.109 --> 00:21:23.190 dress? Did you mean the movie? Did you mean the 00:21:23.190 --> 00:21:26.109 museum in Marrakesh? Precisely. The system is 00:21:26.109 --> 00:21:29.309 confused. The name has become so overloaded with 00:21:29.309 --> 00:21:32.789 meaning, person, house, movie, museum, that a 00:21:32.789 --> 00:21:35.190 simple link is no longer sufficient. The source 00:21:35.190 --> 00:21:37.569 material forces the user to choose which version 00:21:37.569 --> 00:21:39.569 of the legacy they actually want to engage with. 00:21:39.819 --> 00:21:42.140 It's like the name has become too big for a single 00:21:42.140 --> 00:21:46.059 URL. It can't be contained. It has. It has overflowed 00:21:46.059 --> 00:21:48.759 the container of a standard biography. A standard 00:21:48.759 --> 00:21:52.220 biography is for a person. A disambiguation page 00:21:52.220 --> 00:21:56.140 is for a phenomenon. And Yves Saint Laurent is 00:21:56.140 --> 00:21:58.579 a phenomenon. That is a really deep way to look 00:21:58.579 --> 00:22:00.759 at what is essentially a tech support message. 00:22:00.980 --> 00:22:03.859 Agrees. If an internal link led you here, it's 00:22:03.859 --> 00:22:06.420 almost saying, if you're confused, it's because 00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:09.819 this is complicated. It is complicated. Identity 00:22:09.819 --> 00:22:11.839 is complicated. When you turn a human being into 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:15.000 a brand, you create this very confusion. You 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:17.460 create a world where Yves Saint Laurent is both 00:22:17.460 --> 00:22:19.420 a dead man and a living, breathing business. 00:22:20.339 --> 00:22:22.180 Disambiguation page is the only place on the 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:24.119 Internet where they all sit side by side. It's 00:22:24.119 --> 00:22:26.059 the meeting point. It's the crossroads. It's 00:22:26.059 --> 00:22:28.160 where the ghost meets the machine. So let's recap 00:22:28.160 --> 00:22:30.640 this journey because we have covered a lot of 00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:32.720 ground from a very, very short list of links. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:34.720 We have. It's surprising how much is in there. 00:22:34.819 --> 00:22:36.759 We started with a name, just a name on a screen. 00:22:36.859 --> 00:22:40.500 And from that name. We found a man, born 1936, 00:22:40.819 --> 00:22:44.519 died 2008, a finite life with a hard stop. Then 00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:46.420 we found a partnership with Pierre Berger and 00:22:46.420 --> 00:22:49.799 a house founded in 1961. A house that didn't 00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:51.779 care about the death date and just kept on going. 00:22:51.980 --> 00:22:54.740 An entity that was built at age 25 and became, 00:22:55.019 --> 00:22:57.759 for all intents and purposes, immortal. We found 00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:01.940 a cinematic battle in 2014. Two films fighting 00:23:01.940 --> 00:23:04.119 to define the narrative just six years after 00:23:04.119 --> 00:23:07.190 he was gone. Eves vs. Saint Laurent. The man 00:23:07.190 --> 00:23:09.930 versus the icon. We found a geographical home 00:23:09.930 --> 00:23:13.230 in Marrakesh, Morocco. A museum that anchors 00:23:13.230 --> 00:23:15.829 the legacy in stone, far, far away from Paris. 00:23:16.150 --> 00:23:19.170 A physical destination that territorializes the 00:23:19.170 --> 00:23:21.269 name. And we found a fragmentation of the name 00:23:21.269 --> 00:23:25.170 itself. Yves Saint Laurent. YSL. Three distinct 00:23:25.170 --> 00:23:27.029 keys that unlock different parts of the story. 00:23:27.250 --> 00:23:29.589 And finally, we saw the global reach through 00:23:29.589 --> 00:23:32.390 the languages, from Danish to Thai. The footprints 00:23:32.390 --> 00:23:34.509 of the brand stamped across the globe. It is 00:23:34.509 --> 00:23:36.750 a complete map of a modern legacy all in one 00:23:36.750 --> 00:23:38.349 page. You know, it really makes you think about 00:23:38.349 --> 00:23:40.349 what happens to a name. For most of us, our names 00:23:40.349 --> 00:23:42.950 are just us. They're attached to us. When we 00:23:42.950 --> 00:23:45.789 go, the name kind of retires with us. Sure. Maybe 00:23:45.789 --> 00:23:47.789 it stays on a tombstone or in a family album, 00:23:47.890 --> 00:23:50.710 but that's about it. But for a select few, the 00:23:50.710 --> 00:23:53.430 name detaches. It uncouples from the person. 00:23:53.509 --> 00:23:55.430 It becomes a balloon that just floats away on 00:23:55.430 --> 00:23:58.380 its own. It becomes a fashion house or... A museum. 00:23:58.460 --> 00:24:02.200 Or a disambiguation page. Right. So here is where 00:24:02.200 --> 00:24:04.440 I want to leave it today. Here is the question 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:06.839 I have for you and for our listener to think 00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:10.000 about. Go on. When you look at that list, the 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:12.539 fashion house and the museum are the things that 00:24:12.539 --> 00:24:15.640 are still active. The films are from 2014. That's 00:24:15.640 --> 00:24:19.480 in the past. The man died in 2008. But the house 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:21.880 and the museum are present tense. They are still 00:24:21.880 --> 00:24:24.579 operating today. They are living entities. Absolutely. 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:27.099 So does that mean the name Yves Saint Laurent 00:24:27.099 --> 00:24:29.700 is actually more alive today than it was when 00:24:29.700 --> 00:24:31.920 the man himself was alive? That is the provocative 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:33.740 thought. If we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:37.599 the dates, 1936 -2008, are just the prologue. 00:24:37.640 --> 00:24:40.279 The real story of Yves Saint Laurent, the entity, 00:24:40.380 --> 00:24:42.640 the global force, might have only just begun 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:45.410 in the 21st century. The man was the spark. The 00:24:45.410 --> 00:24:47.670 house is the fire. And the disambiguation page 00:24:47.670 --> 00:24:49.690 is the evidence that the fire is spreading in 00:24:49.690 --> 00:24:52.730 multiple directions at once. I love that. The 00:24:52.730 --> 00:24:55.589 name outlasted the dates. It's a living entity. 00:24:55.910 --> 00:24:58.410 It raises an important question for the listener, 00:24:58.529 --> 00:25:01.369 doesn't it? When you see a brand name, whether 00:25:01.369 --> 00:25:04.289 it's on a bag or a bottle of perfume or a belt 00:25:04.289 --> 00:25:07.710 buckle, are you interacting with a person? Or 00:25:07.710 --> 00:25:09.549 are you interacting with a ghost that has built 00:25:09.549 --> 00:25:12.650 a castle? A ghost that built a castle. Wow. I'm 00:25:12.650 --> 00:25:13.970 going to be thinking about that one for a while. 00:25:14.130 --> 00:25:16.990 It is the power of the three letters. Y -S -L. 00:25:17.509 --> 00:25:19.849 They don't need the man anymore. They have the 00:25:19.849 --> 00:25:22.690 page. They have the legacy. So next time you 00:25:22.690 --> 00:25:25.390 are browsing Wikipedia or just searching for 00:25:25.390 --> 00:25:27.809 something online and you hit that disambiguation 00:25:27.809 --> 00:25:31.829 page, don't just click through. Stop. Yeah, take 00:25:31.829 --> 00:25:33.470 a second. Look at the list. Look at the fine 00:25:33.470 --> 00:25:35.789 print. Read the dates. Look for the... See also. 00:25:36.359 --> 00:25:38.099 Check the languages on the side. Because you 00:25:38.099 --> 00:25:40.079 might just find a whole universe hiding in a 00:25:40.079 --> 00:25:42.279 simple list of links. The story is always in 00:25:42.279 --> 00:25:44.900 the details. Exactly. Thanks for diving in with 00:25:44.900 --> 00:25:46.900 us today. This was a really fun one. A pleasure, 00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:49.000 as always. We'll catch you on the next deep dive. 00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:52.299 Keep looking at the fine print. Goodbye. See 00:25:52.299 --> 00:25:52.420 ya.