#I subscribe to the idk her school of swiftieism!

[whiskeyswifty]

So Long London is THAT BITCH I love that song it’s quickly emerging as a fave from the first half. I love that you contrasted it with peace which also reminded me of “he built a fire just to keep me warm” in call it what you want and find the trajectory notable—that she seemingly accepted that help/fire given to her while he…did not and so she just kept burning herself further and further, like you said (ik u don’t care abt the men haha I’m more talking about the narrative she tells as a whole!)

I really like it a lot!! It’s one of my favorites overall easily. It’s so interesting sonically and that propulsive beat, as if she’s running away or finally moving forward after stagnation for so long! Love it.

Ooooo good point and that’s even more interesting that they build a fire to keep her warm, but she makes herself a fire to keep them warm… yeah oooof. I think I took the give and take in a So Long London as not that they rejected her help, but that her way of helping (as a non-professional in this arena) was being by their side as they went through it, or offering bandaids as each bout of sadness arises. Ultimately, they relied on those things in lieu of actually helping themselves. They had no interest in escaping that sadness long term and continued to succumb to what seems to be depression as depicted in the song, to the point where they were going to use her eternally as a source of happiness on the best days and let the depression run roughshod all over her and their relationship on the worst days. Hence why she says “you sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days.” Taylor seems to say that while she herself has bouts of sadness, even a bit more than the average person in her eyes, she doesn’t want to wallow in it or at least not anymore, and desires a more proactive life. She wants to get better and be more joyful in the world. She decided she wasn’t into being with someone who was only interested in wallowing in their depression and wanted her to join them down in the darkness. And I think the CIWYW line is even sadder if you take those as being about the same relationship, as it indicates that things were good once. Maybe it was just because they were equally sad at that time and comforting each other as they both wallowed and comforted each other, who knows.

And I love most that ultimately, the song is such an adult breakup song because it’s about how sometimes you just wish someone was different. No wrongdoing or betrayal, just two people who maybe fit together once but grew apart and resent each other for not being what they each wanted and then resenting that resentment in each other. Or one person grew and the other stayed in place, rather. Happens all the time! It’s sooo refreshing and real in that way and she’s not mad at them exactly, because as you grow in age and experience, you understand you cannot change people and you cannot expect it either, so she’s just mad it came to this. Mad that they didn’t grow together and now she has to leave so much behind, lose wayyyy more than them. She lost a life! That they’d built! When she says “I’m just mad as hell cuz I love this place” god it guts me so deeply because oh god, having to rip yourself away from everything you’ve grown to love because it’s for your own good, oh goddddd its agonizing. God what a song.

Also lmaoooooo you know me! I don’t care about anyone’s boyfriend tbh, not even hers. But I’m not fully delusional in that I don’t think they exist! I don’t like to speculate about them because I truly don’t give a shit. I also fully ignore the male pronouns not because I’m insinuating anything but just honestly because I can ✌️