#swiftism

[imtheiliad]

hi

[greenerteacups]

this might seem v random but, if you haven't come across it already, i would really recommend tavi gevinson's latest online zine 'fan fiction' -- not because of the fan fiction element of it, though, but because of your evident love of taylor swift (who it's about) and your impeccable literary taste. and would love to hear your thoughts!

This was an excellent recommendation, and I loved it. I will admit that the RPF segment had me leery (RPF throws me for reasons I have yet to intellectually inspect but believe may relate somehow to the concept of voyeurism) but I'm glad I finished it, because she pulls it together very well. The dialogue in the last segment is especially great, particularly these parts:

And this:

And this:

Because this gets at what I find so Gordian about Internet conversations among even relatively respectful/measured people about Swift's work and presence: we can't seem to figure out what it is we want from her. There is no right way for a woman to be more famous than most presidents. Do we want her to need us or not? Should she care about our approval or shouldn't she? Is the fact that she doesn't "feel" authentic to us the consequence of having demanded authenticity for so long she literally had to shape her personality to fit what "felt real" to millions of people, and in the process, of course, of course, inevitably, produced work that felt authentic to no one?

And then also, like. To what extent do fans use her autonomy/consent as a lever for bad behavior? I.e. does the "invitation" of personal information in her songs license us to speculate about her like she's a character on a TV show? Where is the line of appropriate speculation in an autobiographical medium? I was talking to my friend at dinner just tonight about how it's gross that people can't seem to give her the credit of writing songs that aren't 100% always About Her, and my friend pointed out that she invites comparisons to her own life by teasing names and iconography we identify with her public persona. It's like Brett Easton Ellis writing a book about a character named Brett Easton Ellis. Sure, they're not the same person, but you've invoked a symbol, and people are not being ridiculous for trying to analyze that symbol in the context of the work. In order to do that, they need to understand what the symbol is. Which means the biographical stuff actually is relevant to the text, and Swift's obvious irritation at her fans for failing to just... fuck off a little bit and let her live, while an entirely fair and morally defensible human response, is complicated by the way that her art is produced to resonate best for those who care most. Folklore and Evermore prove even Taylor is on some level aware of this, because she uses the third-person mechanic (and again in "Bolter") to differentiate those protagonists from the narrative construct of "Taylor Swift" in her other first-person work — i.e. pulling apart the Swift who is speaking and not the Swift who is singing (if that makes sense).

And then, finally: "The irony gets a bit tired. You can just say you like music. It's fine." What a deliciously recursive little bit of irony, considering it's a criticism being offered by a character whose ironic distance is itself being criticized. And the fact that the author is putting her own self-criticism in the mouth of a non-existent popstar who's deliberately flattening her take on her subject matter? Mingling valid with invalid criticism to establish a protective distance from her flaws and prove her smarty-pants intellectual self-awareness while also implicitly disowning the faults in her work, an (ironically) childish gesture of insecurity that stands at odds with the mature intellectual persona? Trying to have about seven or eight different cakes, and eat every one of them? "The irony gets a bit tired." Fucking perfect. I laughed.

[betterthantaylor]

@wildfloweronwheels Normal people (non-Swifties) read things like this and remember why they aren't Swifties.

this tracklist has me thinking so many thoughts you guys.

they broke up a fortnight into tour... the first show post joever was in florida... who's afraid of little old me being a twist on who's afraid of virginia woolf a film which starred elizabeth taylor and richard burton about a couple whose relationship breaks down at late night drinks in front of people... my boy only breaks his favourite toys - is she the toy??? free from the slammer where the slammer is an obvious reference to jail after all the criminal metaphors of her and joe tricking the system... but daddy i love him being a reference to the little mermaid where she gave up her voice for a man... clara bow being a 1920's film star who found her voice, married a guy who denied they were ever married publicly and then died + the majority of her fame coming from silent films where she literally didn't need to have a voice and then successfully transitioning into 'talkies' (films with sound).... the smallest man who ever lived vs. 'the loudest woman this town has ever seen who had a marvellous time ruining everything'... oh boy.

[rosesoma]

If you put all of taylor swift songs into a blender until they fused together into one beige blob of a song, you wouldn't be able to distinguish it from any of her actual stuff. it'd sound exactly the same as everything else

[bybdolan]

i do find the T on her thigh very cringe in a heterosexual way, however, as a person who also is very annoying about their boyfriend, i also relate to it in a way.

[lunar-years]

i feel like there are two sides to swiftie lunacy and on the one side you've got the people who accuse her of lying about when songs were written, pick apart every artistic decision she makes to the point where it's very unclear whether they ever actually liked her writing and music to begin with, make up weird excuses to criticize every person she's seen with, and generally behave like they despise everything about her despite parroting as a "fan" running a stan account. and then on the other hand you have the people who will burn other fans at the stake and rip you to shreds for like. saying her merch prices are ridiculous and the stuff is cheap quality. or listening to the vault tracks first instead of the album in order. or daring to listen to a cd you bought in 2014. because "ThAt'S NoT wHAt TayLOr WAnTS!!!!" Like.....what if we all tried being normal.....

[arcenciel-par-une-larme]

Uhhhh..........no???

Some sections of the analysis are correct and useful, but once it gets into the "NPC/non-people" parts, it gets really ugly, if not insultingly wrong, and very arrogant at the same time. (Slow down there, Mr. Pharisee, you're leaving us poor unenlightened Publicans coughing in your dust...)

Nobody is a powerless pawn in the capricious hands of Fortuna. For starters, there is not a single "non-person" or "normie" out there for whom Christ did not shed His blood on Calvary, to the end that he or she may be restored to life and enjoy Him forever. Furthermore, there is not a single "non-person" or "normie" who does not have the right and duty to be raised above the mire of the Taylor Swifts and Sabrina Carpenters and Hillsongs and Bethels and MCUs of the world, and to edify his/her soul with Homer, Romanus Melodus, George Herbert, Florence Price, J. S. Bach, Louis Vierne, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and whatnot.

That said, the proverb says that you can only lead a horse to the water. It's up to the horse to decide to drink...

I think a better way to interpret what is happening is my brief analysis of the Rupi Kaur phenomenon. Some relevant excerpts:

Most of the modern West [is defined by] secular humanism; mostly with a religious component of atheism (or, at the very least, strong agnosticism). Moreover, in the 21st century, postmodernism has slowly but surely increased its proportion within this mixture. Beyond the fact (pertinent to this discourse) that this, in conjunction with capitalism, has been a hotbed for unbridled consumerism; I dare you to imagine what fundamental aspect of Western philosophy can be almost mathematically predicted to suffer in such conditions. If you guessed “the Three Transcendentals”, that is absolutely correct. That is: Truth, Virtue, Beauty. [...] But even in the cases of the countless modern Westerners who are not necessarily consciously atheist or postmodern, it still holds true that much culture is downstream of academia (by way of mass media and popular literature) and of business. As a result, your average 21st-century Western citizen still probably carries around the legacy of relativism from the former, and the philosophy of “maximise profit whilst minimising loss” from the latter – even if he is not quite as certain in his atheism as a Richard Dawkins, or not nearly as conscious of his postmodernism as a Theodore Adorno. [...] Art/beauty, as a result of the above: 1. Has been stripped of any objective point of reference, and 2. Has been commodified, and is thus no longer created by the artist and appreciated and internalised (or rejected, depending on the case) by his audience, but rather produced by the “artist” and consumed by his clientele. [...] Our souls need the sublime [...] much like our bodies need food for sustenance. It is easy to see, in light of this need [...] why Rupi Kaur is the poster child, the definitive High Priestess, of modern (popular) poetry: people consume read her works and say that they "enjoy poetry” in the same way, and for the same reasons, that they listen to Ludovico Einaudi and say that they “enjoy classical music”; as they listen to or sing “I can only imagine” and “Let us build a house” and say that they edify themselves with “Christian hymns”; as they collect Thomas Kinkade paintings and say that they are “appreciators of fine art”; as they eat a double Big Mac and consider themselves well fed.

I wholeheartedly suggest C. S. Lewis' "Screwtape Proposes A Toast" as a most enlightening read on this matter.

@apilgrimpassingby

I don't think I actually know who Sabrina Carpenter is, but I agree wholeheartedly with the above sentiment. Very eloquently put.

[taylorrepdetective]

Decided to listen to Carolina on repeat in preparation for TTPD, and remembered when an anon came to tell me it’s just about a movie and to not try to make it about Taylor’s life, and then Taylor wrote a song called Guilty as Sin?

[iwatcheditbegin]

Yeah this is truly a great merger bc I can’t think of other fandoms who notice little details

[somuchforstardust]

why every day this week have i gone on twitter and it's showing me some tweet in the middle of bandom infighting i have no context for and ultimately boils down to "what if taylor swift did this"

[pikslasrce]

this will sound evil but why is dan in his taylor swift era.....

[imtheiliad]

felt like i was giving a press conference on the family facetime when my mom asked me about taylor after the events of this past weekend 🫡

[jentlemahae]

[girllllldivision]

back and worse than ever (I’m a swiftie now)

[thelasstime]

[notdefendingtaylor]

if swiftism is a cult then it has the least effective missionaries ever