#swiftism

[dorkydiaz]

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.

[ripmyfictionalfriends]

glad im a swiftie and not a hater bc it must be really annoying how omnipresent taylor is if you don't like her

[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

[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.....

[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?

[whiskeyswifty]

happy 1 year to all my fellow rainest rain show bitches 🥹🥹🥹

[iwatcheditbegin]

Streaming sab

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

It’s been nice to exit the Swiftie fandom (cult) and enter the HOTD fandom (cool cult).

[aeolianblues]

I saw the pic from her tour, Prince and Princess (Aryan). Of course she’s not going to discourage royalty. She probably thinks it boosts her profile to be seen with a royal as a fan. And she can say, finally! Someone who is in the same tax bracket as me (albeit criminally untaxed).

[dorkydiaz]

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]

[prisonguards]

CAUSE KARMA IS MY BOYFRIEND, KARMA IS A GOD

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

the swiftie polls keep tripping me up because they’re all like “here are my least favs, pick the one that makes you want to maim” and idk if I’m supposed to vote for the one that i also dislike, and therefore makes me want to do maiming when I hear it, or if I’m supposed to pick the one that I like so much that I want to maim anyone who dislikes it. This is skewing the results!!

[lunar-years]

Engagement in the first year does not at all seem strange to me and having “fandom discourse” about it feels so…odd. Perhaps this is influenced by my parents getting engaged 3 months after they met and being happily married for 30+ years, but. For two people in their mid 30s who understand themselves and what they want, this feels entirely extremely Normal and only swifties would find a way to make it into a Topic Of Division. “There’s no timeline to live your life!” applies except for when the peanut gallery wants to weigh in on someone else’s business, ig. Lmao.

[l-want-her-midnights]

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