[ SECRET POST #3909 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3909 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 48 secrets from Secret Submission Post #560.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oh, I don't think LWYMMD is nearly as good as Blank Space. For one because it's just not as good of a song. But also because the satirical nature of LWYMMD is muddy, where the satirical nature of Blank Space was not.

In Blank Space, there was a clear delineation between the character in the song and Taylor herself. The character in the song was not Taylor in any way shape or form. (Though notably, when the song came out, there were people who failed to recognize that, just as there will always be people ready to believe the worst of Taylor Swift, regardless of how obviously she's poking fun at their simplistic, cartoonish presumptions about her.)

Whereas in LWYMMD, there isn't a clear delineation between what's Taylor and what isn't - what's satire and what's meant. When she says, "I don't like your tilted stage / the role you made me play" that seems meant. "I don't like your kingdom keys / they once belonged to me" is harder to tell. By the time we get to "I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me / I'll be the actress staring in your bad dreams" it's pretty clear she's being satirical. But does that work, is the question? Can a song be a muddle of satirical commentary and genuine comments and still be artistically viable? And what if that muddle is also deliberate? What if the listener's inability to differentiate between Taylor and media!Taylor is deliberate? Does that change how one feels about the song? Obviously most of the people on this comm would scoff a summary "no," but I myself would not so readily dismiss it. There's a lot more going on in LWYMMD than many people give it credit for, that much I'm sure of. And that interests me.

[(Anonymous)]

I agree that there are interesting things about the song, but I also don't think that's really an argument for its quality as a pop song. And similarly, if it's the case that the song intends to create a conflation between Taylor and media!Taylor and the speaker of the song, I think that's not something that can really take place within a pop song - because it's intrinsically not really something that's sensible to the pop listener. So, in that sense, I agree that the answer to the question of whether that should change how one feels about the song as a pop song should be a quick and summary "no" but I also think it's a justified "no".

And, second, I'm blowed if I can figure out a viable and sensible reading of the song where the conflation between the personas is intentional. I just don't see it, but I am interested in the reading if you think something is there.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm blowed if I can figure out a viable and sensible reading of the song where the conflation between the personas is intentional.

I’m not sure what you mean by this. I don’t think Swift is conflating herself with this other, dark, vengeance obsessed persona. But I do think she is kind of smearing on into the other, and thus owning that the angriest, pettiest, most distrustful parts of herself are capable of bushing up against the absurd villainous rumor golem the media has created.

Anybody who tells you they don’t get angry, don’t feel distrustful sometimes, don’t occasionally wish they could have the last word and the sickest burn, is probably lying. As one of the Taylors tells another in the video, “Nobody can be that nice all the time.” But it’s even more absurd to believe a lot of the OTT shit the media say or implies about her (hence the Taylor at the end who does nothing but hiss ridiculously at the others like an actual snake). The truth is somewhere in between the absurd extremes, and if anything I think the “Here Lies Taylor Swift’s Reputation” tombstone at the beginning of the video is a testament to the fact that she’s not overly concerned which parts of the video you take seriously and which parts you take as satire/commentary/whatever. She’s just going to shake the fuck out of her public image and let the chips fall where they may.

I dig that.

Would I have dug it a whole lot more if LWYMMD had been a stronger song in general? Yes, yes I would.