superpotato824 - Tumblr blog

superpotato824 · 6 days

Note

ok but now I need to know your thoughts on the taylor swift lyrics. what songs did you analyze and what were your thoughts on them????

Alright so first of all for context:

this was a lecture about the literary era of romanticism, so for most of that lecture we had been talking about the literary and philosophical concepts and ideas present in that era.

And then the professor went "ok so I am not a swiftie - I haven't even listened to her newest album yet - but I believe Swift's music greatly encapsulates a - simplified , pop-cultural - continuation of the ideas of romanticism in the modern day....so let's analyse some of her song lyrics-"

So he had us quickly look at a few song lyrics from different songs of hers, but the ones he stayed on longest - and the ones he had us do proper academic analysis of - were these from "My tears ricochet" from her Folklore album:

I have to note that these aren't my personal thoughts, I'm just recounting what happened in the lecture, and I'm putting this under a cut so that it isn't super long :

So multiple students (it was a very tightly filled classroom, had to be at least 100-150 students there) had participated in analysing these lyrics and I gotta be honest I don't remember most of the exact details of their analysis because I had a lot of classes today and had been awake since 6am but I'll try to summarize as best I can.

Essentially the main point was the comparison of these lyrics with philosophical concepts by Schelling and especially a comparison in context of this aphorism by german romanticist poet Novalis:

"Wir suchen überall das Unbedingte und finden immer nur Dinge"

["Everywhere we look for the Absolute yet we can only ever find things." (in the original german it is a wordplay)]

So one angle of analysis was that these two verses of Swift's lyrics follow this philosophical concept as posited by Hardenberg/Novalis - such as "home" here, as the only defined location, representing the Absolute , the object of Longing as it is conceptualised in romanticism, this that is desired innately but cannot be reached in ways humanly possible, as humans can only ever find "Things": abstractions, objects and concepts limited in their scope and at most a reflection of the Absolute, something that can at best be asymptotically approximated but not be directly perceived or grasped physically or intellectually. Thus here the idea that the lyrical "I" can go "anywhere" and , following that, observe anything, and yet will always be unable to reach the defined and Absolute of "home."

Home then, as defined by other students in the lecture, would be the innate idea of some sort of absolute security in the self, a place of comfort and belonging and a place of certainty. Home, thus, as not just a location but as a concept: a kind of pre-conscious knowledge of being ('Being' here possibly in the hegelian sense), an experience of pure existence. Suppose an analysis also referencing Spinoza's concept of the Substance, the natura naturans, which singular modi are necessarily extensions of and ultimately 'return' to ( 'return' here used simplifying, as modi constituate extensions or aspects of the indivisible infinite Substance under the attributes of Thought and Extension, which thus cannot really be divided and, following, cannot 'return' to it since they were never truly separated.)

Of course, romanticism and general philosophy of the era being concerned with theological questions as well, one student pointed out another angle to view Swift's lyrics under in regards to romanticist theoreticism, that being the theological one: "Home" as the Absolute and the Absolute as God or a christian-mysticist interpretation of it either way, "Anywhere" as the world of human perception and "Home" as the world of god that life springs from, in relation to an article the professor had mentioned about a Times (iirc) journalist visiting a Taylor Swift concert and calling it a "religious experience" to sing specifically the quoted line with and within a crowd of tens of thousands of people.

In regards to this last point the professor also specified that "religious experience" here is not necessarily limited to the scope of (protestant) christianity but rather is to be seen as some sort of pre- or post-religious understanding of a form of ontological transcendence that escapes the boundaries of rational describability.

Following that we also analysed the album title and its cover art:

The romanticist connection in the title being fairly obvious as "Folklore" as a literary category is something romanticist authors in their nature-mysticism and attempt at distinction from Enlightenment era concepts of pure reason loved to discuss, recreate and include in their works.

Furthermore then the connection of the cover art , which students compared to works of famous romanticist painter Caspar David Friedrich (here the painting "Easter Morning"):

The composition of a lone human figure among the trees during a foggy morning or evening is a very popular motif in (german) romanticism as the fog represents the Unknown and - as mentioned above - the always out of reach and never truly perceptible (by human means) Absolute as well as the everlasting Longing towards it. The trees and forests as well a popular romanticist theme as part of its nature-mysticism and above mentioned contrast to the Enlightenment rationalism as practiced in the cities and structured human society.

Apparently on either this or the Evermore album (I don't know on which as I don't listen to Swift's songs and can't remember which song exactly the professor quoted there) there is a lyric saying "we are the new romanticists" as well.

All this to say that after probably twenty minutes of analysing Taylor Swift lyrics in an academic framework of literary theory and ontological philosophy- as well as repeated promises by the professor that he "is not a swiftie" - the prof stated that "Taylor Swift probably didn't put nearly as much thought into this as we did just now but she is an international phenomenon and does - wether intentional or not - make use of concepts and ideas used in romanticist writing and philosophy so analysing her lyrics seemed apt."

#i love love love how you checked your references on theories and everything #then proceeded to turn around and say New Romantics was from folklore or evermore #(its from 1989 but still ily bestie 💜)#and wow! extremely interesting and would love to see you talk more about philosophy stuff or whatever this was if you want!!!!#you sharing anything about stuff that interests you is always a good read!!!!#BUT what were YOUR personal thoughts on the songs? did yall listen to them or just look at the lyrics???

8 notes · View notes

superpotato824 · 9 months

Text

I've given it a lot of thought, and honestly?? no more thinking from now on

3K notes · View notes

superpotato824 · 10 months

Text

Looking back I spent over half of my life wishing that I weren't alive

But it's amazing, because now I can truthfully say that I'm so glad to be here

There are lots of things to love about being alive, even if it may take what seems like forever to find them. And I know this may not seem like it means much, because posts like this didn't mean much to me back then, but it really will all be worth it someday

3K notes · View notes

superpotato824 · 1 year

Text