Scriptorium

prefer not to have negative opinions about anything, if it can be helped. Okay- that was not a strong start, but bear with me Taylor Swift Army.

For me, beer has been a great teacher (and a good analogue, I think). I don't think I've met anyone who liked beer the moment it first touched their lips. Love at first sight is only for Shakespeare and Swift, it seems. But as you taste that bitterness, the internal contradiction becomes clear as day. Somebody clearly likes this, but I for the life of me, cannot understand why. Eventually you will crack that code though, for some time now I can safely say that I get what is going on there.

Here is another contradiction: I do not like trying new things- But, I do like to be challenged. This particular drink is not bad, It's just challenging. When your immediate reaction is repulsion, remember that somebody likes this thing for some reason! There is some merit here, I just have not realized it yet. Everything annoying is instead a puzzle, if you contextualize it the right way.

I will drop the façade I have been putting up for some time now: I am not the world's biggest Taylor Swift fan. But I have enlisted two of the greatest swiftie scholars of our age in Sister Edna, and Sister Kaitlyn to tutor me. I have received their playlists and studied them. Not to do so would be reprehensible, anyone who receives a custom playlist from someone and doesn't listen to it is utter scum.

I would describe the contents as, um, very challenging. I don't really like pop, and I'm pretty selective about my country, so I already knew this would be difficult. I also think that this has a very specific audience that is not me. A lot of the the recurring themes are things that either don't apply to me, or are ideas that I am generally oblivious to.

There were a couple of songs that stood out to me, Dorothea, coney island. To be honest though, the stuff that I can most easily enjoy is her older pop stuff that I heard everywhere in high school. It just gets into that silliness territory that makes it fun, like going back and listening to All-American rejects or Mariana's trench. It provides a sense of nostalgia for a time when these types of narratives felt relevant to me.

I won't go as far as to say that this music is entirely without utility- a lot of the music I listened to has a numbing effect that allows one to focus on another task, (like drawing or writing). It's probably good music to lose yourself in a task to. But I was promised nutritional value.

The method of contextualizing art as a series of challenges is novel because you win some, but you're going to lose some.

It's the end of the fourth round and I'm bleeding from my face, I can't see out of one eye and the other one isn't so hot either. I can't hear shit. Coach leans over the rope and mouths “Throw in the towel kid. Live to fight another day.” “I'm tired boss.” I tell him, “I'm really tired.”

I am defeated, and there is no simple way around it. Is this music bad? I think that is a bit of a short-sighted question. It serves a utility to someone, which is the important thing. Am I going to be utilizing it? Uh, probably not on my lonesome, no. I am still a supporter of the Taylor Swift People's Militia, but maybe I won't assume the role of General any longer.

~ Your friend,