Indecision, Secret Offspring, and Taylor Swift

[kimberly_a]

I was at Berkeley Bowl today, and they always have this whole area full of gorgeous yet inexpensive fresh-cut flowers, and since I have some extra money this week (and the flowers were only around $4 a bunch), I decided I would buy myself some. But then I kept dithering. Should I get the sunflowers? Or the African daisies? Or maybe the deep red

Comments

[wesleysgirl]

I like that Taylor Swift song but never paid much attention to the lyrics, LOL. There's a fair amount of online discussion about the meaning of that song in particular, I thought this little essay was interesting -
http://www.the9513.com/taylor-swift-love-story/

[kimberly_a]

Thanks for pointing me to that essay. I think it's a bit pretentious (Aren't we taking Taylor Swift a bit too seriously here? She isn't T. S. Eliot, folks.), but still had some interesting things to say. I was surprised by the strong implication that "people" have criticized Taylor Swift for "corrupting" or "not understanding" the Romeo and Juliet story because of how lightly she uses the references in the song, which had absolutely never occurred to me and which seems (to me) ridiculous. Two kids in love, parent(s) insisting that they be apart ... this *obviously* merits some R&J comparisons! Not every relationship situation that has R&J overtones must must must end in tragedy or the writer is "missing the point." It's *okay* to riff off existing/accepted culture and do something different with it.

However ... I still don't buy the essayists explanation of the Scarlet Letter reference:
Likewise, when Swift refers to herself as a “scarlet letter,” she’s not literally branding herself an adulterer (the phrase is a reference to

[kimberly_a]

Wow ... I wrote that immediately after waking up this morning, so upon rereading it seems rather incoherent.

The points I was trying to make:
1. A scarlet letter is not forbidden.
2. This is horrible parallelism, which makes for less effective emotional resonance.

And, just as a point I thought of more recently (after waking up a bit more), the whole "scarlet letter" reference seems really inappropriate for the story and tenor of the song. Adultery? Bastard children? Fornicating ministers? There's a certain innocence to the love story in the song, and it's an innocence that is also found in the R&J story ... but the darkness of The Scarlet Letter just seems really inappropriate.

[drkprncss17]

If it were THAT easy to get pregnant, then I would probably have a kid by now b/c I'm so bad at taking my birth control pills on time (or even every day). And no, I don't find childbirth particularly romantic; in fact that's the part that SCARES THE HELL OUT OF ME and leads to some rather childish whining to Tyler of "we don't HAVE to have a baby, do we?". I do want to be a mother, and I do want to have a kid with Tyler's eyes, and I certainly don't want some other woman to have that kid...but can't we just skip all that and let the stork bring the baby instead? ;)

Love Story is one of my favorite songs too, but I still don't get the Scarlet Letter part; it makes no sense. Funny thing is the song came out when I met Tyler, and the lines "marry me Juliet you'll never have to be alone" always make me tear up b/c they're SO true for me.