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Taylor Swift's album The Tortured Poets Department becomes the first album to hit 1 billion streams on Spotify in less one week!

john green defending TTPD on twitter I know that’s right

2024 GRAMMYs | Fortnight Music Video

every time I see a post about taylor lyrics I can't help think that she's being funny on purpose but ppl don't think women can't be funny. like tortured poets department is a funny name like that could be a douglas adams bit and ppl keep taking these "cringe" lyrics out of context and saying how dumb she is to think she's a tortured poet. I don't think she thinks that I think maybe she is funny on purpose...

One of the things that makes me think we're moving towards a coming-out again:

The sudden invocation of religious imagery on this album, and the sheer amount of references to it. For years, False God was the closest we had to those themes being touched on in any personal way - but The Anthology is FULL of them. I went through it track by track specifically listening out for them, and it was almost comical how heavy-handed she's being. Every single song it's sin and guilt and Christian judgement and Christian allegory 😂

I don't say this to belittle those struggles, or to suggest they haven't been real issues for Taylor. But I don't think that's where her head is at right now, so this sudden uptick of religious references in her music feels strategic. It's a move. And why would she need to establish religious guilt and judgement as something that is such A Big Deal for her and casts a shadow over her entire internal life?

She would if she needed something to point to, to "explain" why she stayed in the closet all this time. Taylor doesn't want to alienate her fans by saying "you were the reason" so this is her fallback. It's an age-old story, one fans can understand, that absolves them of any role in her closeting, and lets them convince themselves they would have supported her all along, if only they'd known.

Wow, this makes a lot of sense to me. Great observation, Anon.

“…let’s them convince themselves they would have supported her all along, if only they’d known.” 🤯

I love that the line “I’m having his baby, no I’m not but you should’ve seen your faces” has a double meaning, on one hand it’s a shock factor lyric designed to make people realize they don’t know her but on the other hand of course she’s not having his baby because the him in question is a woman lmao

So hang on, hang on, lemme make sure I’m getting this right. So she’s in a psych ward. In a wedding gown. And she takes the “miracle move on drug” the “forget him” pill of which the effects are temporary. Right, right. And then she’s set free, and immediately walks into a sterile office in a VICTORIAN MOURNING gown! And sits down to start working away on her typewriter. She’s writing, and she loves her muse, and it’s ruining her life. Okay. And then she and the muse are laying on the papers, in love. The pages of her work, her diary, her songs, THE FILES!! And they’re together, and the pages are flying around them, blocking them from the camera, okay? You still with me? She reaches for the muse and then she’s getting electric shock therapy?? With curly hair?? Okay. Okay. And again, loving the muse is ruining her life. And all the doctors, the people closest to her, run away scared when the electricity short circuits or whatever, and the muse is the only one who notices and stops it from killing her!!! The muse is in a (glass) phone booth, and Taylor is sitting right on top, but out of view from the muse. And they are in the middle of NOWHERE. The rust that grew between telephones??? And then we’re back in the office, and she’s pulling all the files out of the drawers!! In the mourning gown again!!! And she’s letting them out, ruining the sterility, and she’s freaking out, sobbing. And then she’s facing the camera, stone cold, letting the files swirl around her, now out in the open ON FIRE I MIGHT ADD. And back in the psych ward in the wedding dress, she breaks the glass to escape, to bolt?? And then, once the files are free, once the glass is broken, once the muse steps out of the glass!! Then she can touch the muse. Then she can touch the muse. Somebody give me an oxygen mask, holy shit

my boy only breaks his favorite toys is no longer about some dude instead it’s about my cat and the bird toy that he’s played so hard with that it looks like roadkill

t.s - the prophecy 🌙🖤

taylor swift is compelling to me as a horror figure

2 thoughts on the manuscript—1, I think the line “looking backwards might be the only way to move forward” is the thesis statement of the whole album, and related to that, the closing line about the manuscript “now and then I reread the manuscript but the story isn’t mine anymore” has a double meaning—on one hand, it’s ours because she wants us to make the songs about us and not about her, but it also means the story the album tells is not her secret anymore, it doesn’t solely belong to her, and it’s out in the open.

The Prophecy/Wizard of Oz Connection

After listening to The Prophecy (A LOT 🤓), I’m of the opinion it’s about Taylor being trapped in the closet/cage and desperately seeking someone or something to tell her what she needs to do in order to change the outcome of this doomed fate that she wants to break free from.

I relate this back to The Wizard of Oz as Dorothy was trapped in Oz (like Taylor in a closet or cage, and the way she likened herself to Dorothy or a friend of Dorothy in the Karma music video) and trying to get back home and was searching for answers from anyone who would listen.

In the end, it was Glinda The Good Witch who reminded Dorothy “you always had the power” to get back home.

The Prophecy is Taylor stuck in Oz and seeking answers from those who will listen, but she’s had the power all along to change her fate and the outcome of the story.

Thank you to my mooties who helped me formulate my thoughts on this. You know who you are, I love you. 😜

Anyone else who would like to add on or expand on this, I welcome 🤗

but daddy i love him - taylor swift