On Fame and Normalcy as Context for Critique of TTPD It's surprising for me to see critiques of the album that essentially say, "We all know she's extremely rich and famous, so why is she pretending to be having the human experience?" Because this album reaches us within the real-world context of Swift's fame, we can't help but see her experiencing that fame out of the corner of our eye as we listen. But I'd argue that we need to ignore that glimmer over there and focus instead on how the songs make us feel and what they are saying within their own context—to consider the album on its own terms as a work of art.

In our culture, fame and wealth represent a kind of transcendence. One of the reasons prosperity gospel works so well is that the ideology of the last century has solidified the conflation of attaining wealth and attaining heaven—which was previously considered a mythological,* posthumous state. What surprises me about these critiques of Swift's work is that they don't seem to be able to question this inner ontology.

The lesson should be that her continued focus on the subject matter at hand reveals a truth about life—as all great art does: nothing saves you from the mundane experience of being a human, nothing removes precarious emotions and irrational, unobtainable desires. These are the burdens we all bear, they are the landscapes we all walk through. At the bottom of art is the desire to establish, I think, a shared humanity. In which the artist can express their humanity and reflect the audience's humanity back to them. With a receptive audience—and I believe the Swifties are a receptive audience—the artist can see their humanity reflected back in the shared humanity experienced by their audience.

I'm skeptical of serious or intellectual (as opposed to political or social) art critique in general because it essentially investigates and unpicks whether a work of art has accurately explained the human experience. Honestly, what the fuck is up with that? The experience is what it is, what comes out of a human is an accurate human experience.

The continued resistance to seeing Swift as a human woman is a resistance to letting go of the idea that success can end suffering, which is an innate, built-in feature of having a human form.

I think the impulse to see Swift as a god on the part of some of her fans is also tied to this resistance. It's completely natural to see god in the sublime—an impossibly high waterfall laced with rainbows; a mountain view on a clear, bright morning; black storm clouds like a floating city in the summer sunlight—and Swift's presence and her work is sublime. But to place the onus of the sublime on Swift alone is also unfair to her as a human being who will, inevitably, experience the quotidian, petty, and disappointing like the rest of us. The roots of the sublime, for Swift, and for her fans, have always been firmly planted in the mundane.

I'd like to enter into evidence the lines, All my friends smell like weed or little babies and You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist / I scratched your head / You fall asleep / Like a tattooed golden retriever and Now I'm down bad crying at the gym.

Swift has become more and more comfortable with, and skilled at, reporting from the front lines of being inside an average moment. Not a moment so sparkly that you're [dancing] in a storm in [your] best dress / Fearless. Not a moment that you're willing yourself to capture it, remember it! Not even a moment as romantic as dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light. It's not rare, but the narrator's there, we're there, and it's real and true in a way that poeticizing it any further would obscure.

To be an artist, Swift must be a person, as all artists must—it's our burden to be (maybe) more human than everyone else because it's our role to connect people to their shared humanity. Artists have to be open to the whole world of experience like a tide pool that lets things flow in and lets them flow out again.** Therefore, it's imperative to engage with The Tortured Poets Department as if it was written by a human woman who is an artist and not by Taylor Swift the brand, the star, the god.

It's this aspect of the her, the work itself, that is immortal and transcendent. To reference "Clara Bow" and it's allusion to the passage of female stardom, I'd like to say that Stevie Nicks (also referenced in the song along with the eponymous actress) may not be the sensation that she once was, but decades after her public "peak" Nicks' work has played a pivotal role in the development of my sonic tastes (via the way her style has inspired artists like Swift herself), my self-image, and my emotional world. Nicks' fame is not gone, it's just underground living in the subconscious of thousands of listeners like me who treasure every sublime and mundane artistic decision she made years ago.

I hate to make the parallel, but I will anyway because I love this text: Meditations by Marcus Aurelius—yes, the one that every philosophy bro in your life has told you to read—was a journal that Aurelius kept around 161 to 180 AD. The man was the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, the biggest deal, the apotheosis of then-contemporary manhood. And his journal is filled with pep talks and frustrations, urging himself to get his shit together, to get out of bed on time, to stay resilient to conflict and criticism. Normal, everyday human stuff.

He writes, "At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work—as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for—the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?'

So you were born to feel 'nice'? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?

You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you.”

Swift, hopefully, will continue to fix her quill, fountain pen, or glitter gel pen on her pedestrian experiences and inner feelings, expressing them as stories about other similarly flawed, confused, boring, passionate, loving, ambitious, sad, supportive, imaginative, foolish characters through her music. After all, she must continue to go to work, as a human being, just like the rest of us. And in sharing that work with the world as a human woman—not a god or an icon—we get the gift of experiencing a unique facet of our shared humanity in all its messiness and strangeness and contradiction and paradox and inadequacy and wonder.

I want you to know / I'm a mirrorball / I'll show you every version of yourself tonight.

More TTPD reflections under {#an experiential read of the tortured poets department} follow along!

Notes

*Mythological here referring to the mythology-as-worldview/ontology/truth that's upheld by religion or folk spiritual belief systems.

** This is a metaphor from Anne Lamott in this podcast episode: https://www.cathyheller.com/2021/03/how-to-quiet-your-inner-critic-stop-procrastinating-on-your-dreams-anne-lamott/ (a perfect listen for any artist who feels too sensitive for this world)

Those wacky skeletons ♥ (Patreon)

In some ways, I wonder if Tula is Brennan's chance to revisit some of the feelings Caramelinda struggled with. Both are women who lost their partner and had to deal with the fallout in ways that asked them to de-prioritize their own feelings and well-being.

At some point for Caramelinda, pushing it down meant trying to love Jet and Ruby in ways that prepared them for the heartbreak and hardness she dealt with without letting them into the hurt yoked around her own neck.

Tula, I think, shows us how kind and gentle and loving that desire to protect can look like before it turns brittle and alienating between parent and child. Caramelinda kept her love for Lazuli buried; Tula is burying her kids in her love for Geoffrey. At the center of both, I think, is a simmering wound and anger.

Caramelinda's was dragged out of her by a greater grief; I can't help but wonder if Tula's, too, will only fully emerge after she loses something more precious than her husband. Or will Lila and Jaysohn lose her and inherit the way she holds her anger under wraps? Will their love of her turn into a memorial clouding the anger underneath until it's too late for them, too?

credits: on the bus with cammi & aj / cbc / espn / please look after mom, kyung-sook shin

Some inside job art! Mostly just trying to figure out how to draw these two

Jonathan Sims is Theseus' Ship

Jonathan Sims is Theseus' Ship. He's a question on how many pieces of someone can be carved out before there fundamentally different. A question of how many of those pieces can be replaced by something other, something he never asked for until he's not him anymore. At what point, in the slow, seasons-long degradation of himself does Jon give way to The Archivist? And by season 5, there is a very real threat that, by saving everything, Jon might tear all those new pieces out. That, in breaking wood and banished Eyes, the ship would be so full of holes that, no more question, it will sink.

Completed the Shenkuu Stamp collection some time ago, so it was only fair to draw my girl Mirsha

oh but what do you see in harry why do you like him so much whats so good about him he stinks hes an addict hes done fucked up shit hes not even cute how can you find anything attractive in him how do you find anything good like AAAAAAAA

ITS ABOUT CHOICE! THERES SO MANY BAD OPTIONS TO CHOSE FROM BUT THERE IS STILL AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO SOMETHING INCREDIBLY KIND AS HARRY

YOU CAN BE AN ULTRALIBERAL YOU CAN BE A MORALIST A FASCIST EVEN BUT YOU CAN ALSO CONSCIOUSLY CHOSE NOT TO PURSUE ANY OF THESE ROUTES

ITS ABOUT HAVING CAPACITY TO DO GOOD IN A WORLD THAT ACTIVELY DISCOURAGES YOU FROM IT IN A SYSTEM THAT EVEN PUNISHES YOU FOR IT

ITS ABOUT CAPACITY FOR CHANGE ITS ABOUT THE BEAUTY OF HUMAN RESILIENCE

and honestly so what if hes an addict! im surrounded by addicts! theres an alcoholic living next door theres acoholics at a family function theres a bunch sitting at a bench near the church or at the park theres an addict i love theres an addict i just met or some that i just heard of and some are kind some are not some are trying to get help some arent some stopped using and some havent and they all deserve at least the basic modicum of respect and kindness and aid harry might be fictional but all his troubles and ailments are not theyre real things that happen to real people! and i do empathize with that! sometimes i even relate! and it does make me love him as a character very much!

and frankly i dont care if hes conventionally attractive im tired of conventionally attractive im tired of seeing the same cardboard cutout of a pretty face and perfect abs okay! i find the receding hairline delightful! i love a belly! thick arms are wonderful! i dont care that his ass is flaccid thats where all our asses head towards and theres beauty in it! and in the flamboyant mismatched clothing and weird hairstyles and questionable facial hair! and idc abt the bloating or the redness i have a red face too! perpetually! i think its cute! and its also a testament to the resilience of human body and it is inherently beautiful to me!

and he stinks bc hes on a bender and forgot everything and doesnt even know what money is give him time honestly you can work up to a good hygiene and a good routine

okay im done goodbye

as annoyed as i've been at/by shourtney shippers over the years i've been a smosh fan, i honestly want this to be real

equine therapy starts again today for the first time since … october? nervous 🫠

No shade or aggression here but how are you disappointed in Hazbin Hotel when it hasn’t come out yet? Like do you just no have a lot of hope for the show or have you gotten some behind the scenes look at the show? Genuinely asking

I think I've explained before, but there's only 8 episodes for season 1 and it is going to showcase Charlie, Alastor, Vaggie, Husk, Angel, Niffty, Cherri, Pentious, Lucifer, Rosie, Vox, Valentino, Velvet, that one weapons dealer lady- and probably others, but the point is that it is overcrowded and the characters will not receive equal screentime for development.

The voice actors have changed, and they are talented people, but Lucifer is voiced by the same guy that voiced Varian from Tangled https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYaqBrVAfGY So Charlie's dad is gonna sound like he's 18 Which you know, he can't age but I'm not personally down with this choice because I'm only gonna see Lucifer as Charlie's brother and not an actual dad figure, the fact that he's into rubber duckies, circuses, and theme parks kinda just solidifies him in my mind as a man child I won't be able to take seriously Husk is no longer a jaded drunk Rick Sanchez-sounding gambler but a suave magical Coraline Cat / Dr Facilier , which is a big change to his pilot vibe (I think Magician is what Viv WANTED to go for originally but... I prefer his pilot vers because Husk being a flying cat magician is... there's a bit too much going on with this character of his here) Based off wiki facts, pilot screen time, promotional material, comics, and Helluva Boss, it's safe to say the women in Hazbin are going to be neglected in favor of the guys. So the girls might not get as much screen time or plot. I've seen official promotional stills and clips with obvious animation errors and awkward storyboard shot cuts and zooms. I've also seen the old pitch bible for Hazbin and the episodes and characters listed there and it seemed more like an episodic series of shenanigans for young teens rather than an overarching plot kind of story for adults. Things have changed of course, but seeing what it was based off or pitched as has lowered my expectations pretty immensely. They don't have a lot of time and they have too many characters basically.

I'm rewatching episode five and there's just something about the way it's Echo that gets to reassure Omega she did the right thing by escaping Tantiss and what mattered was that she got out of there. It's like he knows she feels guilty about leaving the others behind and he knows she wants to do more, because he does too. It's a subtle nod to what he went through but also another little moment showing their dynamic and I love that.

i kept trying to draw anything, literally anything but i feel like the little package of skill i have build myself just fell and scattered across the floor, anytime i try to grab ahold of a piece of it it slips through my fingers like wet soap

on days like these i wish i had been smart enough to be anything else but a mediocre artist, but im not, im not even smart enough to be decent at the only thing i call myself to be able to do, im never going to be able to draw like i want to and i struggle to make peace with it

im so gender confused because im a he/him who wants masculine attributes and i present myself as butch but i still get euphoria when i pull my hair back to look like a girl because then i look like my better self

Wait hold on, in his anniversary video Barbatos mentions the mc being the brother's attendant?

But in the other videos, it's implied that they don't remember the mc leaving (which is actually something im very disappointed about and really hope isnt the case in the actual story)

In these two specifically, it seems like they aren't aware of the mc's presence in the past/alternate timeline/whatever it is. The only other person who seems like they know is Lucifer

Which also lines up with the end of lesson 40, where he's the only one who says welcome back? So like?? Do only him and Barbatos know? Did they not tell anyone?? Diavolo would probably know as well but I haven't seen anything to show that yet. Anyways I don't really like where this is going, I would really prefer they not make everyone forget the mc disappeared

Me when I remember that Snape would’ve not only been much happier in life but would have so many less tiring debates about him if he had just remained a loyal Death Eater instead of defecting and sacrificing himself for a world that hated him while getting nothing in return: