Taylor Swift’s Fortnight

When I first saw the teaser, I worried it would feel void. As a high contrast, black and white, geometrical place. But it was so immensely and profoundly filled with meaning!

There’s been speculation about who this song is about, and I can’t tell either. But regardless, it is a lovely song that I quickly grew to love as I better comprehended it. After a few listens, going back and forth with the lines to read between them and get how they added onto each other or canceled each other out. Like a book of code, it must be grasped holistically rather than partially.

Listening to it alone, I loved it, but with the video, I loved it so much more. It does seem to show more of what it is all about, with the different characters and scenarios, rather than simply being an unrelated video patched to it.

And we know that Taylor Swift is guilty of putting an INSANE amount of attention to detail in her videos so, whenever she is involved in the writing and direction of them, I KNOW there is more than meets the eye and she’s telling more of the story through them.

The covered tattoos that she reveals and match Malone’s, “Stay Away” and “Always Tired” being especially visible. But also letters and symbols that could point to more. If she included them, then it is quite probable that it fits into the story too. Though you might never be fully sure.

The emphasis on the line “I love you, it’s ruining my life” and how it’s coming from both of them, through writing and reading machines. Yet it isn’t explicitly described why and how exactly. You could try to intuit it but, again, might never be fully sure.

I loved how the telephone booth is shown as such a key part of it all, along with how they sing of calling and not picking up. Like they’re right there, near each other, but can’t be reached via it. Speaking of approaches. And the importance of communication.

Things didn’t quite work out, it would seem, but there appears to be genuine love between these two characters. With their embracing, the caring for the other’s wellbeing, and looks that silently say “I love you beyond anything I’ve so far expressed”. Perhaps a doomed love regardless. But that doesn’t necessarily make it small and insignificant.

Where passion of this degree is involved, and one's yearnings are not fulfilled, lines such as “I wanna kill her” and “I wanna kill him” don’t shock me at all. The frustration can be unbearable. She just happens to be honest with herself. And whatever happened in their story that is not made obvious could be further fueling it. What else happened here? You don’t know. Maybe he did fail her terribly, but it might be… complicated. See, guys often don’t give a damn, but sometimes they do. It is unfortunate that it’s not always so easy to tell when which is the case.

Furthermore, I am obsessed with the concept of colors as the manifestation of energy, so of course I was thrilled by the typewriter room scenes that had them emanating. Taylor Swift’s character had mostly orange with subtle tints of yellow and red eventually showing, while Malone’s character had mostly blue with subtle tints of purple and green coming through, as both typed across from each other. They all ultimately join into a white sphere of light. If you aren’t aware of it already, white contains them all. And white is the color TTPD comes in with, often hinting at it. It does make me wonder!

It is phenomenal that she included actors from the Dead Poets Society (and named this The Tortured Poets Department instead, keeping “poets” but switching “dead” for “tortured” and “society” for “department”). Makes me want to rewatch that movie again sometime soon for it’ll likely tell more! And by the way, some of my favorite movie quotes come from there. “We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.” So it definitely hits home for me.

I’m unsure of what the ending here means, though. They do get to be together in some manner after all? Is it a cliffhanger? Is there a continuation to this story? I certainly do look forward to more being tied to it!

Bonus: How she looks like a scary doll too? Priceless.