I can’t believe you wrote about Taylor Swift and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and not one mention of “Daylight”. That whole song is a Platonic reference, using the Allegory of the Sun, as the form of the Good, as imagery for what true love is really like, in contrast to the black-and-white false image of love portrayed in the burning red candlelight in the Cave. This imagery has been in Swift’s subconscious since the album Red if not before; if you pay attention nearly all of her songs take place at night. This is an allegory, her version of the Allegory of the Cave. And the city lights are the false images being fed in the Cave but after the sun rises the city is revealed to be just ugly gray buildings (“My love was as cruel as the cities I’ve lived in/Everything looked worse in the light”).
Amazed that more people don’t see this. Probably because they’re shallow and more interested in what boyfriend every song is about.
Can we count on you to continue to read Swift through Eliot on Taylor's second album? Or is this it? And happy Birthday! And thank you for taking us on this fun ride with you!
A pleasure to read as always <3
Thank you <3
You could have used pronouncements instead of messages and postures instead of stances and gotten six gold stars.
I can’t believe you wrote about Taylor Swift and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and not one mention of “Daylight”. That whole song is a Platonic reference, using the Allegory of the Sun, as the form of the Good, as imagery for what true love is really like, in contrast to the black-and-white false image of love portrayed in the burning red candlelight in the Cave. This imagery has been in Swift’s subconscious since the album Red if not before; if you pay attention nearly all of her songs take place at night. This is an allegory, her version of the Allegory of the Cave. And the city lights are the false images being fed in the Cave but after the sun rises the city is revealed to be just ugly gray buildings (“My love was as cruel as the cities I’ve lived in/Everything looked worse in the light”).
Amazed that more people don’t see this. Probably because they’re shallow and more interested in what boyfriend every song is about.
Can we count on you to continue to read Swift through Eliot on Taylor's second album? Or is this it? And happy Birthday! And thank you for taking us on this fun ride with you!
I have eight more Taylor Swift albums to go-- I've barely even scratched the surface, but it was great to finish one just in time for 23 :)