#clara bow makes my brain go WEEEEEEEEEE

[whiskeyswifty]

What songs of taylors are in the same category as clara bow for you? I'd say nothing new and the lucky one

i would say yeah, the Famous Person vs. Her Own Fame category songs are definitely congruous with Clara Bow. Nothing New and TLO yes, but also Anti-Hero and mirrorball LWYMMD and, though less successful in this artistic exercise, IDSB. those all have a direct conversation with each other and showcase the evolving contentious relationship that her vs. her own fame is.

but in a wider sense, clara bow also is her most expansive exploration of what it means to be a famous performer in the context of being not the first or the last but one of a thousand faces that will be forever spoken about in one breath. and that's what she is, compared to who came before her and will be a marker for those that come after. but also in that way, in the eyes of her audience, she is everyone who came before her, and by comparison, their traits were grafted onto her and people see those people when they look at her. within the lyrics of the song even,"she has the innocence of clara bow" or "she has stevie's hair and lips." she's a woman of a thousand faces, and bits of her will be grafted onto those that come after. she's everyone and no one as she herself said, and that will only grow more and more obscure as she fades from the limelight later in her life and after her death. she seems to know that and be aware that she's perhaps always going to be that frankensteined version of herself in everyone's memory, half truth and half misplaced pieces of other people or fiction entirely. and legacy seems to be top of mind for her, both in her career sense, yes. but how she is remembered has always been one of her primary concerns, so i think a lot of the songs that really fixate on being characterized in memory a certain way are also on conversation with Clara Bow. Songs like Wildest Dreams, Fearless, Tim Mcgraw, Long Live, its the damn season, even more vaguely Dorthea and New Years Day.

I'd even add Marjorie to that mix, as that's an exercise in memorializing someone who has passed, and what are the things she left behind. Not what she meant to or not even what taylor would have taken had she known then what she knows now, but simply what does Taylor remember? Mythmaking is often invoked when people talk about taylor, myself included, and i think that's a massively propulsive component of her work, but i think she feels the sands of time shifting beneath her feet. just a few tremors for now, but it forces her to confront the reality of her time as the living myth coming to a close, not now but eventually. and all she's ever tried to do is make sure she is remembered the way she wants to mythologize herself, but increasingly it seems she's aware that despite everything she does now, in the end her legacy will be shaped not by her own life, but by how she fits into the larger picture, by who comes after. Marjorie is a great example, as that woman's legacy is now Taylor Swift's grandmother who couldn't live out her dreams of being a singer, but her sacrifice made Taylor's dream a reality. A legacy that didn't form until well after her death, and far beyond her control. And despite achieving so much and focusing so much on how she is perceived, when it comes to legacy, taylor will always be at the mercy of someone else when it comes to how she is remembered. be that the memories of her once lovers and friends or the tapestry of recorded history, she has no real control over any of it. that's one of my favorite things to watch her grapple with, and I think Clara Bow shows her finding some acceptance and peace with that reality.