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The Mysteries of Taylor Swift

Public Seminar has gone down the Taylor Swift rabbit hole. There are serious Swifties in the philosophy department at the New School for Social Research—and some serious dissidents, as James Miller discovers in a conversation with Jack Condie, Simon Critchley, and Gwenda-lin Grewal. The reason we can’t just be normal about Swift, Condie posits, is because she’s a modern-day Alcibiades. Claire Potter, meanwhile, argues that it’s the queerness of fandom, not the artist, that matters. And Rick Moody riffs on how a massive musical entity might prove her personhood.

Music

Taylor Swift: The Modest Proposal

Finitude, in 63 parts

February 28, 2024 • by Rick Moody
And so the working hypothesis of this proposal is: that only art with an awareness of finitude constitutes meaningful composition. ...

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Taylor Swift: The Modest Proposal
Music

You Belong to Me

It isn’t Taylor Swift who is queer: it’s us

February 28, 2024 • by Claire Potter
It is the queerness of fandom, not the artist, that helps us understand Taylor Swift better. ...

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You Belong to Me
Music

Taylor Swift, the Modern Alcibiades

We think we know who the pop star is. But does Plato know better?

February 27, 2024 • by Jack Condie
Much ink has been spilled on whether she’s a feminist hero or ruthless capitalist villain. I think she’s a modern day Alcibiades. ...

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Taylor Swift, the Modern Alcibiades
Music

The Mysteries of Taylor Swift

A symposium on a theologico-political phenomenon

February 27, 2024 • by Jack Condie, Simon Critchley, Gwenda-lin Grewal and James Miller
In this Taylor Swift symposium, New School philosophers and critical theorists dissect the mysteries of the pop star....

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The Mysteries of Taylor Swift
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