From Philosophy to Fashion

Recent books on Swift

Hi everyone!

We live in a great time for, if nothing else, books on Taylor Swift… So let that be some consolation.

Taylor Swift and Philosophy, ed. Catherine M. Robb and Georgie Mills

This is an accessible and affordable gathering of essays on different topics by professional philosophers, from the philosophy of virtue to that of easter eggs, passing through the philosophy of knowledge (illustrative quote: “When Taylor Swift sings, ‘I knew you were trouble when you walked in’ […] what exactly does she know?”). If you like the illustrative quote, you’ll like this book. It’s like a box of delicious philosophical chocolate and if some of the chocolates are hollow on the inside, well, others aren’t. I, for the record, liked it very much.

The Literary Taylor Swift: Songwriting and Intertextuality, eds Betsy Winakur Tontiplaphol and Anastasia Klimchynskaya

It isn’t cheap, and it may be hard to find outside a university library (or even inside - I had to get it specially ordered). But this collection of academic essays convincingly presents Swift as a worthy topic of literary study. The book is oriented around intertextuality, though of course it also has a lot to say just on Swift’s textuality, how her mind and pen work. Betsy Winakur Tontiplaphol’s essay on Swift in relation to the Biedermeier is fantastic (and I love the idea of Swift as more of a Tennysonian than a Wordsworthian author - that seems absolutely right to me). The other essays are good too; my brain is fried from writing my own book on Swift and literature so I won’t go into more detail but this is well worth reading if your interests are on the academic side.

Karma is a Cat, Farrin Jacobs (illustrations by Katty Huertas)

From the sublime to the also sublime, this is a book on Swift’s cats. I enjoyed it, though I also seem not to have completely finished it because I got sucked into a writing whirlpool and let my free review copy expire - oops! Based on the 80% I read, this is a fun nonfiction picture book for young readers about the lives of Swift’s cats.

(I received an ARC copy of this book; all thoughts - such as they are - are my own.)

Taylor Swift Style, Sarah Chapelle

Probably on the outside the book least likely to appeal to me, falling as it does outside my core interests of words and cats, this book nonetheless won me over with its single-minded focus on the things Swift has worn. The pictures are plentiful and fun to look at. I especially liked the ones documenting Swift’s street style rather than her formalwear. I have concluded that my fashion sense is not very good (this was never really in doubt) as I basically liked all the outfits Chapelle went out of her way to say didn’t work. (This is probably worth checking out in hard copy as the captions to the pictures were weirdly formatted in the ebook version).

Dangerous Fictions, Lyta Gold

This book only mentions Swift once or twice, so it may not really belong on this list, but it’s one of my favorite books from last year. Gold describes the idea of fiction as posing some kind of societal danger from eighteenth century worries about women readers to contemporary book bans. It’s a really good example of writing about literature for a popular audience in a way that’s accessible and compelling.

Other things besides books about Swift:

Chuckle Soaps - Swiftie

I saw this on a list of gift ideas before Christmas (I think on the Guardian) and immediately gifted it to myself. The soap itself is a bit rough on sensitive skin, but this is not about the soap. I am taking great delight in unearthing this tiny figure of Swift, which my cat will undoubtedly eat.

A Complete Unknown (2024)

This movie about Bob Dylan is really entertaining. Timothée Chalamet captures the gruffness of Dylan’s voice, if perhaps not its musicality. The film is in no way subtle, except in the way it refuses either fully to condemn or to support Dylan’s decision to “go electric” at a folk festival. The depicted relationship between Dylan and the older generation of folk musicians, especially Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, is poignantly played out (much more so than the fleeting romantic relationships). Monica Barbaro is excellent as Joan Baez.

Vox Lux (2018)

I didn’t watch this when it came out but I’m so glad I found it now. This is a tonally strange movie filled with pastiches of pop songs from the 2000s that follows parts of the career of a teenager as she becomes a pop star. I should add that it’s really dark and disturbing, which you probably won’t get from that plot summary. It got mixed reviews but I absolutely loved it.

The Taylor Swift Poetry Quiz (gift link)

A quiz in the New York Times based on the book Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift, a book I loved and recommended in an earlier newsletter. You are asked to guess which Swift song inspired each of the thirteen (of course) poems. Congratulations to the Invisible Strings team! This is such an awesome little quiz and I loved to see this book get visibility in this way - hopefully it boosted holiday gift sales!