In another of my ‘when fandoms collide’ moments – author, radio presenter, stand up and classicist Natalie Haynes has just created a thread pairing Taylor Swift songs with goddesses from the pantheon!
Hooray! And ht to @ StefArchivist who sent me this first thing, knowing I’d be in awe!
Onto our 6th album & these ladies deserve all your respect – as does the genera defying Red.
In the words of Taylor Swift, ‘love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right’. And nobody teaches this better than the Furies, Greek goddesses of vengeance. They are the personification of revenge for a terrible wrong done – especially to someone who loves you – and
they had to be paired with the Red Era. The Furies are quite binary in their views on right and wrong, as you might have guessed, letting you know very clearly that We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Think you can outrun them? Well, give it your best shot, but they will
pursue you to the ends of the earth and they know All Too Well (Ten minute version) which way you’re headed. They Knew You Were Trouble when you walked in. And not only will the Furies punish you for it, but as Aeschylus tells us, they’ll dance as they do it. Taylor makes no
bones about punishing those who have wronged her, sonically as well as lyrically, with tunes that have us all dancing on their remains.
“I made a song that I knew would absolutely drive him crazy when he heard it on the radio. Not only would it hopefully be played a lot, so that
he’d have to hear it, but it’s the opposite of the kind of music that he was trying to make me feel inferior to.” And why would Swift want to create a single specifically designed to torment someone?
“Because that’s fun.” (USA Today).
To find out who the Furies punish and why, pick up Divine Might, out now!
Image of a Fury from this krater at @YaleArtGallery: artgallery.yale.edu/collections/ob…
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