Line #30 Headscratchers/TaylorSwift


1	* I may be the only person this bothers, but...when you're entering freshman year in high school, aren't you ''four''teen? I suppose she could've just started later, but it seems to be a generalized statement.
2	** It depends on when your birthday is. Like, mine is in November so I started 9th grade at age 14 and then turned 15 during the year. Someone born in the summer or spring months could conceivably have turned 15 before the start of the school year.
3	** If you've skipped a grade or two in elementary school or junior high, you can in fact enter your freshman year in high school at thirteen.
4	** It could also depend on the school district in question; for example, the cutoff date in my school district was around September 30th. My birthday being in June, I was a fourteen-year old throughout my entire freshman year. Having a birthday during summer break also meant none of my classmates ever wished me a happy birthday, but that's [[LonersAreFreaks another matter]].
5	*** Too little, too late, I know, but happy birthday.
6	** Taylor's birthday is in December, so she almost certainly missed her district's cutoff and started her freshman year of high school at 15.
7	*** Not necessarily. My birthday's in December, and I started freshman year when I was 13. Then again, it may differ from state to state, so you're probably right.
8	** Also, some schools only have three years of high school 10, 11, and 12 and 9th grade in considered still middle school. Though, I just realized, the lyrics say something about being there for four years so this may be kind of obsolete.
9	** Maybe she started high school when she was 14, but the events of the song took place after her 15th birthday.
10	*** But she mentions that it's the first day of school in the opening lines of the song.
11	** Or it could be meant less than literally; assuming you start high school on the normal track, then you ''will'' be fifteen by the end of the year, even if you're fourteen when you start.
12	** '''Or, part of the point is that she was starting a year behind. In the album booklet, she clearly states entering high school at 15. The implication was that she was older than everyone else in her grade.'''
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14	* I'm just going to say what everyone is thinking here. "Love Story". ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet''. The FridgeLogic of the song when one actually thinks of [[ItWasHisSled what happens in the end of the play]].
15	** There's "Romeo and Juliet" the play, and then there's "Romeo and Juliet" the archetype of young teenage lovers. Good luck putting the genie back in ''that'' bottle.
16	** FridgeBrilliance: The song is written as though Taylor Swift didn't know how the play ends... neither did Juliet. For all we know, they both die after the song ends. I think it works better that way.
17	** Taylor's cleared this one up when talking about the song in concerts. She read the play in school, connected to the characters, obviously found the ending really depressing, and, as so many teenagers do when their favorite characters die and their [[ShipSinking ship sinks]], decided to write a FixFic. A really, ''really'' catchy FixFic.
18	** What's even worse about that song? Literature/TheScarletLetter. Has she read The Scarlet Letter? Has she read the back of The Scarlet Letter? Has she ever heard even the slightest thing about the content of The Scarlet Letter? Why the hell would you want to compare yourself to The Scarlet Letter? It's not romantic. It has nothing to do with Romeo and Juliet. It doesn't even flow well lyrically. It just comes across as her trying to look smart and cultured and failing, badly.
19	*** Love Story always came off as a parody to me, since both Romeo and Juliet and Literature/TheScarletLetter are constantly misunderstood as romance stories, or their plots are used and altered to make romance stories. You see it all the time with fanfiction and pretty much any other version of the story that isn't word-for-word from the stories themselves, though R&J is especially guilty of this. I thought Taylor was mocking the people who think of them that way. Almost every R&J story you see subverts the DownerEnding to make them live happily ever after.
20	** WebVideo/TheNostalgiaChick couldn't put it better:
21	--> ''"It's at this point that you start to wonder if Taylor Swift even knows how Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet '''[[DownerEnding ends]]!'''"''
22	** A scarlet letter could mean something or someone who's shameful to be associated with. I always though "Juliet" was sying she was a shameful person to know, but Romeo loved her anyway and that made him special.
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24	* Okay, so in "Mine", she talks about being a "flight risk with a fear of falling", and how she's the "bad" girl compared to the guy "in college with a part-time job waiting tables"... then goes on and calls herself a "careless man's careful daughter". Does that make any sense at all to anyone? She's a... careful flight risk?
25	** Yeah, [[{{Tropers/Spinosegnosaurus77}} I]] do not get that either.
26	** Her father inflicted her with some crippling mental disorder like Super OCD so she's careful and a weirdo?
27	** Think of it in terms of romance. Her father was presumably not good at relationships and she picked up on that fact, so because she doesn't want to be like him she's careful not to let herself get emotionally involved in relationships (a careless man's careful daughter). She cuts out and runs before there's enough investment on either side to risk a broken heart (a flight risk with a fear of falling).
28	** She didn't call herself bad in the song. I took "flight risk with a fear of falling" as her being afraid to fall in love and leaving relationships before they get serious to avoid getting hurt. Which would actually be the "careful" thing to do, as far as ones heart is concerned. Not her as being a bad girl.
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30	* Who is "The Lucky One" about? Usually, Taylor's songs are about an ex, or a friend, or her family. This song, on the other hand, is about someone who was famous a few years before Taylor Swift made it big, then "took the money and her dignity and got the hell out", then "bought a bunch of land somewhere, and chose the rose garden over Madison Square". Whereas the secret messages in the lyrics sheet usually hint at who the song is about, here the hidden message simply reads "wouldnt you like to know". Is there a specific person she could be singing about?
31	** Taylor did an interview on the song where she said it was about her worst fear.
32	*** Didn't she say a while back that her worst fear was saying things no one cares about?
33	** A lot of people think that "The Lucky One" is about Joni Mitchell, and no one could doubt Taylor's love of Joni Mitchell.
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35	* So in "You Belong With Me" we see Taylor's love interest play football, then in the next scene it's prom. Problem is that Football season occurs in the Fall and prom near the end of the school year in the Spring. Unless time had passed but then that means she kept that love note with her for at least 5 months?
36	** Maybe it was homecoming instead of prom.
37	** He also had a similar note in his pocket, which looked kind of crumpled, so it's possible that they both carried their notes about with them for months before actually getting the nerve to show it to the other.

Context Headscratchers / TaylorSwift