Thoughts on the Taylor Swift Hyperobject

The other day, I found myself looking haplessly for something, anything, to focus on besides the ecological crisis — this unbearable rupture we have created with our wonderfully fine-tuned biosphere, which threatens our species with near-term extinction as it annihilates millions of other intricately evolved life-forms — and I decided it was time to try to understand this Taylor Swift phenomenon, which, until recently, I had ignored. So far, I am failing horribly at my seriously-intended New Year’s resolution, which was to become less judgmental and more positive, upbeat, in my thinking and writing. I don’t like this feeling.

I don’t want to be a hater! I want to love!

I yearn to participate more in mainstream or even alternative currents of mass appeal and general interest, with enthusiasm and gusto. Also, as is often the case, I am either far too early or absurdly late to the party.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know 2023 was the year Taylor Swift became some kind of utterly dominant pop culture phenomenon. She was on the cover of Time Magazine as “Person of the Year.” Her tour makes gazillions of dollars and, when it lands, singlehandedly revives the economies of mid-sized cities. She has an army of zealous fans, “Swifties,” who consider her their idol and scry her lyrics for secret codes. She goes out…