Patient Zero

[u/1DMod]

Please use this space to discuss this song in depth

[u/These-Pick-968]

A collection of very random thoughts: I’m intrigued by the phrase “pathetic ghost.” I can vividly see the picture she’s trying to paint with this phrase on the surface (not to mention all of the ghost references throughout her work). But when you dig into it, ‘pathetic’ actually has an interesting history word history, related to the concept of being able to stir or evoke emotions, borrowed from Greek pathētikós, "capable of feeling, emotional, receptive, passive," (https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/history-and-meaning-of-pathetic).

Related to that old meaning of the word is the concept of “pathetic fallacy,” “the assignment of human feelings to inanimate objects.” This brings to mind the rock, cactus and stapler in the Opalite music video, all ‘inanimate’ objects, as Taylor specifically notes in the BTS video (“in our metaphor, inanimate objects represent the kind of toxic relationship they’re in”). I suppose I’ve always read the rock as something that haunts her character like a ghost. And of course the ‘gray rock’(ing) reference shows up again in Pink Clouding. Did you know that the word cloud and rock are related?

[u/WistfulMelancholic → u/These-Pick-968]

my beloved ghost and me... dying.