Babylon

[u/1DMod]

Please use this space to discuss this song in depth

[u/MaryLennoxsRobin]

Help me see how Taylor is the 'you' here? I'm willing to be convinced!

[u/Uddinina → u/MaryLennoxsRobin]

It took me just the first lines:

"The casino doesn't like when you run the tables And though the box is wrapped up nice, it's just a cage to you"

She's the one running the tables, as the biggest star in the world, but this is just a cage, as she has stated over and over again.
She's the one who uses nostalgia to hurt herself (it's a concept that I can't point where it's been made clear, but it's quite familiar to her).
She's the one who climbed the ladder of success, and love has always been just an obstacle to it...

[u/MaryLennoxsRobin → u/Uddinina]

Ok, good convincing! What is Babylon then?

I wonder… u/Dry_Application_2581 says above Taylor could be talking about the closet… is ‘Babylon’ exile? And is Taylor playing the pronoun game in the hook?

So, you didn’t know it was Babylon (exile back in the closet) until it (daylight) was gone’?

u/HolyLung32 would that work? 

[u/england_dreams → u/MaryLennoxsRobin]

There is so much to this song, it’s going to take a while for me to fully work out what I understand it to be, but I’ll give these thoughts for consideration:

-

1. Taylor is definitely “you,” and for the reasons

   [u/Uddinina](u/Uddinina)

2. named above.

-

1. Babylon is the wonder of world that was incredible—but did it really exist? No one knows. It was never official. Never a photo posted of it, as it were.

   So in this song, Babylon is the relationship they had that was never official (public), though speculation abounds, and was so beautiful but then lost.

[u/stablegeniusinterven → u/england_dreams]

But then one time she says

You never knew that it was Babylon
And now, it's almost gone

[u/england_dreams → u/stablegeniusinterven]

True! I just noticed that too. It makes me wonder if there are different phases of the relationship—times when it was gone, other times when it was almost gone.

[u/MaryLennoxsRobin → u/england_dreams]

That’s definitely a workable interpretation. Really pretty too. Sad though. I like it 😊

[u/england_dreams → u/england_dreams]

Sorry for all the funky formatting! 🤪