Echo

Alex Pham

Period 3A

09/06/18

Taylor Swift Response

Owner of a Lonely heart, although is more so conventional in comparison to various texts, is not your typical Chuck Klosterman essay in being descriptive rather than satirically commentative. Narratorial voice, a literary technique Klosterman largely employs to normally conduct didactic communication and humor, is in this essay a means to create imagery of his and Taylor’s circumstance. Thus, Klosterman establishes in place of introspective thinking an audient stance of observational status. This is employed as a means to emphasize on the distance discussed, between Taylor with celebratory standing, and us with normality. I find the idea of   in itself very interesting. That someone who appeals and is so relatable to an incredibly expansive and diverse audience is unusually but entirely lonely, is really quite a phenomenon. There’s that paradox again, of being so connected yet separated at the same time which is something that is emphasized not only in Klosterman’s other essays, but also in The Age of Earthquakes as well. Personally, I don’t know what to think of this issue. It’s also very strange that when certain people, bands, or even ideas become more vastly accepted that it is at the same time rejected more. There’s this incredibly intricate relation between mass media and people whereby media delivers and is influentially powerful,  but people have the power to accept or reject the platform. In terms of Taylor Swift, her rise to fame and her position in fame has the same complexion and is vastly accepted and rejected at the same time ultimately leaving her, as a person, isolated from reality. She instead identifies more often with a facade, portrayed to the vast. (274)