Happy Monday!
I will not be wading into The Life of a Showgirl discourse today except to point out that she gave a complimentary quote about Charli XCX to New York magazine last year. So what’s tea?!
Today, I will be presenting you with a new Taylor Swift book conspiracy.
Also in this newsletter: Wendy Williams, a Very Online neo-Nazi tries to bring that garbage to real life, and Swifties Against AI.
@maryhan.music this woman is gonna be the end of me #taylorswift #taylornation #swifttok #swiftie #swifties
Hot off of dropping The Life of a Showgirl, Taylor Swift has found herself at the center of another book mystery.
Remember Argylle? It’s the debut spy novel from elusive author Elly Conway that was turned into a film shortly after its release. Ahead of the film’s premiere last February, people went into a frenzy because they thought that Conway might be Taylor Swift publishing under a pen name.
The evidence? The protagonist, also named Elly Conway, is a redhead with a Scottish fold in a cat backpack who writes a novel about a spy named Argylle. You know who created a redheaded author character seen at the end of All Too Well: The Short Film? You know who else carries a Scottish fold in a cat backpack and loves argyle print? Taylor Swift.
The mystery of Elly Conway was revealed — but she isn’t Taylor Swift. Instead, the Telegraph revealed last year that Conway was actually two people: Terry Hayes, an Australian novelist and screenwriter, and Tammy Cohen, a British psychological thriller author. Cohen had said that she hoped “all the people that pre-ordered on the basis that Taylor wrote it aren’t disappointed.”
No matter, some bookish Swifties have moved on to another secret author theory. Could Taylor Swift be self-publishing poetry books on Amazon under the name Willow Bowery?
Bowery just dropped a book of poetry titled The Death of a Showgirl, which released on Oct. 3 — the same date as The Life of a Showgirl. Personally, I think it’s a little too on the nose. The same author dropped a poetry collection called Tortured Poets on Feb. 22, 2024 — ahead of the release of The Tortured Poets Department on April 19 but after its announcement on Feb. 4.
One TikTok user named Mary Han shared supposed evidence, garnering over 5 million views. Han pointed out a line in the book —”Sweat and vanilla perfume” — that matches one in a poem that Swift wrote for a The Life of a Showgirl variant. The album edition is also called “Sweat and Vanilla Perfume.”
Han noted that the book manuscript could not be altered five days ahead of its expected publish date, so the final draft had to be turned in by at least Sept. 28. However, the “Sweat and vanilla perfume” line that the TikToker points out was already public in August.
Nearly all of Bowery’s books appear to be inspired by Swift. In addition to The Death of a Showgirl and Tortured Poets, the author has released Clownerie and Don't Blame Me For What You Made Me Do in the past year alone.
Some Swifties aren’t buying the theory, speculating that the books are made with AI or that the author is trying to capitalize on Swift’s loyal fanbase. In fairness, Willow Bowery’s author bio asserts that she is “just a poet, no other credentials.” Regardless of the author’s identity, there are quite a few Amazon reviewers who earnestly like her poetry — Swift or not. Perhaps it’s worth taking a look for fun.
I have to love Swifties. No one sees or dissects easter eggs like that fandom. True or not, who’s having as much fun as them? They’re constantly fed by their fav and they’re always investigating something. It’s always entertaining!
Every Monday letter gets a playlist. These are some smaller artists that I’ve found via TikTok over the past year. Thank you, algorithm!
In this week’s playlist:
Start You Up - Master Peace
M2M - Cody Jon
Bounce - Lolitah
D.W.U. - RM47, MAAD, Raleigh
Left Right - Xiao Xiao
Feel Again - FIG
See Through - Amelia Moore
With U - 2006WR
Other things I want to share with you.
Free Wendy Williams! I think we’ve all felt Wendy’s absence over the last few years in pop culture news. She’s been living in an assisted-living facility against her will after she was put into a guardianship for dementia. Wendy and her close loved ones deny she has the disease. This new profile in the Cut paints a fuller picture of the situation.
A video of a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi went viral late last week after he crashed a psychology lecture on the University of Washington campus. He isn’t a student at the school. The class, which is one of the largest on campus, chased him out of the building and took him down before university police arrived.
Greta Thunberg landed in Greece this morning after she was reportedly being held in a bedbug-infested cell in an Israeli prison without adequate access to food or water. She was one of hundreds of activists who sailed toward Gaza as part of the Global Sumad Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid. Several other activists said they were subjected to torturous conditions as well.
In more Taylor Swift news, there is a Swifties Against AI campaign urging the pop star to remove apparent AI-generated visuals in some of her promotional videos.
Speaking of AI, I’ve seen a lot of love for the Claude pop-up at the Air Mail shop in New York City. People are liking the emphasis of having AI think with, as opposed to for, you. I doubt that it’ll convert many skeptics, but if you hear of anything like that, let me know. Conversely, OpenAI has been criticized for the deepfakes on the new Sora social app — which are opening up some copyright questions.