Day 23: So It Goes

You probably think you know where this is going. You think I'm going to talk about the Reputation song So It Goes. And you're not totally wrong. But really, this post isn't about the song but the phrase itself. There's actually a lot more going on here than seems at first.

I didn't know this at first, but So It Goes isn't actually a Taylor Swift original phrase. It's most well known for being a recurring phrase in one of Kurt Vonnegut's greatest works, Slaughterhouse-Five. Weird right? Yeah I haven't  actually read it and I'm not going to just so that today's post can be better. That said, I do know how to use the internet and I'm pretty sure that's good enough.

Vonnegut uses the phrase to mark a death, but there's a lot more to it than that. It's more of a statement about the pointlessness of dwelling on current circumstances no matter how things get. So let's see how Taylor uses it to see if there's any depth behind the allusion.

"And our pieces fall
Right into place
Get caught up in the moments
Lipstick on your face
So it goes
I'm yours to keep
And I'm yours to lose
You know I'm not a bad girl, but I
Do bad things with you
So it goes"

So it's definitely not about death, but it does follow the idea behind the phrase in a more abstract sense. The way I see it, Taylor is saying that she's not going to fight the progression of her relationship. A significant difference is that relationships have a (hopefully) positive effect on people's live, while death is much more negative. 

It's interesting that Taylor decided to use this phrase in association with the start of a relationship rather than the end, which would clearly have a more clear association with negative emotions, but I also see why she didn't. Once a relationship ends there's no stopping it, but of course there are many ways to stop a relationship in progress. In some way, this makes it more powerful to talk about a forming relationship in terms of inevitability, since there is a choice to be had there.

I wish there was more to say about this, but unfortunately I didn't know enough about either topic to say anything super insightful at the moment. I do find this a super interesting topic though, and I very well might come back to it at some point! Let me know down below if that's something you're interested in. It would take more research though, so it may be a while.

See you tomorrow,
-C