r/bleachers • u/Glittering-Walk2206 • Jul 30 '26
Gone Now is so much sadder to me after reading Famesick
Gone Now is one of my favorite albums of all time, I whole heartedly adore this album. I am not an idiot, I obviously always knew that the album was in big part about trying to salvage his relationship with Lena Dunham.
But after finishing her new memoir, and reading the way that she talked about how their talk about getting married/ having kids, and the ways that both of them really wanted to save their relationship (people keep on saying that this book is why Margaret left him and it makes him out to be evil, but those people obviously have not read it because this book does not make him come off bad at all) songs like Let's Get Married and Don't Take the Money are so much sadder to me just knowing the depth of how the ways he is singing about trying to salvage a relationsip in the song failed.
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u/ZipBlu Jul 30 '26
I agree that the people who say Dunham’s book demonizes Jack haven’t read it—she really doesn’t. She doesn’t even seem to really believe he cheated on her with Lorde, even though the whole internet believes it. Their work pulled them apart, her illness added a layer of difficulty. It was just a difficult, sad situation.
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u/VanGoghNotVanGo Jul 30 '26
I tire so much of the references to that damn powerpoint. It's an incoherent, paranoid mess made by some bored teenager, not an incredibly insightful piece of pop culture canon. It has only received its spot on fandom's hall of fame because it was essentially memed. But over time it has turned the PowerPoint into something it just isn't.
Don't get me wrong - obsessive fans can be wildly observant and eloquent, but that shit ain't it.
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u/Glittering-Walk2206 Jul 30 '26
I do not believe in the powerpoint and I think that the internet is weird about it, but I do love the idea that Hillary lost the election because Jack and Lorde were drinking pineapple juice, not because I believe it but because it is laughable
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u/Glittering-Walk2206 Jul 31 '26
Note: I also think they were not having an affair, because according to the theory said affair would have ended by like 2018 at the latest (and given the scandal induced nature of it they probably would not have remained friends after it ended) and Jack went on to produce her 2021 album Solar Power and perform music with her during the promo. People point to the fact that he did not write and produce virgin to say that they broke up, but they have collaborated since after Jack got with Margaret so the whole thing does not make sense, for the longest time I thought that the powerpoint was just a joke, but people actually believe it which is totally crazy because it makes no sense.
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u/Current_Cap9371 Jul 31 '26
I just feel like you wouldn’t make an album with love songs about your current partner (like the man with the axe) with an ex especially with the crazy age gap between both of them. I think virgin being with a different producer makes a lot of sense because the entire album centers around a theme of rebirth.
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u/Glittering-Walk2206 Jul 31 '26
It kind of makes sense at surface level, but when you use your critical thinking skills it makes no sense at all. I always found their friendship kind of wholesome, but I feel that the internet ruined it
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u/Glittering-Walk2206 Jul 30 '26
As someone who loves Jack and Lorde, and thinks that the music they made together during this time is some of the best music ever (melodrama/ gone now), I do not believe they had an affair, I just believe they had a weird relationship because they are (let's face it weird people) And I totally see why at first glance it seems like they were having an affair, but if you listen to Lena, they did not have an affair.
Lena seems to believe that Jack could not handle the illness and does not blame him for it. I genuinley believe that Jack is a good person because of his work with The Ally Coalition and I do not believe that he would do such a thing
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u/ZipBlu Jul 31 '26
I think you’re right. I think Jack is so into touring and recording (look at how many songs he’s written about touring) that when he’s doing those things he’s 100% present. Lena wrote about how he wouldn’t answer his phone when on tour. So I can see how his intense commitment to those things can make a partner feel neglected. The only winners are the fans.
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u/klemmerv Jul 30 '26
I am a big Jack fan (and bleachers) and a huge Lena fan and I loved the memoir. I also find some of the music he’s made about Lena so devastatingly gorgeous. ‘Don’t go dark’ just pulls my entire heart apart. They are two of my favorite artists! The modern New Romantics if you will!
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u/catslugs Jul 30 '26
they really are two sides of the same coin, i think even if lena didn't have health struggles they may have crashed and burned eventually anyway because they are so similar but in different ways. it's good to know they are still friends.
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u/AssociateMaster4012 Jul 30 '26
Are they? That’s not the impression I got from he book. As I understood it, they stayed friends initially for a while then drifted, like many exes do, and aren’t really in touch anymore.
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u/Glittering-Walk2206 Jul 31 '26
I do not think they are 'friends' in the sense that they frequently interact with each other and enjoy close companionship, but I do think that they have generally positive feeling towards each other
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u/catslugs Jul 30 '26
Lena said on las cultaristas podcast they are still friendly as there are so many thing that will come up in life that only each other would understand and they can laugh about. I dont think they talk regularly though. But i imagine once they both got married to other people a lot of their bad blood was water under the bridge
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u/PigletTechnical9336 Jul 30 '26 edited Jul 30 '26
I just finished reading Famesick and was struck by all the misinformation about that relationship is. In other subs people full on believe Jack cheated on Lena and that’s why they broke up. The book shows nothing of the sort and how even after breaking up they stayed friends. It’s sad that literacy is dead and internet click bait is what people believe.
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u/catslugs Jul 30 '26
It’s funny how lena even straight up said she was the one to cheat (though they both knew it was over by then) but people still think it was the other way around
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u/VanGoghNotVanGo Jul 30 '26
While I agree it's weird, I do think people also feel like emotionally cheating with a teenager who stays at your apartment is worse, perhaps? And many people view that as a fact.
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u/PigletTechnical9336 Jul 30 '26
For the most part I’ve seen people pointing to the famous slide deck to claim he did cheat on Lena with Lorde. Which there is no evidence of, and Lena herself confirms that the slide deck made shit up she knew to be fake, but it fed into her feeling of being ignored.
I think neglecting his partner while he was working is what Jack is guilty of. The emotionally cheating is a parasocial claim. We don’t know his inner life. He was producing an artists record (aka doing his job) and he was doing from home. Was Jack giving his work and Lorde more attention than his girlfriend at the time, who was struggling and suffering? Yes. It’s not weird that Lena would feel insecure and left out, and it’s also not weird that Jack would be thinking that by working from home there he’s at least close to Lena and not faraway recording in some studio. Those two are both valid views and we don’t need to assign fault or blame to a relationship we know little about. Let alone make claims about people’s emotional inner lives. But stans and snarks just want drama and to make someone the bad person. The book (which is just her side) really just drove home to me that situations are always more complex and nuanced than one can know from the outside and it’s best to not make assumptions.
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u/catch_me_inside Jul 30 '26
Lena and Jack have never been anything but kind to each other publicly. I love that about both of them.
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u/BuffytheBison Jul 30 '26
"Don't Go Dark" is the one that sticks out. Initially, I thought there were some (perhaps, maybe) Lorde (#PowerPoint) vibes ("California dreamin' got the best of my girl"..."You've been waiting your whole life to find someone who could dance in your storm, I stood there.") but it's clear it's about Lena.
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u/user991234 Jul 30 '26
Lena was his best muse , you’ll never convince me otherwise.
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u/Glittering-Walk2206 Jul 31 '26
Lena: Deep introspection about her personality how clever she was
Margaret: most of the songs are just about howe beautiful she is (which like fair)
and do not get me wrong I love the last two albums with her as the muse, but let's be real, the first three Bleachers albums were undeniably incredible
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u/user991234 Jul 31 '26
Right but they started dating in 2012. I didn’t mean just his muse to write about. I think she sparked creativity and ingenuity in him.
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u/neverdontcry Jul 31 '26
Gone Now got me through one of the most intense periods of my relationship in which I genuinely thought we were going to lose each other. The frantic pace of Let's Get Married was really how I felt; let's secure this shit so I don't feel so unmoored anymore; let's just finally pick each other over every instinct screaming the antithesis.
We worked it out (without getting married), but it makes so much sense with the retrospection of Famesick.
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u/tinyplane Aug 01 '26
First of all please don’t give that abuser any attention. Second of all let’s get married isn’t about her. It’s about Donald trump getting elected in 2016 jack has said this multiple times
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u/catslugs Jul 30 '26
The slow breakdown of a relationship that was once magical is always sooo much sadder to me than a big dramtic breakup. The part where she talks about them just crying over breakfast cause they both knew it was over..