Hello everyone, and welcome back to the blog! It has been a wild summer and I spent a lot of money on books (as usual). However, I have yet to read the vast majority of them. Therefore, this semester will be more of a book review. My time will be spent constructing and (hopefully) adhering to a reading schedule, where I will read a book between each blog and write about my experiences with it through the lens of the funky songs I come across. This plan cannot possibly fall apart, so it will be a blast to work through the weeks with more material and adventures through my library. Additionally, most of these books will all hold a similar theme. I’ve been allocating a lot of my time to reading new LGBTQIA+ stories emerging into the publishing world, so most of the new additions to my shelves are just that. So, for the foreseeable future I’m going to spice up our lives by reading through my abundant amount of queer literature and expose you all to the madness that are the ideas floating around in my head. Without further ado, here is the newest addition to my Etude to Eden: Loveless by Alice Oseman.
Anyone keeping up with Netflix releases may be familiar with this author, as she also created the graphic novel Heartstopper, which recently became a TV show adaptation. While my friend was obsessively rewatching the show, I was busy with my head in her most recent release, Loveless. This novel has many levels to it. At face value, it is a story following a group of university students as they desperately attempt to revive their University’s Shakespeare Society. Meanwhile, the heart of the story resides in the main character’s journey to discovering what her identity is and her place in her own life. Georgia Warr is a first-year student at Durham University. Her and her two friends from home, Pip and Jason, are going to the same university and are moving in when Georgia finds out she has a roommate, Rooney Bach. Georgia quickly discovers that her and her roommate have a love of Shakespeare and theatre in common, but nothing much else. Rooney goes out partying and meeting random boys every night while Georgia would much rather stay in her room all night. However, Rooney is not as different as she seems and the carefully woven facade she has created around herself begins unraveling as the school year goes on. Meanwhile, Georgia is having a crisis about never having had a crush before and how to establish a fantasy uni romance, only to be led into an interesting direction by the President of the Pride Society, Sunil. Georgia, after eventually coming to accept that she is aromantic and asexual (aroace), has to piece the ragtag group of friends – which has been haphazardly split after several horrible attempts at self-discovery – back together in time for their big night on stage for their play.
Now, it was a no-brainer to figure out my first topic after the summer, but the song definitely became stuck in the brainstorm chasm for a while. I had a list of options, but it was hard to puzzle through them to find what encompassed a given concept within the novel the best. My initial thought laid with “We’ll Never Have Sex” by Leigh Ross because of how it has largely become an ace anthem, emphasizing the importance of finding true love that is not just about using someone for their body. However, this song did not truly represent the aromantic side of things, especially with a lot of Georgia’s inner struggle surrounding the possibility of being alone for her whole life while her friends moved on with their significant others. After shopping around in my library of songs and artists, I funnily enough landed on a song that was not initially a pick I would have considered, and was also a song I was heavily connecting to a different story and characters at the time. Nonetheless, this one ultimately fits very well for the purposes of the characters’ struggles throughout the novel. That song is “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears. With each of the characters constantly searching for the control they desire in their own lives, this song felt like it well-encompassed each of their narratives well and would work to accentuate the new experiences they encounter and how they will affect the rest of their lives.
*I’ll put in an appropriate warning for spoilers for this story as the book was published in 2020. I became obsessed with Rooney and her story as it became more developed, so essentially anything I mention about her concerns major developments in her character and what basically became plot-twists for her personality and origin story. You have been warned for these mind-blowing moments…
Welcome to your life
There’s no turning back
Even while we sleep
We will find you
Acting on your best behaviour
Turn your back on Mother Nature
Everybody wants to rule the world
The beginning of this song relates easily to Georgia’s gradual acceptance of her sexuality. As soon as she hears the word “asexual” she establishes a connection with it, making it so she could never turn back from that moment. The events that lead to her being exposed to these new words and experiences is a wild sequence of happenstance that is overall her being confused and misguided. Rooney hears of her nonexistent experience with dating and resolves to help her achieve romance. But Georgia had yet to fully realize what her true feelings were on the matter, and because of this confusion she ultimately begins hurting those around her. In an act of trying to find her happy ever after she had been obsessed over for so long, she snubbed the very nature of her being that unknowingly lived beneath the surface. Despite Georgia unintentionally hurting all of her friends by experimenting with both Jason and Rooney (Pip’s obvious love-interest), she comes to understand what was inside her all along and enacts a giant plan to apologize and make up with all of her friends. The group ends up dedicating their end of the year Shakespeare performance to Georgia for her ability to get them all back together despite the world being against them.
It’s my own design
It’s my own remorse
Help me to decide
Help me make the
Most of freedom and of pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
Throughout Georgia’s journey of figuring herself out, her guide becomes Sunil: her college parent, President of Pride Soc, and eventual friend. Sunil is a homoromantic asexual who uses he/they pronouns. Coming from a small town, the only LGBTQIA+ individual she really knew was her best friend Pip. Coming to a larger university town and meeting so many people with so many different identities was a welcome difference, especially in the case of Sunil. Here, she was able to learn about the large spectrum of sexualities that she may have only heard of on the internet, as well as meet people who identified with them. Meeting Sunil was a momentous occasion for Georgia because she was able to meet and understand someone else who was asexual, and that being asexual was not something to be terrified of. Through the Pride Soc, Georgia is able to become her true self and quit hiding behind what she wanted to be/what society wanted her to be. Georgia becomes more confident and assured in who she is and what she can expect from her life, and that her experiences are valid. Having cleared up her major confusion from the beginning of her life, she is able to make the most out of the rest of it and move onto another chapter. Even if there are some rougher days where she wishes she were someone else with different experiences, she is still her own person and she knows she can make the most out of her life knowing exactly what she is and what she is not.
There’s a room where the light won’t find you
Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down
When they do, I’ll be right behind you
So glad we’ve almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world
This is about to be my Rooney rant so buckle in. This girl has so many insecurities it is astounding. She presents herself as very outgoing and having a lot of friendships. She is constantly partying and attaching herself to a new guy every night. Overall, this is very normal teen behavior, which Georgia acknowledges and is completely alright with, but she also knows deep down that the act appears superficial and that Rooney is hiding something. Throughout the story, attention is often brought to the one photograph Rooney brought to decorate her wall, a picture of her and “mermaid-hair Beth” when they were younger. Nothing is known of this girl for most of the book, and even when her relationship with this girl is revealed, it is not through Rooney, but Beth herself. When Rooney is drunk and locked outside her dorm, she begins calling people in her haze and desperation. One of those people turned out to be Beth. Beth calls back, but it is revealed that Beth does not know who called as it was not a saved number in her phone. Beth explained to Georgia, who answered instead of the now sleeping Rooney, that they knew each other a long time ago, but Rooney transferred schools to be with her boyfriend at the time and they lost contact. When Rooney opened up about this experience herself, she was immensely ashamed by it. In her desperation to be with her boyfriend, she left everyone else behind. This experience left Rooney feeling like she was not worthy of any love because she so easily threw away the people in her life who truly cared for her for someone who ultimately did not. Having finally opened up about what has been weighing on her, and Georgia opening up about her own experiences as well, the two become inseparable and establish an unbreakable bond. By the end of the book they have pushed their beds together and doze off together every night rather than parting ways to isolate themselves, thus displaying a perfect example of platonic love. They are soulmates and from here on nothing can change that.
I can’t stand this indecision
Married with a lack of vision
Everybody wants to rule the—
Say that you’ll never, never, never, never need it
One headline, why believe it?
Everybody wants to rule the world
All for freedom and for pleasure
Nothing ever lasts forever
Everybody wants to rule the world
This last segment of the song is a nice reflection on the steps taken by Georgia to accept her identity. Going home for winter break, when she is arguably at her lowest after seemingly losing all her friends, she is exposed to a lot of conflicting opinions and emotions. Her family comes over for the holidays and this is where we meet her aunt, uncle, and cousin Ellis. Ellis is an immensely successful artist and ex-model, but is still seen as a disappointment by her family for not “having her life together” due to a lack of a partner and children. They view her attention to her work as a distraction for what she should be searching for in life, but Ellis has already come to the conclusion that she does not want that for herself; her parents just cannot come to see it as well. This leads to a blowout between Ellis and her parents which makes Georgia concerned for her own future. Is she really being true to herself? Is she just scared? Will she become the new black sheep of her family? These thoughts lead her to following Ellis as she storms out of the house and they have a conversation about their lives and shared experiences. Ellis is satisfied with her life despite others’ inability to see it. She is not lonely because she has people around her that genuinely care for her. She does not regret living her life the way she does because when it comes down to it, it is not a choice, it is who she is and she is being true to it. Together they know that they will never be alone in this world, because there are people who care for them, and there are others like them everywhere. They do not live in indecision or suffer from a lack of vision, they know who they are and will not shy away from it due to the expectations of the world. They are free. With this realization after their heart-to-heart, Georgia is finally able to have a clearer mindset surrounding her life and understands the importance of being able to bring all of her friends back together.
Loveless is a fantastic story of finding oneself without forgetting to appreciate the aid of those around you. While Georgia’s struggles feel like they are fully internal, they still reflect on the outside and have the ability to harm others. She comes to realize how horrible it is to mess with other people’s feelings while trying to figure out her own. Through those realizations she is able to mend her missteps and even be able to help piece together those who are falling apart around her. None of these characters would have figured out their thoughts and feelings as they have in the story without the help of their friends, and the emphasis of different types of relationships one can have throughout life and their different benefits show how one type is not better than the other, but all are equally important. Whether it be romantic, sexual, platonic, or otherwise, anyone can make a significant impact on your life, so it is wise to be open to letting it happen and see where life will take you on its wild path.
-Lauren Lotarski, Blogger.
Lauren Lotarski – Poetry Editor, Layout Editor and Blogger: Lauren is a Junior at Lewis University majoring in Psychology and English with a concentration in Literature and Language. She is also employed at the university library. In her free time, she likes to read, draw, knit, and consuming general popular media like movies, TV shows, and video games. Some of her favorite authors are Leigh Bardugo, Charles Dickens, and Neil Gaiman. She hopes to improve upon her writing and knowledge of literature during her time at Lewis and applying it to her future endeavors.