The Hoya: The Guide: February 4, 2022

COMMENTARY Wordle thrives as the internet’s newest, most addicting puzzle game. B4

FILM “The Royal Treatment” fails to shine as an original romance film, feeling shallow. B6

NEW RELEASES Check out the newest shows to binge, like “Pam & Tommy.” B8

February 4, 2022

Vibe_ Dominates as Campus K-pop Group Students create a space to share their passion for Korean music while showing off their skills.

Logan Castellanos and Marwa Katir Hoya Staff Writer and Special to The Hoya

ILLUSTRATION BY: NATASHA LEONG/THE HOYA

Georgetown K-pop Dance Crew Vibe_ Dominates on Social Media Vibe_ is one of Georgetown’s many dance clubs, showcasing the choreography and rhythms popularized by South Korea’s most famous idols.

Logan Castellanos and Marwa Katir Hoya Staff Writers

Vibe_, Georgetown University’s K-pop dance crew, struck “Dynamite” by tapping into the worldwide phenomenon of Korean pop music and dance to construct a welcoming and energetic community on campus.

Students founded Vibe_ in 2018 after experiencing a lack of representation and space for those interested in modern Korean and East

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Asian dance in the Georgetown community. Despite being a young club, Vibe_ has made great leaps in order to differentiate itself from the Korean Student Association (KSA) as a pop culture and dance-oriented club and provide a space for anyone who shares a passion for K-pop.

Anna Cheng (MSB ’25) — a member of Vibe_ — said the group is important to her because of the welcoming atmosphere of the club.

“Vibe_ in general is very inclusive. The K-pop community is a very inclusive community. It

COURTESY BECKS TRUONG

Vibe_, Georgetown’s K-pop dance crew, brought excitement to students with its welcoming and fun community. Since 2018, it has posted over 40 dance covers and has thrived during the pandemic due to its strong online presence.

doesn’t matter if you don’t speak Korean or if you’re not Korean or if you don’t know anything about Korean culture,” Cheng said in an interview with The Hoya. “I feel like you can still enjoy K-pop in general because it’s just a form of entertainment, and I think that if you appreciate music or dance I think you would enjoy K-pop.”

From 2018 to now, Vibe_ has experienced the connective power of the internet during the COVID-19 pandemic and transformed into a more resilient, passionate dance community on campus

THEHOYA.COM | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2022

that uses social media to grow their community.

Vibe_ and K-pop on Campus

Following the emergence of K-pop in Western media in 2018, Vibe_ has provided a space where K-pop fans can build community and share their love for dance.

Megan Joson (MSB ’22), president of Vibe_, has been a part of the dance group since its beginnings; she started leaning into the choreographic side of K-pop in high school and joined Vibe_ to continue her passion in college.

“I had been listening to K-pop kind of all throughout high school, but towards the last few years of high school, I started getting into actually learning choreography myself, and I had a really great time doing that with my friends,” Joson said in an interview with The Hoya. “I was trying to find something similar on Georgetown’s campus. I was really lucky that I was able to find Vibe_.”

Since 2018, Vibe_ has posted over 40 dance covers on their YouTube channel, Instagram page and TikTok account. The dance crew now has almost 90 members, all of whom help foster a vibrant Kpop dance community, according to Joson.

“Not only did they provide a space for people who are passionate and interested in dancing, it is also just such a welcoming and fun community to be a part of,” Joson said. “Those two factors really made Vibe_ something that I wanted to join and also stay involved with throughout my entire time at Georgetown.”

The rise of the club’s social media presence followed a boom in K-pop consumption worldwide. In 2016, groups like BTS and BLACKPINK burst onto the international stage, amassing hundreds of millions of YouTube views and monumental album sales. Four years later, Kpop’s popularity grew exponentially on streaming platforms and social media sites. Mainstream news sources such as The Washington Post and Vox attribute K-pop’s large online presence to the addictive rhythms and genremixing featured in many mega-hits like BTS’s “ON,” aespa’s “Next Level” or TWICE’s “FANCY.” Cheng described her relationship with K-pop as a universal one.

“Dance is a global language,” Cheng said.

K-pop, though significantly culturally impacted, is simply another form of entertainment that a wide variety of onlookers can enjoy. Cheng said that the K-pop community is special in that it draws inspiration from many genres of music, such as hip-hop and rap, to create something universally appealing that any audience member can relate to.

Vibe_, at its core, is a club designed purely for members to bond over their love of K-pop, regardless of dance skill level or knowledge of Korean culture, according to Becks Truong (COL ’24), who served as the Marketing and Media Director of Vibe_ last semester.

“We are not an affinity club, and we are not a replacement for KSA,” Truong told The Hoya.

“We are just people who like K-pop. No matter the level of expertise or skill a potential member has, Vibe_ is a welcoming place to both

learn about K-Urban dance and be social with those who share your interests.”

The Key to Online Engagement

From performing live at UNICEF’s 2019 Student Summit to suddenly being only able to connect virtually, Vibe_ found its footing online by following in the footsteps of big K-pop groups.

The prevalence of K-pop performances, dance challenges and covers of choreography on social media helped Vibe_ figure out the next steps to take in an uncertain time.

“The fact that there’s a precedent of people learning dances on their own and posting dance covers on the Internet, regardless of where they might be located, definitely gave us a lot of ideas on what we could do as a club moving forward,” Joson said.

K-pop’s significant online presence allowed Vibe_ to seamlessly maintain an interactive community in a period of discord and disconnect.

“I think, obviously, for people who know K-pop, know that social media has been very integral in the kind of proliferation and spread of [the genre] around the world. … It’s been the number one way that we’ve capitalized on the big following of Kpop on social media,” Joson said.

However, transitioning to an online environment in March 2020 posed an obstacle to fulfilling the club’s core mission: how could you be a dance group when you couldn’t dance together?

“It’s hard to do things online because of the nature of the dance club. The whole point is to get together and do dances and covers together,” Joy Chung (COL ’24), a member of Vibe_, told The Hoya.

Although challenging, pushing choreography online was one way Vibe_ started to become part of the online K-pop phenomena.

Creating new online opportunities, the group found a way to still have general body members engage with dance in a virtual environment by drawing inspiration from tech-savvy K-pop idols, according to Truong. Monthly Virtual Dance Challenges (VDCs) kept members engaged and active even without being able to meet face to face during the virtual academic year, according to Truong.

“We would announce the name of a song, the time stamp, typically the chorus part of the dance, and then give the general body members a week or so to submit the videos,” Truong said.

“Me and the other senior advisor would edit them within a week or so and then release [the VDCs] for everyone to see.”

Since the beginning of the club, Instagram has been Vibe_’s hub for sharing performance videos.

Though YouTube and the South Korean streaming platform “VLive” are the main tools used by the largest K-pop groups, using Instagram allows Vibe_ to take a more personalized approach, according to Truong.

Social media can connect both die-hard K-pop fans and newcomers to the genre. Not only do current K-pop fans interact with artists and other fans on these platforms, new fans are also able to discover artists easier than ever before through social media.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2022 | THEHOYA.COM

COURTESY BECKS TRUONG

As both a social and dance club, Vibe_ strives to maintain an inclusive community in which anyone who loves K-pop can join and interact with those who share their interests, no matter their dance skill level.

This strategic use of online platforms is key to K-pop’s success, according to Chung.

“I would actually argue that social media is the main way that K-pop has kind of reached a broader audience. I think through social media, it has been able to reach a much larger audience and kind of with little hip-hop dance trends or things like that. Obviously social media is the easiest way to reach many people,” Chung said.

Beyond the Dance Studio

Because Vibe_ prides itself on being a welcoming community to students of any skill level, the organization has created a space where members can freely come together and bond over their shared interest.

“It’s not just a space for people to come and dance and then that’s it,” Joson said. “We’ve built a community of people who are interested in Kpop. The community that has been forged was not exclusive through dancing, but with dancing as a main pillar grounding the community.”

Cheng came to Georgetown with an existing passion for K-pop, thanks to her friends from

high school. Excited to find a community of fellow K-pop lovers, Cheng joined Vibe_ in the fall of 2021.

“I joined it mainly because I really wanted the dance community, or just a community where people have the same interests as me,” Cheng said. “It’s really interesting interacting with everybody in the club because you get to see like ‘Oh, we have this band in common, but I also listen to this one, and I think you should check it out’ or maybe we have the same favorite band but a different favorite member, and that speaks a lot to someone’s personality.”

Ultimately, overcoming the challenges of the transition to an online environment strengthened Vibe_’s ability to harness the benefits of social media even after the university returned to in-person operations in August 2021, according to Joson.

“Looking back, we actually did quite a good job of adapting,” Joson said. “We were still able to bring people together, even if it wasn’t synchronously and put something out that [members] can look back on and be proud of.”

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SAMI POWDERLY/THE HOYA, JESSICA LIN/THE HOYA

“Wordle” is the most disussed game on the internet right now. It flexes our lexicons and linguistic knowledge with a new, different puzzle to solve every day.

COMMENTARY

The Word on Wordle: The Puzzle Game Consuming the Internet Clayton Kincade Guide Review Desk

If you are unfortunate enough to be an active user on the hellscape that is Twitter, you have undoubtedly seen those ominous gray, yellow and green squares with a foreboding label: Wordle 226, 4/6. If you know, you know, and if you don’t know, your life is about to change.

Although it looks like thousands of Twitter users have started speaking in code, the answer to the Wordle’s mystery is simple: every 24 hours, you have six chances to guess a five-letter word.

Upon submitting your initial guess, a gray square means the character is not in the word; a yellow square means the character is in the word, but in the wrong placement; and a green square means that the character is in the word and in the right placement.

When you open the website, all five-letter words seem to disappear from your brain’s vocabulary when you have a mere six chances to one up your friends. Alongside a score-sharing feature that entices friends to compete with one another, these features have enabled Wordle to capture the attention of internet users across the world.

Created by Josh Wardle — and named after an ingenious riff on his last name — the game was

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originally made for his partner, a lover of word puzzle games. Seemingly overnight, the game exploded; it made its way into casual conversations, social media feeds, and yes, even The Hoya’s office.

But what makes the game so addictive? Presumably, it’s a sly way of flexing our lexicons and linguistic knowledge, a humble brag of being a secret English major-in-training. Guessing the word in the least amount of tries is ideal, though consistent low scores might warrant suspicion and accusations of cheating from your peers.

Example A: You guess the Wordle in one try — no one is that lucky!

Example B: You fail the Wordle on your phone, only to magically solve it in two guesses from your computer. You are not fooling anyone.

Example C: You see a peer playing Wordle, note that they already have some correct guesses down on their screen, and start from there. This author is guilty as charged.

Very quickly, one must develop strategies. Do you always start with the same word, trying to shove as many vowels into it as you can? Popular favorites for this strategy include “adieu” and “irate.” Or, do you proceed to risk guessing a word with a letter already thrown out in hopes of getting a different placement correct? There is no correct answer, but the prize of joining an imaginary circle of winners

is always the same.

Moreover, your Wordle results tell an intricate story. You can tell when someone struggled to find the first letter of the word, guessed until a character stuck or clutched at the last possible chance. Every day, every Wordle, is a new tale to investigate.

As a daily Wordle player, I have yet to decipher its secret formula. For me, it’s merely a bitesized treat in between classes, a break during homework assignments and closure at the end of a long day. With Wordle’s daily release, I can always look forward to the next day of play; life becomes blissful and beautiful.

At this point, anything can be Wordle-inspired.

Take your pick from this exhaustive list of clones: Taylordle (Taylor Swift-themed Wordle, a personal favorite), Hogwardle (Harry Potter-themed Wordle), Dordle (guess two words at once, if you’re brave enough), and Letterle (I just have to ask — why?).

In addition, Wordle’s square template has reached beyond clone games. Organizations have begun to use the easy-to-recognize formula for political flyers, and one organization used the Wordle template to promote awareness of climate change.

Unfortunately, Wordle’s unprecedented rise has brought the attention of corporate America, the killer of all trends. Featuring pervasive images

of Wordle’s group of squares, the Wordle-inspired meme format these brands have co-opted follows a “not a Wordle, but [sic]” formula. McDonalds, Buffalo Wild Wings and OREO Cookie are all culprits of this stale-on-arrival trend, using the phrase to promote an aspect of their brand.

On Jan. 31, 2022, it was announced that the original Wordle was sold by Wardle to The New York Times. While it’s promised that Wordle will remain free-to-play after the full transfer and acquisition, there is no telling if this promise will be broken years down the line.

Is Wordle going to become the next forgotten online game, or will it become a proud notch on our New York Times leaderboards?

Despite its lack of immunity from the greedy hands of Corporate Twitter, it is hard to deny Wordle’s towering presence. Is it a genius online game, short-term trend, or the newest casualty of corporate involvement? At this point, everyone will probably give you a different answer — and Wordle’s future is only just beginning.

The future of Wordle’s grip on our lives is unclear. Alas, until its dying breath, I will await the flood of social media notifications at midnight: Wordle in four. Guess what, Twitter? I got the Wordle in three tries, and my green squares look like a staircase — beat that.

THEHOYA.COM | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2022

FILM WITHOUT FLUFF

‘The Book of Boba Fett’ Revives a Classic Film Icon Elena Martinez Columnist

Disney has done it again, this time providing a television series sure to make content-deprived Star Wars fans breathe a sigh of relief. Released on Disney+ in December 2021, “The Book of Boba Fett,” created by Disney legend Jon Favreau, successfully incorporates beloved aspects from the 1970s Star Wars films with elements of modernity, meaning both young and old fans will find something to appreciate.

The series follows fan-favorite Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) immediately after his surprise appearance in the second season of the widely successful space-western “The Mandalorian.” “The Book of Boba Fett” offers new beginnings for the stoic, blaster-slinging bounty hunter with nuanced storytelling that

subconsciously recalls the nostalgic epicness of the original Star Wars trilogy and thoughtprovoking themes of political stagnation and community formation.

For the readers who actually have a life and much better things to do than read Wookieepedia lore, Boba had previously served as a bounty hunter for Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy before he was pushed into the Sarlacc Pit by a temporarily blinded Han Solo.

“The Book of Boba Fett” follows his escape from the pit, where director George Lucas sentenced his character to death by digestion in 1983.

Throughout the first five episodes, flashbacks explain much of Boba’s past with minimal details provided on his future. The audience sees Boba’s escape, his survival in the scalding sands of the galactic Wild West, and his heroic rescue of his most important ally, Fennec Shand, who is brilliantly played by Ming-Na Wen, a popular actor in the Marvel and Star Wars universes.

The series’s biggest strength is its visual storytelling, which relies on callbacks to iconic

NEW RELEASES

scenes and near-poetic parallels with its base material. Chapter five, directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, sees the return of the Naboo starfighter, a combat ship last seen in “The Phantom Menace” that now functions as a sweet ride for the Mandalorian himself. The following episode welcomes back characters from across the Star Wars canon, Jedi and bounty hunters alike.

All of these callbacks remind viewers — and perhaps the characters themselves — that there is a near-symmetric order to this galaxy, especially as it tries to reestablish itself. Their return tells viewers their story is incomplete, and thus maintains the ever-evolving and beautiful nature of the Star Wars universe that preserves memorable moments and seeks to create new ones in its forty-five year enduring epoch.

However, the show does have its various issues. With only a seven episode run, it is more of a pamphlet than a book, and its slow pacing has upset viewers and critics alike, with audiences asking when anything, other than landscape scenes and flashbacks, will occur. Is it too much

to ask for lightsabers before a season finale?

The world-building is also inconsistent, as a running trope in the Star Wars universe revolves around how unremarkable the backwater planet of Tatooine is, even though everything remarkable happens on Tatooine.

Long-time fans are left struggling to determine if this is still the planet a young Luke Skywalker left behind to save the galaxy or if the Star Wars franchise is veering too far away from what once made it great.

Many of the issues Boba deals with are haunted by the past. In recent years, it appears the United States’ government has been dealing with the same thing. This current impasse in American politics mirrors the situation the writers of “The Book of Boba Fett” writers lay before us.

The personal nature of the show’s character arcs offers an overarching, important tenet for its viewers to consider: not everyone is born a leader, but anyone is capable of becoming one.

Sometimes all it takes is a reprise.

By James Pocchia

‘POKÉMON LEGENDS: ARCEUS’

‘ANAÏS MITCHELL’

The Pokémon Company added another entry to its growing list of Nintendo Switch games Jan. 28. “Arceus” combines the style of its predecessors with fresh new elements and engaging storytelling, though its visuals are lackluster compared to previous installments.

The eponymous album from singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell has garnered appraisal since its release Jan. 28. The folk artist’s latest release features lyrics that reflect wistful ruminations on love and the passage of time in an understated fashion. Numerous other artists also contributed, including Thomas Bartlett and Josh Kaufman.

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ANAÏS MITCHELL

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‘THE FALLOUT’

‘PAM & TOMMY’: SEASON 1

Winner of the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at the 2021 South by Southwest Film Festival, “The Fallout” from director Megan Park explores the relationships forged by teenage students in the wake of a devastating tragedy. Critics tout the film’s realistic depiction of the adolescent psyche as well as the outstanding starring performance from young actress Jenna Ortega.

The movie is streaming now on HBO Max.

Coming to Hulu Feb. 2 is the inaugural season of a new head-turning television biopic that chronicles the tumultuous relationship between Pamela Anderson (Lily James), star of the 1990s series “Baywatch,” and Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) as they navigate an infamous scandal. Although the series’s execution is uneven, Lily James’ effervescent performance in the leading role saves the show.

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FILM

@NETFLIXFILM/TWITTER

‘The Royal Treatment’ Disenchants Directed by: Rick Jacobson

“The Royal Treatment,” Netflix’s latest romance, is a meaningless and stereotypical romance movie. The movie tries to share messages of female empowerment and political activism, but in the end, does neither well.

Starring: Laura Marano, Mena Massoud

 Emily Smith

Hoya Staff Writer

Netflix’s latest film “The Royal Treatment” attempts to infuse the ever-lasting comfort of a Hallmark movie with strong messages of female empowerment and political activism, but ultimately falls flat in refusing to commit to one or the other. In the end, “The Royal Treatment” needs to be treated to better writing.

Laura Marano stars as Isabella (Izzy), an Italian American woman living in New York City and working for her family’s hair salon.

Izzy follows the archetype of many rom-com ingenues: an independent, beautiful, sarcastic woman with a heart of gold. While Laura is clearly unhappy working for her mother, she puts her personal aspirations of one day being a director aside and instead gives neighborhood children free haircuts and doughnuts.

Enter Prince Thomas (Mena Massoud), the dreamy prince of fictional Lavania, who

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is visiting New York. Thomas’ loveable assistant Walter (Cameron Rhodes) accidentally books Izzy for an expensive haircut instead of a more reputable, high-class salon, setting the stage for their meeting. How romantic!

From the beginning, it is clear that Netflix tried to tweak the typical boy-meets-girl-thenbreak-up-before-reconciliation plot line. This attempt was a failure, as the protagonists follow the same plot trajectory, albeit with a few modern twists. In casting Marano, star of the early 2010s Disney show “Austin and Ally,” “The Royal Treatment” was undoubtedly going to be compared to Disney childhood classics from the last decade.

Netflix plays into this nostalgia while taking the film in a progressive direction, but lacks the writing prowess to successfully pull it off.

For example, in one of their secret outings, Izzy and Thomas visit what Thomas deems the “bad” part of a town in Lavania. However, the area is quite lively and heavily focused on community, prompting Thomas to go to his parents,

the king and queen of Lavania, to request that they do more to help the residents of the area.

When this notion does not seem to come to fruition, even though his parents promise to do more for the area, Thomas fights them.

Netflix lets the love story take second stage to the advocacy of underdeveloped communities at this moment. It is a noble goal that unfortunately feels too forced.

Despite its best intentions, the social justice influences only highlight the obnoxiously dull, painfully flat characters of the film — particularly Thomas, because his static character is contrasted with complex, real-world issues in his community. Massoud’s charm saves the character from being totally unwatchable, but he cannot hide the fact that the prince has not had one intellectual thought until the film’s second half.

“The Royal Treatment” also aims to show that Izzy is her own person, not merely a girl that simply falls in love. She looks out for her family, stands up for her morals and has a genuine

respect for other humans. However, Izzy’s character is so static that it is difficult to root for her.

What’s more, Marano’s poorly developed New York accent is a sore distraction to the plot.

The central characters just underscore the fact that the film struggles with its writing, as they are so dull, especially in contrast to major social justice issues the film attempts to tackle.

With more thought and care put into its character development, the film probably had potential to become a stand-out for Netflix. “The Royal Treatment” has all the makings of a beloved romcom: a prince, a commoner, innocent flirting, an arranged marriage and a picturesque town — in this case, in a fictitious country. However, the movie incessantly plays into every picturesque, romantic plot line present, rather than carving out a meaningful, original story for Thomas and Izzy.

At the end of the film, their Happily Ever After will leave you feeling about as lukewarm as most poorly funded TV movies, discounted chocolate boxes and trashy romance novels will.

THEHOYA.COM | FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2022

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Rapper Earl Sweatshirt’s new album “SICK!” explores the joys of being a father, while reflecting on the realities of the pandemic. The album also contains diverse beats and themes.

MUSIC

Earl Sweatshirt Stuns with Consistent Skill and Expert Lyricism on “SICK!”  Ishaan Rai

Guide Review Desk

Acclaimed rapper Earl Sweatshirt has returned with his first full-length album in four years. It’s a brief but entertaining listen that fulfills his fans’ expectations with smart wordplay that delves into themes on newfound fatherhood and pandemic isolation gilded by a variety of trap beats.

Earl Sweatshirt, whose real name is Thebe Neruda Kgositsile, began his career as the youngest member of the hip-hop collective Odd Future, whose membership included now-heavyweights like Frank Ocean and Tyler,

the Creator. Earl released his solo debut mixtape, “Earl,” in 2010 to critical acclaim, and has since produced three albums and two EPs. Sweatshirt’s latest work comes a year after the birth of his son, arriving with the newfound responsibility of fatherhood. This milestone, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, are the inspiration for the album’s fitting title, “SICK!” The album’s length initially strikes as concerningly short, clocking in at just ten songs in under 30 minutes. However, the slimness of “SICK!” ends up being a smart move by allowing Earl to avoid the incessant bloat that unfortunately plagues many modern rap albums. This album remains laser-focused on delivering memorable songs.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2022 | THEHOYA.COM

Produced by a range of artists, including Earl himself, the album utilizes a diverse array of trap and lo-fi beats, supported by Earl’s slightly slurred yet completely comprehensible flow. The album sets the methodical tone with its first song, “Old Friend,” a brisk introduction backed by a classical violin sample that explores themes of overcoming struggle and welcoming new opportunities.

On “Old Friend,” Sweatshirt reflects with cautious optimism on becoming a father, finding joy in his daily routine and hoping the fate of the pandemic becomes endemic: “Wild cat has got ’em in a bind, stay inside / Know I came out from the thicket smiling.”

The album’s strongest material lies in the front of the tracklist, including “2010,” which is characterized by a hypnotizing techno beat, and “Tabula Rasa,” which features a soothing piano sample. The middle of the tracklist bores the ears, but the album rebounds with the last two songs “Titanic” and “Fire in the Hole,” dominated by a smooth surf-guitar sample that ultimately fades into silence.

Regardless of these sonic hitches, Sweatshirt’s lyricism remains consistent throughout, showing his knack for rhyming and word play.

For example, on “Fire in the Hole,” Sweatshirt flexes his signature wordplay by infusing both COVID-19 tests and a romantic relationship into a singular verse: “Blood seeping into the mulch, I needed a quick result / I read it and don’t respond / She see it, it’s salt sprinkled.”

The album’s themes are just as eclectic as its beats, with commentary varying from being stuck inside during lockdown to the revolutionary power of music in Africa. The latter is perhaps a memorandum to Sweatshirt’s late father, Keorapetse Kgositsile, who was from South Africa.

Nonetheless, the features on “SICK!” are sorely lacking, with only Armand Hammer’s fierce verse in “Tabula Rasa” standing out as a gem. Otherwise, the album is highly introspective, centered squarely on Sweatshirt and his thoughts; its fresh perspective distinguishes itself from similar-sounding hiphop albums of the modern scene.

Despite this breath of fresh air, “SICK!” is nothing revolutionary. No one song sticks out as particularly memorable, and the sounds generally adhere to what listeners have expected from Earl throughout his career. Additionally, some of the songs feel a bit too short, with more than half of them not even hitting two minutes.

But these faults do not take much away from the hypnotic listening experience, as the whole of Sweatshirt’s creation is greater than the sum of its parts: the full package is no doubt a project in which fans will be happy to indulge.

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BETWEEN THE COVERS

‘The Hating Game’ Represents the Worst of the Romance Genre Hoya Staff Writer

I present the following summary of a book: Person A does not like Person B for some minor reason that has blossomed into full, blown-out hatred. Circumstances force them into close quarters — both figuratively and literally.

As they start to get to know each other better, Person A realizes that they actually like Person B and the original snub was a miscommunication. They ultimately give into their mutual attraction, and they admit that their hatred has transformed into…love.

I have read this book, and you probably have too.

Sally Thorne’s “The Hating Game” features this seemingly unrealistic plot line, yet the novel gives hopeless romantics

WHAT TO DO IN DC

Commemorate Black History Month by visiting the “Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom: The End of Segregation 1876-1968” exhibit in the National Museum of African American History & Culture. Visitors can view Martin Luther King, Jr.’s original “I Have a Dream” speech and associated historical objects through Feb. 27. Admission is free, though advanced booking is required.

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THIS ISSUE’S QUIZ

ARTECHOUSE DC

1238 Maryland Ave. SW

Check out “Transient: Impermanent Paintings,” an immersive experience that combines art, music and technology.

This mesmerizing exhibition uniquely explores the boundary between humans and machines. Make sure to apply for the student discount!

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DEFENDING FREEDOM, DEFINING FREEDOM

1400 Constitution Ave. NW

result of love at first sight.

This scene of mistaken first impressions has been done time and time again in romance novels. And why? I think it is because it is inherently hopeful, as it suggests that people are better than we think they are. Perhaps their behavior is bad, but their reasons might be good.

Cynicism is often prized as a badge of experience in literary worlds, but books like “The Hating Game” introduce us to a land where realizing you were wrong means falling in love instead of falling from grace. Given today’s state of affairs, it’s no wonder we would like to escape for a little bit.

Sure, “The Hating Game,” like many of its predecessors, is predictable and written for hopeless romantics like me. But that does not mean it is not an enjoyable work of fiction that provides exactly what readers are seeking. It is time to stop hating and start appreciating the enemies-to-lovers trope and all the hope that comes along with it.

By Varsha Venkatram

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many films. Its plot follows the exact progression of the one described at the beginning of this article to excellent effect.

It has everything you could want: banter with sexual tension, fighting with sexual tension, confessions with sexual tension, and, of course, the enemies to lovers trope.

And to be honest, I have a theory about why this particular plot device is so popular among straight female audiences: We like to believe that all the men who have ever been mean to us were just secretly in love.

The one who commented on your looks in a way that destroyed your self-confidence for the rest of middle school? In love. The one who called you a bitch at work? In love. The one who ghosted you after one date? In love.

“The Hating Game” does a great job playing to this unspoken desire of wanting to be loved in a dog-eat-dog, misogynistic world. In their first encounter, Lucy greets Josh with a big smile, to which he frowns and walks away. It is only later in the book that readers learn his reaction was the

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Melinda Reed

exactly what they are looking for in a read. You might think I am criticizing the predictability of the romance genre, but I am not. Art that surprises us has value, but so does art that follows the same path carved into books a hundred times before.

I love contemporary romance novels, especially because they are predictable. I am countless romance titles in and I still have not tired of the aforementioned plot.

Romance novel audiences actually even have a phrase for this plot now — the enemies-to-lovers trope.

The literary romance genre has seen a boom in the past few years. One of the most popular recent titles, “The Hating Game,” was developed into a 2021 film starring Lucy Hale and Austin Stowell, and directed by Peter Hutchings. This movie was a victory for all the people who, like me, think Hollywood should stop remaking things and only adapt books.

Before the movie gave us the characters of Lucy Hutton and Joshua Templeman, the book did — as is the case with

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Book your tickets now! With advanced reservation, tickets to the newly reopened NatGeo Museum are free through the month of February. Visit incredible exhibits like “Greatest Wildlife Photographs” and “Once Upon a Climb: Stories from Everest” while navigating the museum’s hallowed and informative corridors.

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