4 — Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The best kinds of romance
novels will do more than give
you butterflies in your stomach.
You might cry or scream into
your pillow, or in the case of Ali
Hazelwood’s newest release “Love
on the Brain,” you might walk
away feeling smarter after reading.
“Love on the Brain” follows Bee
Königswasser, a neuroscientist
who has just been offered a dream
career opportunity: working for
NASA on a special mission. Life
in
academia
is
unpredictable
(particularly
when
it
comes
to job security), so Bee needs
everything to go well, but right
away she has her work cut out for
her. The equipment she needs isn’t
ready. She doesn’t have the right
credentials to get into her building.
But worst of all, her co-leader on
the project is Levi Ward, her hot
but sworn enemy from grad school
… or so she thinks.
Given
the
success
of
Hazelwood’s debut “The Love
Hypothesis,” it’s no surprise that
this new “STEM-inist romcom”
was one of the more anticipated
romance books of 2022. At first
glance, the two stories are similar
—
intelligent
but
struggling
scientists, tall love interests that
“hate” their heroine and plenty
of Star Wars references — but
their differences surpass a simple
change in trope.
While Bee and Levi both
have successful careers in their
respective fields and are paired
together on an equal playing
field, the characters in “The
Love Hypothesis” had a more
conflicting relationship as teacher
and student. Beyond that, the
characters in “Love on the Brain”
have more to offer than their
brains or their … well, if you’ve read
the books, you know. Bee may be
an insanely smart neuroscientist,
but it’s her infatuation with “Love
Island” and her downloading of
Couch to 5K apps she hardly ever
uses that makes her so much more
relatable.
In the first chapter, we learn that
Bee’s also faced a lot of hardship in
her life. As a kid she moved around
constantly; she’s been struggling to
move forward professionally; she
was engaged but called it off after
finding out her fiancé slept with
her best friend. Having poured so
much of herself into her career,
Bee is left to wonder who she’d
be without it. Levi, in contrast, is
more than your run-of-the-mill
tall, dark, handsome stranger. He’s
on Bee’s side whenever something
goes wrong, he notices even the
smallest things about her and he
never tires of telling her how he
feels. Also, he goes to therapy.
Enough said.
Having a PhD in neuroscience
herself, Hazelwood knows exactly
what she’s writing about — both
the good and the bad of the field.
She masterfully raises important
questions about gender disparity
in the sciences without the story
coming
across
as
“preachy.”
Bee encounters many of the
struggles that women in STEM
often face. Whether it’s dealing
with mansplainers, sexist bosses
or being straight up sabotaged,
Bee goes through a lot while just
trying to do her job. Worse still,
her ideas aren’t taken seriously
unless one of her male colleagues
repeats them in his own words
— a phenomenon she refers to as
“Sausage Referencing.”
How does Bee deal with it
all? Her Twitter account, “What
Would Marie Do,” inspired by
her idol Marie Curie, is Bee’s safe
space where she shares her and
her female coworkers’ experiences
to highlight the harassment that
women in STEM deal with on
a daily basis. Ironically, what
started as a rant propelled her
Sports have surrounded me
throughout my life. Every year,
my parents drove me to a new
team event, trying to see if I
preferred baseball or soccer, if I
was better at tennis or basketball.
My dad spent hours watching
games on the weekend, talking
to my older brothers about sports
news so often I don’t remember
them talking about much else. I
enjoyed growing up outside and
playing games with friends, but
the obsession with following
sports never clicked for me like it
did for my brothers and friends.
I didn’t understand why people
would watch strangers play games
they often didn’t play themselves.
I fit the stereotype of the nerdy
teenager who condescendingly
dismissed anyone’s attempt to
discuss sports.
When I still looked distastefully
upon sports, I had moments where
I started to realize the attraction
of watching them. These moments
occurred when I watched sports
movies, stories often inspired by
real historical events, dramatized
and condensed for the big screen.
The
sports
movie
that
really started my obsession is
“Remember the Titans” starring
Denzel
Washington
(“The
Tragedy of MacBeth”), Ryan
Hurst
(“Rango”)
and
Wood
Harris (“Creed”). Washington
plays Herman Boone, a Virginian
high
school
football
coach
attempting to racially integrate
the team. They go on to win the
state championship, overcoming
racial tensions between players
and coaches, along with prejudice
from the community around
them.
I can’t pinpoint when I first
watched “Remember the Titans,”
but the film feels like it has always
been in the background of my life.
On many weekend mornings, the
TV would undoubtedly have the
film playing on some random
channel, and I would watch it
all the way through every single
time. The movie is ostensibly
about football, but its emotional
core is based on the people and
stories behind the sport. Football
is used as a tool through which
the audience can see characters
mend their conflicts, growing
together to be able to accomplish
mythological feats. By watching
the characters, the film’s viewers
learn strategies for specific plays
and also come to the realization
that the rules aren’t being fairly
applied to the racially integrated
team. The audience isn’t truly
concerned with the minutiae of
the sport; instead, viewers are
invested because of what these
details mean to the people who
are playing and how they affect
their journeys. After watching
“Remember
the
Titans”
for
the 115th time, I found myself
obsessing over the same thing
I had once deridingly put aside.
It showed me how people can
become captivated by a game
and its players that they have no
tangible stake in.
“Remember the Titans” was
the movie that first made me fall
in love with sports movies, but
it never made me want to watch
real-life sports. I understood the
attraction of sports, but they still
felt out of reach. It would take
another movie to change this.
Ali Hazelwood’s ‘Love on the Brain’ makes STEM sexy again
My obsession with sports movies
HANNAH CARAPELLOTTI
Senior Arts Editor
ZACH LOVEALL
Daily Arts Writer
Cover art for “Love on the Brain” owned by Berkley.
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
SPEAKER SERIES
REAL-WORLD PERSPECTIVES
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DEI
Climate Survey
results session
What progress has been made around the climate at U-M over
the last five years? Join us as we discuss the findings of our latest
university-wide climate survey from 2021.
RSVP to attend: myumi.ch/M9293
IN-PERSON SESSION:
Tuesday, Sept. 27 | 8:30-10 am
Michigan Union, Rogel Ballroom
Open to all students, faculty & staff
The session will also be livestreamed, recorded and
posted on the DEI website.
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