“Nearly everything I know about
love, I’ve learned from my long-
term friendships with women.”
This quote may sound familiar to
you because of a recent TikTok
trend circling around the app.
Picture and video compilations
of people being themselves with
their friends have crowded my For
You page, and I must confess that
I have a carefully-crafted TikTok
of the same nature sitting in my
drafts. The quote, however, was
not originally made known to me
through the trend.
“Nearly everything I know
about love,” I learned from Dolly
Alderton’s strikingly vulnerable
memoir. “Everything I Know
About Love” talks all things
adulthood: love, loss, life, friends.
Alderton finds a job, gets dumped
and makes mistakes, all with her
female friends by her side. Nearly
everything Alderton knows about
love, she claims to have learned
from
her
female
friendships.
Above anything, that was my
most valuable takeaway from her
memoir.
“Nearly everything I know
about
love”
is
tainted.
The
modern-day perception of love
has been twisted to mean so many
different things and mean so little
all at the same time. The effects of
hookup culture and dating apps
have led us to forget the genuine
beauty and profound emotionality
that characterizes true love. In a
world where expressing feelings
has become embarrassing and “Hi,
how are you”s have turned into
“WYD”s, raw, real connections
are scarce. The image of romantic
love I have created in my mind
as
a
result
of
compulsively
romanticizing
media
has
effectively been tarnished by the
modern devaluation of authentic
connection.
“Nearly everything I know
about love,” I’ve learned listening
to Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie
Abrams, reading romance novels
and watching inhuman amounts
of romcoms. I long tortured
myself to believe that love is pain,
and that the type of love I see in
the media is unattainable. The
resulting constant yearning for
a true soulmate leave me, and
many others, disappointed in
romance time and again, making
sad girl playlists. I’ve tried to
convince myself that I want the
type of romantic connection I
read about and see on the screen
too much, which is why it has
been so reluctant to enter my life.
To fill that void, I unconsciously
devoted
my
attention
to
nurturing my female and platonic
friendships. I thus resorted to
understanding love from the lens
of my platonic relationships. This
piece accordingly features lessons
on love that I’ve learned from
those relationships, attributing a
specifically obscure color to each
friend, reflecting the hue with
which they have forever tinged my
life.
It is a truth universally
acknowledged
that
Elizabeth
Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy’s
relationship is one that has gone
down in literary (and cinematic)
history. (It is also a truth uni-
versally
acknowledged
that
whenever you’re discussing the
masterpiece that is “Pride and
Prejudice,” you have to start with
some version of the iconic first
line. I don’t make the rules.)
Originally released in 1813
and written by Jane Austen,
“Pride and Prejudice” is a beloved
romance novel. It begins with
Elizabeth and Darcy getting off
on the wrong foot — their first
impressions of each other could
not be more incorrect. She’s
prideful, he’s prejudiced … things
are bound to go wrong. What-
ever it is that happens between
them, it is certainly not love at
first sight. But through a series of
miscommunications relating to
Lizzie’s sister, Jane, and Darcy’s
best friend, Charles, and a more
sinister plot line on Darcy’s his-
tory with a man named George
Wickham, Lizzie and Darcy
eventually find their way to each
other.
There are so many reasons
why “Pride and Prejudice” is so
beloved — Lizzie stands on her
own two feet and is a refreshing
feminist character for her time.
Darcy learns from his mistakes
and tries to become a better man
for Elizabeth. Jane and Charles’s
relationship is so wholesome and
so pure. “Pride and Prejudice”
is flawless. It’s no wonder that
many modern authors have used
the plot as inspiration.
Retellings are nothing new
— you can find books and mov-
ies retelling nearly every classic
story at this point. Do you like
“10 Things I Hate About You?”
It’s based on a Shakespeare play,
“The Taming of the Shrew.”
Is
“Clueless”
your
favorite
movie? Then read Jane Austen’s
“Emma,” because that’s what it’s
inspired by.
And if, like me, “Pride and
Prejudice” is one of your favor-
ite novels, take a look at some of
these extremely successful mod-
ern retellings.
“Pies & Prejudice” by Heather
Vogel Frederick
This was my first exposure to
“Pride and Prejudice.” In fact, I
read it years before I ever picked
up Austen’s novel.
The fourth book in Frederick’s
“Mother-Daughter Book Club”
series, “Pies & Prejudice” sees the
titular book club reading “Pride
and Prejudice” as they enter high
school. In a lot of ways, I wasn’t
aware that this story was a retell-
ing (albeit, a loose one). The story
revolves primarily around plot
points unrelated to “Pride and
Prejudice” — one of the main
characters, Emma, and her fami-
ly move to England for a year, and
the story recounts Emma and her
friends struggling to get through
the year while separated.
What brings in the retelling
aspect is that, while Emma and
her family are away, they swap
houses with a British family; the
family (the Berkleys) have two
sons, Simon and Tristan, who
are adaptations of Bingley and
Darcy. Simon, the nice, sweet guy
sweeps one of the girls off her
feet, while Tristan, the angstier,
brusquer brother, finds himself in
a sort of enemies-to-lovers rela-
tionship with another character,
in the vein of Lizzie and Darcy.
There’s also a Mr. Collins-esque
figure who pursues Emma in
London — and just as Lizzie was
uninterested in Collins’s mar-
riage proposal, Emma is equally
uninterested in Rupert Loomis.
It’s a looser retelling than some
of the others on this list, to be
sure, but remains one of the best
ways to dip your toe into Austen’s
work. It’s high school, and it’s
cheesy … but it works to present
some aspects of the original story
to readers.
“Prom & Prejudice” by Eliza-
beth Eulberg
I read “Prom & Prejudice”
immediately before and imme-
diately after reading “Pride and
Prejudice” for the first time. The
modernity of this retelling makes
it largely easier to take in and
understand than Austen’s origi-
nal novel. There’s no flowery,
older-English language — it’s cut
and dry but still extremely enter-
taining.
In this high school retelling of
“Pride and Prejudice,” Eulberg
swaps marriage for something
much more relatable to her YA
readers: prom. Elizabeth Ben-
net is a scholarship student at
Longbourn Academy and is much
more worried about perfecting
her piano playing than finding a
date for prom like the other Long-
bourn students. When her room-
mate Jane drags her to a party
in the hopes of getting closer to
Charles Bingley, Lizzie meets
none other than Will Darcy — a
total snob.
It’s the story we know rear-
ranged for a younger audience.
What makes “Prom & Preju-
dice” a really successful mod-
ern retelling is its version of the
Wickham and Lydia story. In the
original book, Wickham (or, as I
like to call him, The Worst Man
Ever) runs away with Lydia to
elope — which was scandalous
in Austen’s time and could have
seriously damaged the Bennet
family reputation. In “Prom &
Prejudice,” Wickham is a cad,
using Lydia’s interest in him as an
opening to try to take advantage
of her.
I think almost everyone can
agree that love is a beautiful thing.
Love is more than just a feeling:
It’s an all-consuming force, a
powerful, driving intensity and the
golden thread that binds humanity
together. Our love for each other
and the world we inhabit together
unites each of us, allowing us to
bask in its warm light. It’s our
shared loves that connect us — our
mutual appreciation for great art,
literature, music, films and culture.
Our undying loyalty for fictional
characters, our unreciprocated
reverence for celebrities and our
cultish devotion to popular culture
— by sharing in our loves for the
same people, places and things,
we unwittingly craft connections
and intimate communities that
defy barriers of distance and
language, brought together by the
magnificence of modern devices.
But love is not always a thing
of beauty. Love can be twisted,
dark and terrible, bordering on
obsession and colored by cruelty.
Our admiration for performers
and their art can be warped
into infatuation over Instagram,
and our perception of what true
love really is can be twisted by
television and manipulated by
media until it is unrecognizable.
The modern world allows us to
amplify, or hide, the best and
worst parts of ourselves and
humankind as a whole. Our
consumption of media can change
the way we think — and maybe
even the way we feel. Love is hard
to put into words, even more so
when one doesn’t know which
behind-the-scenes
experiences
and technologies are pulling its
strings. Nevertheless, with this
B-Side, our writers will try and
pin down what it means to love in
a modern world.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
The B-Side: Modern Love
Wednesday, February 1, 2023 — 3
Arts
puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com
By Wendy L. Brandes
©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/01/23
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis
02/01/23
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, February 1, 2023
ACROSS
1 Unexpected
obstacle
5 “Pronto!” letters
9 Suffers after a
Pure Barre class,
say
14 __ Top ice cream
15 Four Corners
state
16 “If only!”
17 “Will do!”
18 Emperor after
Claudius
19 __ touch
20 Forgettable band
with a memorable
song
23 Jazz pianist
McCoy
24 Unnecessary
28 Pie crust fat
31 Ace a
presentation
32 “Pipe down!”
37 Lingerie selection
38 Musical ability
39 Old PC platform
41 Snaky fish
42 Shopping cart
fillers
45 Spot for spare
change
48 Cook’s Illustrated
offering
50 Lake bird with a
wild laugh
51 Sotheby’s
auctions, e.g.
54 Fragrance
58 Element of irony,
and what can be
found in each set
of circled letters?
61 Like 18-Across
64 Goalie’s success
65 Per-hour amount
66 Not sleeping
67 Diva’s big
moment
68 Simpson
daughter voiced
by Yeardley
Smith
69 Came to a close
70 Shout
71 Opening for a
hotel key card
DOWN
1 “Ask me
anything!”
2 Mary Poppins,
for one
3 Out of this world?
4 Went to a tutoring
session, say
5 Many a
godmother
6 Fret (over)
7 Judge who hit
62 home runs in
2022
8 Galaxy, for one
9 Set one’s sights
on
10 “All the Birds in
the Sky” Nebula
winner __ Jane
Anders
11 Monopolize
12 Prefix with dermis
13 Triple __:
orange-flavored
liqueur
21 Baghdad’s
country
22 Room that may
have a sectional
sofa
25 Respected
leader
26 Cucumber salad,
coconut rice, etc.
27 Panache
29 Bacardi liquor
30 Blu-ray buy
32 Knightley of
“Bend It Like
Beckham”
33 “Peter, Peter,
pumpkin __ ... ”
34 Build
35 Old name of
Tokyo
36 Work hard
40 __-cone
43 Error
44 Brought about,
as a movement
46 Like a red-carpet
event
47 Opens, as a fern
frond
49 Former
quarterback
Manning
52 Writing contest
entry, maybe
53 Long look
55 “Reply all”
medium
56 “Untrue!”
57 October 31 option
59 Malicious
60 Hand out cards
61 “Insecure” star
Issa
62 Woolf’s “A Room
of One’s __”
63 Fit to be tied
SUDOKU
WHISPER
“Happy
Birthday Dan!”
“Go Blue!”
WHISPER
By Emma Lawson
©2023 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/25/23
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis
01/25/23
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
Release Date: Wednesday, January 25, 2023
ACROSS
1 __ Sutra
5 Charlatans
11 Smidgen
14 Classic Camaro
15 Breaks things off
16 Tankard filler
17 Charitable
undertaking that
deserves support
19 Right Guard
alternative
20 Feedback
21 Bullfighters
23 “Go for the Goal”
memoirist Mia
25 Tried to avoid the
catcher’s tag
26 Pan
29 “Weetzie Bat”
series writer
Francesca __
Block
30 Break the tape
31 Bit of false
modesty
37 Religious
platform
40 Scottish refusal
41 Tuscan city
whose university
was founded in
1240
42 “Ugh, shut up
already”
45 2016 Super Bowl
MVP __ Miller
46 “I’ve got it!”
47 Talking back to
50 Temporada con
nieve
55 Connections
56 Jazz trumpeter
Wynton
57 Cuts
60 Big fuss
61 Make waves,
and a hint to this
puzzle’s circles
64 Tech exec
65 Much of North
Africa
66 Memo phrase
67 “Grace and
Frankie” actor
Waterston
68 Lure into
wrongdoing
69 “On the double!”
abbr.
DOWN
1 New Zealand bird
2 “East of Eden”
brother based on
Abel
3 Completely
become
4 Real
5 Tina with a
recurring role on
“Only Murders in
the Building”
6 GOP org.
7 “Run to You”
singer Bryan
8 Typical
9 Purify, in a way
10 Makes less
wobbly
11 Simply not done
12 Wake-up call?
13 Pretty thick
18 Webmaster’s
code
22 Abu __
24 Just okay
26 Ugly duckling’s
true self
27 Approximately
2.2 lbs.
28 Fish in a negitoro
roll
32 Mo. after Leap
Day
33 Orchard
pollinators
34 Subsequent
drafts
35 Quote book abbr.
36 Crew
38 Diarist Nin
39 Prepare for a
show
43 Assistance in
getting a ride?
44 Plopped down in
a chair
48 Location
49 Croatia neighbor
50 Apple desktops
51 Gymnast
Comaneci
52 Revving sound
53 Not, in German
54 Liam’s
“Schindler’s List”
role
58 “Where Am I
Now?” memoirist
Wilson
59 Pedometer unit
62 La-la lead-in
63 Luck, to
Shakespeare
A love letter to platonic friendship
ANNABEL CURRAN
Senior Arts Editor
SABRIYA IMAMI
Daily Arts Writer
Design by Abby Schreck
GRACIELA BATLLE CESTERO
Daily Arts Writer
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Modern retellings of
‘Pride and Prejudice’:
The legacy of Lizzie
Bennet lives on
Read more at MichiganDaily.com
Design by Evelyne Lee