In 2022, I became obsessed with Dark Romance promo Reels/TikToks, to the point where I thought I was going to do a whole project on them. Their obscene level of inaccessibility — uncopyable text in descriptions, text in images full of intentional misspellings and symbols to throw off censorship detection) — squashed the ability to analyze these texts at scale, and so I had to abandon my project.
As a consolation prize, I now present to you a new series in which I make meaning in dark romance texts solely using the promotional videos shared on TikTok or Instagram, created by authors or fans.
I have not read the texts: everything I know is from the metatext. This is not an endorsement or recommendation for the texts or authors, and my “analysis” is not an accurate representation of the texts. My “analysis” is also overblown and intentionally ridiculous. Hope you enjoy!
“I’ll thank you to kindly keep your hands off of my conformist.”
-The Pawn and The Puppet by Brandi Elise Szeker
Today, I bring you a Reel created by @brandibookthought, who is also the author of today’s text: The Pawn and The Puppet.
Find the Reel on Instagram here.
Screen 1:
“Your boss swings his hand back to hit you in front of the asylum staff.”
Making Meaning:
Capitalism is carceral; the workplace: a prison full of madmen.
We are ruled over by “bosses” — abused by their whims and helpless to fight back ourselves, even though we don’t find ourselves physically chained.
Being a worker in late-stage capitalism leaves us feeling trapped within the walls of the institution, and worse: feeling gaslit about the reality of the conditions.
When you work within an asylum for the insane, you’re in a house of insanity surrounded by the insane being told that you’re not insane and the world is not insane.
Screen 2:
“The most dangerous patient snatches his wrist mid-air after breaking out of confinement.”
Making Meaning:
The unlikely savior in this scenario is “the most dangerous patient,” protecting you from harm. The one you are supposed to be most scared of is saving you from the one who is supposed to protect you: your benevolent “master,” aka your “boss.”
We are told that those who defy convention are insane and dangerous, but what if they are the only true sane ones and only by breaking the chains of society and capitalism, can we feel safe?
It calls to mind one of my favorite Baudrillard quotes from Simulations (1983):
Disneyland exists in order to hide that it is the “real” country, all of “real” America that is Disneyland (a bit like prisons are there to hide that it is the social in its entirety, in its banal omnipresence, that is carceral).
The insane asylum filled with dangerous “patients” is there to hide the fact that it is all of society and the modern workplace, in its banal violence, that is existentially a threat.
Denouement:
“I’ll thank you to kindly keep your hands off of my conformist.”
The true danger to the machine of capitalism is nonconformism, as those who resist conformity are the only ones insane enough to challenge the status quo and those who enforce it directly: they are the ones who see the asylum for what it is and speak the truth.
Recent Episodes of Shelf Love
Autistic Representation in Romance with Amanda Cinelli
Amanda Cinelli joins me to discuss representation of autistic characters in romance novels. Amanda shares how reading Helen Hoang’s "The Kiss Quotient" played a big part in her realizing that she was autistic, and talks about some other romances with autism representation that she loved. We also discuss why representing autistic love is important to Amanda as an author and her writing journey pre and post diagnosis.
When Your Lover Rips Your Father’s Heart Out (Dark Romance alert!)
Dame Jodie Slaughter, Feather Fetish Understander, and I recently discussed how The Savage and The Swan speaks the unspoken, what a winged wolf looks like, and whether this book is a metaphor for toxic masculinity and healing generational trauma. (Not like, in the text, but if one were to make meaning from the text…)