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A review by gisellelondon
Idol Limerence: The Art of Loving BTS as Phenomena by Wallea Eaglehawk
4.0
As both a kpop stan and Psychology major, this book has been on my TBR list for quite some time and I was quite excited when I finally got around to opening it up. I surely wasn't disappointed.
What I found was a poignant commentary filled with the nuance commonly not found surrounding this discourse in neither involved fandom camps nor those outside of the kpop world. That is, the industry and its idols lie in a grey area, they simply 'are'. The perspective of the idol both being product and participant, a free and kept person at the same time was something I highly enjoyed exploring. How they are just as much feeding the system as they are suffering from it and can experience limerence as much as the fan. I think using BTS was a perfect example of this.
I did, however, find Echo's moments a little too on the nose at some points. I think the extreme route her character was written into (borderline psychosis, in my opinion) isn't as representative as the normal stan experience as it was supposed to be. It kind of read like a bad fan-fiction at times to me. Though I may be alone in wanting solely the theory and analytical parts of this book. Except all things Jungian, which I found so dense that it completely lost me at times.
I do think there was a bit of reaching going on, and there were some points that I specifically disagreed with and found contradictory of one another. But ultimately I would definitely recommend this read to those in the same niche interest!
What I found was a poignant commentary filled with the nuance commonly not found surrounding this discourse in neither involved fandom camps nor those outside of the kpop world. That is, the industry and its idols lie in a grey area, they simply 'are'. The perspective of the idol both being product and participant, a free and kept person at the same time was something I highly enjoyed exploring. How they are just as much feeding the system as they are suffering from it and can experience limerence as much as the fan. I think using BTS was a perfect example of this.
I did, however, find Echo's moments a little too on the nose at some points. I think the extreme route her character was written into (borderline psychosis, in my opinion) isn't as representative as the normal stan experience as it was supposed to be. It kind of read like a bad fan-fiction at times to me. Though I may be alone in wanting solely the theory and analytical parts of this book. Except all things Jungian, which I found so dense that it completely lost me at times.
I do think there was a bit of reaching going on, and there were some points that I specifically disagreed with and found contradictory of one another. But ultimately I would definitely recommend this read to those in the same niche interest!