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The B-Side

Digital art illustration of “Modern Love” writen in hot pink 8-bit text on a light pink background with white and pink hearts
Grace Filbin

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.

Senior Arts Editor Annabel Curran
Digital art illustration of four women laughing with their arms around each other.

A love letter to platonic friendship

Graciela Batlle Cestero
Digital art illustration of Yasmin Paige and Craig Roberts from the movie "Submarine" drawn in a cartoonish style. They are standing together dressed in contrasting black and red outfits while holding hands.

Love, retrospection and ‘Submarine’

Sarah Rahman
Digital art collage of illustrations depicting a 2000's computer with a regency era woman on the screen, a fan, an email browser displaying the first two paragraphs of Pride and Prejudice, a hand-written letter and earbuds hanging down in the left corner.

Modern retellings of ‘Pride and Prejudice’: The legacy of Lizzie Bennet lives on

Sabriya Imami
Digital art illustration of two characters from the novel “Six of Crows” drawn in a cartoonish style. Their hands are raised to touch each other with 6 crows flying behind them

How the found family trope taught me to love

Jenna Jaehnig
Digital art illustration of mathematical equations interspersed with valentines balloons, flowers, red hearts, and a cupid's arrow.

The romantic comedy is more modern than you’d think

Hannah Carapellotti
Digital artwork of electronic devices displaying blank social media posts, one of which has a post of Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark from “The Hunger Games.”

Arts Talks: Years before its time, ‘The Hunger Games’ predicts the new age of love and desire

Daily Arts Writers
Digital art illustration of Laurie from "Little Women", Joe from "You", and Ross from "Friends" from left to right.

Why ‘nice guys’ do finish last

Olivia Tarling
Digital Art Illustration of an orange pill bottle with red heart-shaped pills spilling out.

Millennials getting married won’t save the world

Nina Smith
Digital art illustration of a boy and a girl sitting close to each other on a sandy beach watching the sunset.

‘Love Island’ is my type, on paper

Laine Brotherton