THE NEW ROMANTICS

ONCE UPON A TIME, IN A UNIVERSE MUCH LIKE our own, the United States of America had a female President with a son named Alex Claremont-Diaz. When Alex met Henry, a British prince, it was mutual rancor at first sight; down-to-earth Alex thought Henry a snob, and haughty Henry thought Alex an ill-mannered commoner. This antipathy escalated into an international incident that climaxed in a giant cake toppling and burying them under layers of fluffy icing. Fast-forward through a handful of publicity stunts designed to sell the public on their friendship, and the two young men are hopelessly, hornily in love. But neither is openly queer. If you're worried this is all destined to end in heartbreak (and geopolitical catastrophe) then you probably aren't familiar with Casey McQuiston, who dreamed up the scenario in their hit 2019 novel Red, White, and Royal Blue. Now back on best-seller lists in anticipation of a frothy new adaptation on Prime Video, Royal Blue is emblematic of a new generation of love story that has conquered pop culture. I call it wholesome romance.
Decorated with cute illustrations, wholesome-romance covers leap out from bookstore displays in gummy-candy hues. Whether shelved as contemporary romance, YA, or new adult, these buoyant books take place in more idyllic versions of our reality, full of gentle humor and happy endings. The stakes are low, the people kind, the sex scenes vanilla. And the books, like Heartstopper (based on Alice Oseman's comic), which just dropped its second season on Netflix; and Amazon's The Summer I Turned Pretty, whose author Jenny Han's YA romances have fueled three movies and two TV series since 2018, are getting snapped up by Hollywood. The sensibility has breached the romancenovel-to-rom-com pipeline and spilled over into literary fiction, reality TV, podcasts.
この記事は Time の September 04, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Time の September 04, 2023 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン

LIVING LEGEND
Gypsy star Audra McDonald is now the performer with the most Tony wins and nominations in history

DOWN AND OUT
After the 2024 fiasco, the Democrats are rethinking everything

THE MAN BEHIND THE BOW TIE
In a documentary filmed just before his death, Paul Reubens reflects on the life he led when the cameras weren't rolling

What can you share about growing up in the Amazon and how it has informed your work?
Marina Silva Brazil's Environment and Climate Minister on growing up in the Amazon, hosting this year's U.N. climate talks, and the global retreat of the Trump Administration

THE SHIFT EAST
Once an auto underdog, China's electricvehicle boom now powers its tech rise

A new M:I won't save cinema, but it's fun to watch Tom Cruise try
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—THE FINAL Reckoning, the eighth film in the franchise and ostensibly its finale, looks, feels, and sounds like the sort of movie you need to see on the big screen.

Wes Anderson returns with a muted Scheme
WES ANDERSON, WHO SPECIALIZES in designing fancifully invented societies, probably doesn’t strike anyone as an angry person.

TIME 100 - Philanthropy
THESE ARE THE 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE SHAPING THE FUTURE OF GIVING
Germany's bold military push
FOR DECADES, SOME in Europe talked up the need for “collective European defense,” a policy to sharply reduce dependence on Washington for military protection.

Can states do what FEMA was set up to do?
PRESIDENT TRUMP FIRST POSED THE IDEA OF OVERHAUL-ing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) while visiting North Carolina in January in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.