What is love? (Baby don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, no more)…

So that is completely a thing that just happened. And now because of me that song will be stuck in your head for the remainder of the night, and if some of you are lucky enough it’ll be there when you wake up tomorrow too. No need to thank me. I do it out of love. Love… Love is the word of the day Geeklings, and it’s what we’re going to tackle.

I’m not talking about the love between two people or a person and their pet or a person and their crazy Japanese sex pillow. Yes, those are all various types of love, despite how deranged they can be, but not the love I’m looking to focus on tonight. I want to talk about that love that comes with fiction. That love that follows watching or reading something for the first time. That love that follows when a character dies suddenly and you have to question the meaning of your life. That love that can be heard oozing out of your voice when you’re speaking about fictional characters as if they’re real, because let’s face it, they’re real to you. Is this love different then real love? Yeah to a degree I suppose it is. With love between people, pets, or sex pillows there is some sort of reciprocation. A person can look at you and tell you that they love you too. A pet can fall asleep on your lap. A sex pillow… well it’s a sex pillow. With fiction the reciprocation is the emotion that it provides. Whether it be heart break, love, fear, or joy it’s that emotion that allows you to know that the work of fiction cares. Fiction is presented to evoke emotion and much like in life those emotions touch people differently.

For example, if I were to read Twilight, I know that I would feel nothing but disgust and anger (glitter vampires?! Seriously. WTF is that?!). But if little Susie Glitter Pants reads it then one can suspect, based on her name, that she’ll fall in love with it. Different strokes for different folks. That doesn’t make us bad people for being different. If I love Star Wars and you love Star Trek we shouldn’t look at each other as if we’re less people. The great thing about fictional love is that it allows you to be free and comfortable, and it’s so important that you don’t allow trolls to make you feel guilty for this emotion. If you wouldn’t let trolls make you doubt your love for your person/pet/sex pillow then why should you allow them to ruin your fictional love? The whole idea of love is being proud and owning up to that love. Put the metaphysical ring on that shit. Own up to it. Love isn’t about being shy. Love is about loving and displaying that love.

Where is this coming from? Well, the other day I was reading issue four of Tom King’s The Vision, which is hands down quickly becoming one of the best comics I’ve read in a long time, and I started thinking about my fictional relationships this summer. And I realized something Geeklings… I have fallen in love a lot this summer. From The Fireman to The Vision over to Stranger Things and The Chaos Trilogy circling back to DC Rebirth. I have fallen in love with various different things for various different reasons. Right now, The Vision, has such a fiercely tight and complex narrative that is rooted in darkness and deep philosophical questions with amazing art. Stranger Things wasn’t just a call back to my childhood but presented a story and characters that I could invest my time in while they evoked a steady amount of feels. The Chaos Trilogy was a story that crept up on me and took me by surprise. Blinded by love. Each one of these fictional outlets has allowed me to love differently, and that’s what’s kind of special about fictional love.

With fictional love you can be as much of a slut as you want to be. That’s right. Love everything. You want to love Captain America and the Suicide Squad? What’s stopping you?! It’s fiction love. It’s there for you to love. You want to love Harry Potter and It? Go ahead. Get your creepy clown wizard love on. Fictional love does not discriminate and doesn’t permit you to bottle your love for one thing. It begs you to explore more. To spread your love. And isn’t that what the hippies wanted? Free love?

Geeklings, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want you to love. Love away. Find the things that you’re passionate about and allow them to touch you on an emotional level. There’s nothing wrong with it. Fiction exists for us to love it, and you deserve it. We all do.