1: The Compulsion

The confession episode. The “hi, I’m Kristin and I read almost 700 romance novels in three and a half years” episode. It starts in summer 2022, on accident, but somehow it becomes book a day, sometimes more, for years. Staying up too late. Reading during other obligations. My family noticing, my family commenting, my family not loving it.But this isn’t just me. Romance is huge. Something is going on culturally, something hungry. The culture trained us to dismiss this as smut, and yet millions of women keep showing up for it. Because they’re all simple-minded pervs? Doubt it.Romances are about the structure of relational desire itself, which is form of intelligence that often we’re taught to ignore or feel shame about.Let's see what these stories can teach us.