Books & Superman
Originally published July 11, 2025
Hi y’all! So yesterday I went on a date with my boyfriend, Gabe, and I just wanted to share because I had such a precious and fun day. We planned it out together because we both had the day off and hadn’t been out together, just us, in awhile.
So the first stop was Barnes and Noble!! Actually, the first stop was Chipotle. They just opened a new one next to my apartment complex, yay! Andddd after stopping for lunch, we went to Barnes and Noble! This was the biggest B&N I’d ever been to in my life, and I was so overwhelmed. The DVD, Vinyl, and CD section was so big, I skipped over it completely because it was just sooo overwhelming! But, once I got through the “wow this place is so huge” feeling, I had myself a good pile of books to sort through. I ended up with three. Gabe bought me one and I got two, buy one get one 50% off. Yay deals!
The three books I got are, I Who Have Never Known Men, Lilith, and Puerto Rico: A National History. I’d heard of I Who Have Never Known Men a few months ago online, and kept seeing it on YouTube, TikTok, and even Pinterest. I’ve been dying to read it, so thanks Gabe for getting it for me! I also picked out Puerto Rico, which is a history of the island, and Lilith, which I’d also heard of before, about the woman that came before Eve. I narrowed it down to these three books while Gabe sat on the floor of the philosophy section and read The Origins of Totalitarianism, and he ended up buying that one for himself!
We sat at the Starbucks inside the store for awhile, reading and talking and laughing, until it was time to go to Disney Springs to watch the new Superman movie!! Gabe says that he didn’t have high expectations for it, and I suppose I didn’t either to be honest. However, we left the theater completely stunned. I absolutely loved it!!! I gave it a 4.5/5 on Letterboxd, but to be honest, I think I might give it a 5/5 instead, the only different being that for me, a 5/5 is one of my favorite movies of all time. I couldn’t look away from the gorgeous and such intentional use of color, which I feel like tends to be ignored these days for the sake of cinematography and like, dark aesthetics. My favorite piece of dialogue was this exchange between Clark and Lois:
Lois: “You think everything and everyone is beautiful”
Superman: “Maybe that’s the real punk rock.”
It was really just such a beautiful movie. It didn’t sacrifice mis en scene for the superhero storyline, and didn’t sacrifice the superhero storyline for the mis en scene. It was a lovely, perfect balance. It had heart. Superman is a man with heart and soul and love and kindness and it really shone through. It makes me want to be full of heart and soul and love and kindness. I forgot how much I love Superman. I forgot how much I love superhero movies when there’s real love shining through every detail. This movie was made with pure love. I really loved it. It was so punk rock.
A really, really, really great movie.
So, that was my date! We’re both off next Thursday again, so we’re hoping this time to hit the waterparks! I’m still reeling from Superman. I’m gonna go think about it now. Maybe I’ll call Gabe and hear his thoughts again. He always has really nice and well thought-out opinions. Maybe I’ll read one of my new books. All of the possibilities are totally punk rock.
With love, Willianny
