Lexical Gap No. 64: Maru-Hara
June 2025 summary
I was about to wonder where June went, but the honest truth is, I know exactly where June went.
June was BTS month.
Many of you probably know that I am a literal, card-carrying member of ARMY (if not, I talk about BTS a lot in my newsletter), but if you aren’t aware, BTS’s anniversary month is in June, and there are usually all sorts of celebrations—free streaming of old concerts, the release of a song as a gift to the fans, and various other activities and events. This year is the first year all seven members have been present for Festa (what their anniversary celebration is called) now that they have all completed their mandatory military service.
This June, we had the final two performances of J-Hope’s solo tour and the first two performances of Jin’s solo tour, and our first glimpses of the members together as free civilians. Words cannot begin to encapsulate my excitement; it’s been over three years since a new album from the group (although we’ve had multiple solo projects in between), and I can’t wait to see what they have in store. It’s been six years, and this hyperfixation on BTS hasn’t gone away, so it’s safe to say that I’m in this Bangtan shit for life.
In this issue
1. JJ’s magical world
2. Lexical gap
3. This creative life
4. What I’m reading
5. What I’m watching
6. Other things of note
lexical gap: maru-hara 🧩
I’m a geriatric Millennial, so I’m used to typing and texting with capitalization and punctuation, but I will admit that I, too, don’t use periods anymore. I do, however, use the Millennial “lol” to end every sentence.
this creative life ✨
Still emerging from my depressed phase. I’m at the point where I can work on ROPE, but it’s hard. My creativity at the moment feels like a bruise, and I’m doing everything I can not to jostle it too hard. It’s difficult not to compare what I feel right now to what I felt a few months ago, when everything felt easy and inspiration was flowing like a faucet. Now there’s nothing but a drip, and I feel like someone dying of thirst. I’m not entirely sure what the best course of action is right now. Do I push through this? Or is creativity like an overextended muscle?
what i’m reading 📖
Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn. This series may be a New York Times bestseller, but it is still criminally underrated. Also I am a Bree/Nick/Sel poly shipper, don’t come at me.
what i’m watching 📺
The Studio. After Lemon bullied into watching her newest hyperfixation, I started The Studio and WELP IT’S TOO REAL. There is a lot of overlap in Hollywood and publishing, and the tension between art and capitalism that runs throughout the show (and often played for despairing laughs) is both too good and too depressing.
KPop Demon Hunters. Despite the fact that I’m a literal card-carrying member of BTS ARMY, I’m not actually big into kpop in general, but this was delightful. My favorite thing about this movie was how Korean it was, without resorting to pandering, exoticizing, or overexplaining. The bilingual puns made me laugh, the mythology references were excellent, and it’s about the power of friendship! How could I not love it?
Squid Game: Season 3. This was…disappointing. It’s hard to articulate exactly why I felt let down by this final season, but I think it has to do with the Point. This show has never been subtle about what it’s about—Capitalism Bad—but what I felt the first two seasons did was explore the hows and whys of “Capitalism Bad” in more interesting and nuanced ways than the third season. I believe the first season really should have been the last, but I was hopefully with the added themes of voting/choice and direct acknowledgment of human exploitation in the second season we’d get something other than…what we got. Halfway through the third season, I turned to Bear and asked, “What is the director even trying to say?” Ultimately, we got an answer: capitalism really just comes down to a soulless cash grab. The hand-off to an American Squid Game spin-off was the most on-the-nose thing he could have done. Honestly, at least Hwang Dong-hyuk got his bag, I guess.
other things of note 💾
Conover, Adam. “A.I. is a Religious Cult with Karen Hao.” Adam Conover, YouTube, May 2025.
W. David Marx. “GenAI is Our Polyester.” Culture: An Owner’s Manual, Ghost.io, June 2025.
Saint, Jack. “The Masculinity Crisis…from a fatherless father’s perspective.” Jack Saint, YouTube, June 2025.
Yours entire,
