Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by rkivemyreads
I Am ARMY: It's Time to Begin by Courtney Lazore, Wallea Eaglehawk
5.0
I decided to write up a rough draft of my review by the time I was only halfway through this book because I was inspired and so much of what I was feeling had to pour out.
“If you are an established member of ARMY, thank you; I hope you find yourself amongst these pages.” Oh, I did and I’m now even more grateful to be a part of ARMY. In my own humble opinion, what Wallea Eaglehawk sought to accomplish in this publication could not have been better achieved than it was in this first installment of ARMY autoethnographies. I felt seen and I felt empathy, it was crushing and hopeful and comforting to get a peak behind the curtains at the experiences from a handful of incredibly strong, beautiful members that make up this enormous fandom that has made the choice to embark on this life-changing journey alongside 7 Korean men.
The uncertainty of the world’s current circumstance has thrown me into a period of stagnant anxiety. I don’t consider it exclusive to myself as I’m sure many others are feeling this way, but where my identities: queer, nonbinary, person of color struggling with mental illness and trauma intersects with my identity as an ARMY can be difficult to put into words as it is, so in the context of where BTS and ARMY find themselves in current times I seem to find it nearly impossible. But this book certainly provided me a space to smile and cry at all the moments I so excitedly and painfully related to. Reading these stories made me feel a bit foolish that I have allowed myself to somehow believe that my own no longer matters, the catharsis I went through while taking in the words of others I felt connected to by shared experience reminded me why that’s entirely untrue, reminded me why I used to call myself a writer. Words that come from a personal and vulnerable place transcend logical impulse to trivialize them as nothing more than letters strung together to form sentences. After all, BTS has taught ARMY just how powerful giving meaning to words can be through their music, their lyrics, their encouraging sentiments, their own struggles and fears that they share with us that have catapulted many of us in this fandom into making changes in our own lives for the better. It’s in the pages of this book that one can find a diverse set of examples of those meanings BTS gave ARMY reflected back at them.
It can be difficult to explain to non-ARMY the immense and overwhelming transformative power that BTS can have once they have seeped their way into your mind, especially when one could argue that pop culture, no matter where it’s produced, has been watered down to a capitalistic and hyper-consumerist venture of sorts. How could a South Korean boyband from an industry that’s long been deemed a factory of manufactured music be any different? I'm sure it's more than complicated to embrace the multi-faceted nature of what this group and this fandom offers when the capitalist patriarchy sits in the corner taunting you for falling in love with a boyband, right? Enter I Am ARMY to provide deeply personal testimonies as to how BTS disrupts those oppressive systems and encourages ARMY to do the same. This book will give anyone who is open to understanding a chance to bear witness to what makes BTS stand out in today’s celebrity and entertainment landscape—not in the sense of global superstardom, history made and records broken but more specifically what has for the last 7 years made them special in the hearts of ARMY, who BTS consistently express is their beginning and end, and why so many are still walking with them.
“If you are an established member of ARMY, thank you; I hope you find yourself amongst these pages.” Oh, I did and I’m now even more grateful to be a part of ARMY. In my own humble opinion, what Wallea Eaglehawk sought to accomplish in this publication could not have been better achieved than it was in this first installment of ARMY autoethnographies. I felt seen and I felt empathy, it was crushing and hopeful and comforting to get a peak behind the curtains at the experiences from a handful of incredibly strong, beautiful members that make up this enormous fandom that has made the choice to embark on this life-changing journey alongside 7 Korean men.
The uncertainty of the world’s current circumstance has thrown me into a period of stagnant anxiety. I don’t consider it exclusive to myself as I’m sure many others are feeling this way, but where my identities: queer, nonbinary, person of color struggling with mental illness and trauma intersects with my identity as an ARMY can be difficult to put into words as it is, so in the context of where BTS and ARMY find themselves in current times I seem to find it nearly impossible. But this book certainly provided me a space to smile and cry at all the moments I so excitedly and painfully related to. Reading these stories made me feel a bit foolish that I have allowed myself to somehow believe that my own no longer matters, the catharsis I went through while taking in the words of others I felt connected to by shared experience reminded me why that’s entirely untrue, reminded me why I used to call myself a writer. Words that come from a personal and vulnerable place transcend logical impulse to trivialize them as nothing more than letters strung together to form sentences. After all, BTS has taught ARMY just how powerful giving meaning to words can be through their music, their lyrics, their encouraging sentiments, their own struggles and fears that they share with us that have catapulted many of us in this fandom into making changes in our own lives for the better. It’s in the pages of this book that one can find a diverse set of examples of those meanings BTS gave ARMY reflected back at them.
It can be difficult to explain to non-ARMY the immense and overwhelming transformative power that BTS can have once they have seeped their way into your mind, especially when one could argue that pop culture, no matter where it’s produced, has been watered down to a capitalistic and hyper-consumerist venture of sorts. How could a South Korean boyband from an industry that’s long been deemed a factory of manufactured music be any different? I'm sure it's more than complicated to embrace the multi-faceted nature of what this group and this fandom offers when the capitalist patriarchy sits in the corner taunting you for falling in love with a boyband, right? Enter I Am ARMY to provide deeply personal testimonies as to how BTS disrupts those oppressive systems and encourages ARMY to do the same. This book will give anyone who is open to understanding a chance to bear witness to what makes BTS stand out in today’s celebrity and entertainment landscape—not in the sense of global superstardom, history made and records broken but more specifically what has for the last 7 years made them special in the hearts of ARMY, who BTS consistently express is their beginning and end, and why so many are still walking with them.