James St Journal October

October has us thinking in 10s. Ten-course menus; ten-piece capsule wardrobes; ten-step skincare routines. There was no shortage of source material to take inspiration from. But there was one ten we couldn’t get out of our heads: 10 Things I Hate About You. 

Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You wraps ideas of independence, expectation and the uncomfortable business of being vulnerable, in the now nostalgic blanket of the 90s teen rom-com.  

Its characters spend much of the film resisting roles imposed on them, performing indifference and, inevitably, discovering that feeling something is much harder to control than pretending not to. 

Nowhere is that tension more memorable than in the titular character’s now-iconic poem structured as a catalogue of complaints, with each “I hate” seeming to build the case against her on-screen romance. Instead, repetition gradually undoes the premise until hate reveals itself as a convenient language for honesty and affection. By the final lines, the contradiction is the point. 

So, in a seemingly increasingly acrimonious world, we are using it as a catalyst for positive reflection for the tenth month’s James St Journal. 

I hate the way you pull me in 

And turn a quick coffee into half the day 

I hate that there are over 100 shopfronts 

I hate that each gives another reason to stay 

I hate that I can furnish my home 

Then find something new to wear 

I hate that somewhere between the two 

I’ve booked my brows and cut my hair 

I hate the variety on offer  

I hate there is always something I didn’t know I’d find 

I hate that things I never came for 

Somehow won’t leave my mind 

I hate that you can make one little street 

Feel anything but small 

But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you 

Not even close 

Not even a little bit 

Not even at all.