Sad as Hell, a book review

December 10, 2010 2:45 PM

"Sometimes I can almost visualize parts of myself, the ones I’m most proud of, atrophying. I wish I had an app to monitor it! I notice that my thoughts are homeopathic, that they mirror content I wish I weren’t reading." Sad as Hell: n+1 on the internet's effect on the self and the book Super Sad True Love Story (which has an damn good book trailer). The novel is set in a dystopian future where constant access to the internet results in a world “dense with panic and media.”

Author of the review, Alice Gregory, has a tumblr here.

posted by The Devil Tesla (7 comments total)

I wish the novel had been as (relatively) thoughtful as that article, instead of the fairly by-the-numbers kids-these-days rant it actually was. <asshole>But maybe she should learn the difference between "tenet" and "tenant" before worrying about the difference between synecdoche and metonymy.</asshole>
posted by enn at 3:14 PM on December 10, 2010

a world “dense with panic and media.”

oops. too late.
posted by quonsar II: smock fishpants and the temple of foon at 3:19 PM on December 10, 2010 [2 favorites]

I keep trying to get into SSTLS but I just can't. This must be what the SciFi haters feel when they get all mad about Orick and Crake. It's like the guy just discovered wacky corporate negative utopia and funny long merger names like MicroAppleTwitterSoft and thinks he's the first one.
posted by freebird at 4:07 PM on December 10, 2010 [1 favorite]

"book trailer"?!


I wish the novel had been as (relatively) thoughtful as that article, instead of the fairly by-the-numbers kids-these-days rant it actually was

You mean the n+1 thingum wasn't a fairly by-the-numbers kids-these-days rant for the self-styled smart set?
posted by kenko at 4:54 PM on December 10, 2010

Trust me, the book was much worse.
posted by enn at 5:01 PM on December 10, 2010

Well, the n+1 thing was written by the kid these days. That's something. At least the experiences were genuine, even if they were put through the emofilter.

I guess maybe I'm just a young whippersnapper, but when I get bored and distractable I don't go to Facebook because there isn't much to see. I can get better games elsewhere. I can get better friend-contact from an IM convo, or a blog. I can get better colors to shine into my eyes from YouTube. And if all I really want to do is refresh a page endlessly and imagine I'm getting something out of it, the MeFi hive mind is a much better content aggregator.

So I pretty much just use Facebook as a way of sharing contact info.
posted by LogicalDash at 5:04 PM on December 10, 2010

constant access to the internet results in a world “dense with panic and media.”

Not a very healthy thing. Time to pull the plug on the system and look outward into the falling snowflakes. Hot cocoa with cream or marshmallows, a dollop of rum. Books.
posted by The Lady is a designer at 2:47 AM on December 11, 2010 [1 favorite]