Reviews and Comments

Butler wrote these essays between 2004 and 2008, and published this paperback before Chelsea Manning’s revelations. Yet, having read the introduction so far, it looks to still be a relevant text, and I’m excited to read it, even if it’s not Butler’s best known work.

Eine tolle, lustige und queere Geschichte, das lesbische, österreichische Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Fresh off reading a very clumsy scifi novel about gender or something, I’m picking up this German maybe queerish scifi novel and it’s already an improvement.

I really had some hopes for this, but it was… not great. Scifi’s not a subtle genre usually but this book beat you over the head while shouting in a bullhorn. The characters’ actions made no sense, key characters acted completely absurdly, and the shift between voices was irritating. But worst of all was its heavy-handed exercise in insisting on a boring, irritating, aspirationally woke take on pronouns that added nothing to the story. Essentially tumblr tenderqueer fanfic rep lit.

Picking up some more sci-fi pleasure reading. Well, that was the intention except I forgot to bring it with me on the train

And… done with #78 on the ML Top 100 list. I did not like this book. Mostly because I had no idea what the hell was going on and didn’t feel like flipping back to an end note every three sentences.

This book isn’t bound for my “awful books that have my name in them” pile, but it’s close. Ultimately, it’s about a guy who is certainly among the like, 200 most influential yet unaccountable lawyers who decide what free speech really means navel gazing about the marketplace of ideas.

I’m not sure if this book is going to piss me off or enlighten me.

This is a fantastic and critical retrospective on an era of social media that is ended, even if its momentum will propel it forward a few more years. Read this, if you genuinely want to change your relationship to social media.

Time to finally dive into Katherine’s book. It’s a relevant introspection for how we use social media.

On to #78 on the Modern Library list. This is one of the oldest books on the list. Let’s see if it holds up.

A book that remains relevant some thirty years after its publication. It’s a clear and incisive look into the American self-perception and one that remains relevant as companies keep trying to dazzle us with technology.

I was hoping for a little more out of this. It reaffirmed many of my thoughts, I suppose, but a deeper wisdom was not to be found. I think far richer analyses have been had by any number of perhaps lesser-renowned thinkers in the social media era.