I exclusively write about politics and popular booktok books so i loved you connecting the two omg! I agree that all books are political and that anti-intellectualism is a very real thing we can see and point to. It's also correct to draw parallels to the current political environment because anti-intellectualism and fascism go hand-in-hand. My solution? Don't just continue to read critically, but also join the fight against the fascist ideologies and movements that enable anti-intellectualism to exist. At the end of the day, anti-intellectualism is a systemic issue, and we must treat it as such.
ive recently been active on goodreads again after about a decade. cannot shake the ick i get when part of a book’s description is just “Trope”. “Trope”. “Trope.” toward the end.
but i do kind of get that pov? when the tropes in a book are blatantly stated (i.e. “enemies to lovers”, “happy ending”, etc.) people know what to expect. im sure its a comfort for some.
definitely! from a marketing perspective i understand it, i just worry that this over-reliance on tropes is affecting the stories in the books themselves. i’ve read a few books where the ‘trope scenes’ e.g. a one-bed situation, forced proximity etc. are done well, but then outside of those the rest of it falls apart quite quickly, which is a shame.
preach to everything you said. marketing books through tropes is boring and lazy. being critical of your reading means that you put the context in which the book was written in your analysis and criticism of the book. for example, the hunger games is my favorite series of all time yet can't ignore that the only named black character dies in book 1. i know susanne has done a lot for representation of black people in district 11 by recreating plantations and mentioning how they're treated like slaves, but some things just don't sit well with you and being critical doesn't mean you don't enjoy the media you're viewing.
I love how you pointed out that "enjoyment and critical analysis can coexist". This is such an important point that is easily missed by many. I appreciate the reminder myself.
Actually found myself nodding whilst reading this. HARD agree with everything. (And I feel like we might have had some of the same experiences in life lol)
100% agree that we need to be cautious when reducing booktok to a monolithic blob, as there are incredibly intelligent people capable of nuance and critical thought over there, but where it has always felt fair to criticize the platform as a whole is the publishing world’s treatment of it. Not everyone is engaged in anti-intellectualism, but those who are often seem to have more influence — even over what books get written and published, to your point of writing around tropes. And just because they’re indifferent to the impact of their content doesn’t mean it’s not political!! Lots to think about on this topic, as always — thank you!
great piece! I'm totally on board with how #booktok has far greater diversity than the common opinion of it. I don't recognise much of what I read on the booktok stands in shops!
sometimes I wonder if I should be more critical of the books I share but I've always wanted to avoid being negative online as there's enough of that already. it's an interesting balance to strike.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on is this clip from the US election coverage - https://youtu.be/WAyIAJCWVxA?si=7yXH0K38pjnX1f8A&t=21 - where he says that in general terms, 'most people aren't interested in politics'?
thank you! yes definitely, it’s such a shame when people overlook all the great creators and diverse book recs on booktok.
i think saying people aren’t interested in politics is over-simplifying it too much, i would lean more towards saying people don’t fully understand politics and how intrinsic it is, or sometimes they don’t care enough. a lot of people tend to approach politics as something that exists separate to them and doesn’t have any impact on their everyday life, or they only care about the parts that they recognise do impact them. i remember reading something after the us election results about trump voters, and essentially many were saying they don’t care about issues like palestine or transgender rights, they just want the price of their groceries reduced. in societies that are adopting more right-libertarianism, people will care less and less about wider political issues, and only ones that concern that individual. (you didn’t ask for the ramble but it’s such an interesting topic!)
this topic has been perfectly articulated and summed up here, so thank you. this is the most sound and concise critique I've heard of booktok in ages. people should be able to enjoy books and criticise them in unison.
I really enjoyed reading this! As someone from the publishing world, I can say that romantasy, tropes, and BookTok are what's selling right now. Readers are fueling this trend, and publishers and mainstream booksellers are going full force with it. It kind of reminds me of the fanfics that people used to (and still) write about their favorite characters from anime, shows, games, etc. But now, it's in full swing in book form. I have to admit that I dislike some of the mainstream books, and I know exactly how they end up there. This new era of "aesthetic this, aesthetic that" is ruining a lot of things by creating surface-level personalities with no depth. Everything feels performative, and in many cases, it is. As a result, there's little room to discuss books, ideas, and such in an intellectual way. When this is pointed out, people often defend themselves in the ways you mentioned.
it's so easy to fall into the (extremely dangerous) trap of shutting your brain off. if we allow and encourage consistently shallow views of the media we consume, this will translate to how we treat issues in real life--shown by that crazy comment you showed about voting for the 'morally grey man'!! it feels like we're becoming more and more apathetic to everything; i feel myself struggling to feel empathy sometimes and it's awful
absolutely! it leans into this whole lack of sincerity and how people don’t take anything / art serious anymore, as evidenced by the theatres of people laughing at nosferatu (as just one small example). of course sometimes we have to laugh so we don’t cry, but if we just keep joking and laughing things off, worse things will happen. not everything is a joke!
yes omg ethel cain said it best in her post about irony and taking things seriously. i think it’s good that we can laugh about things but when we laugh instead of confronting difficult emotions it’s just going to make our things harder for us when we’re in real relationships with real people etc
I have been planning to write an article on 21st century reading, but more accurately 2018 and beyond, and why I think it’s the cause of my slow disinterest in reading. It is a shame, I find many books are even lacking in substance and true love of literature nowadays. But I think that it’s less that there aren’t great books now, and more so that certain books are being spotlighted so much it takes the gaze off of the really good ones. I know exactly what I’m going to see the second I walk in a bookstore, and it’s a shame because there are some gems hiding in the back.
i definitely want to get back into simply walking around a bookstore and picking up books that sound great, instead of just recognising titles i’ve seen online
Crushed it. Your point on politics being completely intertwined into society is so important to highlight. I think many forget that being politically minded just means caring about people and about how life can be or is presently lived. Keep writing!! This was so good, and important.
Your approach to this subject is really moving. It truly brought up a great deal of emotion. An objective approach is so crucial. I’ve been a part of this discussion from my own place without garnering much attention from my followers when I once posted a similar feeling against and around the way criticism exists crossing the line of hating the books readers pick to read and pressing down harassment on authors for the way they write because they “didn’t like” and I am not talking about utterly absurd novels. I think when I saw those reels and posts on different platforms, it made me question whether that’s sincerely all we can say about the book because I’ve seen countless posts. In the name of carrying an opinion, are we really carrying an opinion/criticism against the book, or has it been immaturity projected onto the books and authors! And the fact that some of the books are categorised into so-so box because two percent of the population didn’t like and while it doesn’t even matter whether the book comes from, or the author’s circumstances and where the story is set in, is extremely deteriorating to the mind. The way some of the rating systems have existed and approached in the past one-two years has been more insensitive for us being humans than anything it has been. When I read a book, I’ve slowly learned to understand and look up in which year the book is published, the author’s presence in the world, or the kind of circumstances they encountered before or during writing such a book/story got me more involved with reading as a way to connect and less disconnect due to my own shallow dismissal and leading inability to capacitate deeper emotion, understanding and thought. My mind has gone through a lot from the time this discussion started and I only recently let it die down a bit because I thought that this concern needs its time, since our world is largely now dependent on collective consciousness. Everyone needs time to learn, reflect and I hope we all do more often. Thank you for writing this post. Truly restored faith in connection as a reader again. I’ve felt that online is so one-dimensional that it’s hard to exchange good time with another reader but no, it really does look like I can. So yes, the way we have been talking about books online is problematic!
This is so unbelievably true and something I’ve been realizing about myself. This year my goal is to challenge myself more with my reading.
me too, i think reading books that challenge you and that you wouldn’t usually pick up is great for growth!
I exclusively write about politics and popular booktok books so i loved you connecting the two omg! I agree that all books are political and that anti-intellectualism is a very real thing we can see and point to. It's also correct to draw parallels to the current political environment because anti-intellectualism and fascism go hand-in-hand. My solution? Don't just continue to read critically, but also join the fight against the fascist ideologies and movements that enable anti-intellectualism to exist. At the end of the day, anti-intellectualism is a systemic issue, and we must treat it as such.
exactly!!
ive recently been active on goodreads again after about a decade. cannot shake the ick i get when part of a book’s description is just “Trope”. “Trope”. “Trope.” toward the end.
but i do kind of get that pov? when the tropes in a book are blatantly stated (i.e. “enemies to lovers”, “happy ending”, etc.) people know what to expect. im sure its a comfort for some.
definitely! from a marketing perspective i understand it, i just worry that this over-reliance on tropes is affecting the stories in the books themselves. i’ve read a few books where the ‘trope scenes’ e.g. a one-bed situation, forced proximity etc. are done well, but then outside of those the rest of it falls apart quite quickly, which is a shame.
preach to everything you said. marketing books through tropes is boring and lazy. being critical of your reading means that you put the context in which the book was written in your analysis and criticism of the book. for example, the hunger games is my favorite series of all time yet can't ignore that the only named black character dies in book 1. i know susanne has done a lot for representation of black people in district 11 by recreating plantations and mentioning how they're treated like slaves, but some things just don't sit well with you and being critical doesn't mean you don't enjoy the media you're viewing.
!!
I love how you pointed out that "enjoyment and critical analysis can coexist". This is such an important point that is easily missed by many. I appreciate the reminder myself.
so important to remember! it personally makes me enjoy a book more
Actually found myself nodding whilst reading this. HARD agree with everything. (And I feel like we might have had some of the same experiences in life lol)
haha thank you for reading!! glad to find people that agree so i’m not just shouting into the void
100% agree that we need to be cautious when reducing booktok to a monolithic blob, as there are incredibly intelligent people capable of nuance and critical thought over there, but where it has always felt fair to criticize the platform as a whole is the publishing world’s treatment of it. Not everyone is engaged in anti-intellectualism, but those who are often seem to have more influence — even over what books get written and published, to your point of writing around tropes. And just because they’re indifferent to the impact of their content doesn’t mean it’s not political!! Lots to think about on this topic, as always — thank you!
agree with everything you said here!
instantly subscribed!
tysm! 🫶🏼
great piece! I'm totally on board with how #booktok has far greater diversity than the common opinion of it. I don't recognise much of what I read on the booktok stands in shops!
sometimes I wonder if I should be more critical of the books I share but I've always wanted to avoid being negative online as there's enough of that already. it's an interesting balance to strike.
I'd be interested in your thoughts on is this clip from the US election coverage - https://youtu.be/WAyIAJCWVxA?si=7yXH0K38pjnX1f8A&t=21 - where he says that in general terms, 'most people aren't interested in politics'?
thank you! yes definitely, it’s such a shame when people overlook all the great creators and diverse book recs on booktok.
i think saying people aren’t interested in politics is over-simplifying it too much, i would lean more towards saying people don’t fully understand politics and how intrinsic it is, or sometimes they don’t care enough. a lot of people tend to approach politics as something that exists separate to them and doesn’t have any impact on their everyday life, or they only care about the parts that they recognise do impact them. i remember reading something after the us election results about trump voters, and essentially many were saying they don’t care about issues like palestine or transgender rights, they just want the price of their groceries reduced. in societies that are adopting more right-libertarianism, people will care less and less about wider political issues, and only ones that concern that individual. (you didn’t ask for the ramble but it’s such an interesting topic!)
this topic has been perfectly articulated and summed up here, so thank you. this is the most sound and concise critique I've heard of booktok in ages. people should be able to enjoy books and criticise them in unison.
thank you for reading! 🫶🏼
This is a really thoughtful post, especially with so many people coming here from Tiktok now! I would love to hear others chime in too.
I really enjoyed reading this! As someone from the publishing world, I can say that romantasy, tropes, and BookTok are what's selling right now. Readers are fueling this trend, and publishers and mainstream booksellers are going full force with it. It kind of reminds me of the fanfics that people used to (and still) write about their favorite characters from anime, shows, games, etc. But now, it's in full swing in book form. I have to admit that I dislike some of the mainstream books, and I know exactly how they end up there. This new era of "aesthetic this, aesthetic that" is ruining a lot of things by creating surface-level personalities with no depth. Everything feels performative, and in many cases, it is. As a result, there's little room to discuss books, ideas, and such in an intellectual way. When this is pointed out, people often defend themselves in the ways you mentioned.
it's so easy to fall into the (extremely dangerous) trap of shutting your brain off. if we allow and encourage consistently shallow views of the media we consume, this will translate to how we treat issues in real life--shown by that crazy comment you showed about voting for the 'morally grey man'!! it feels like we're becoming more and more apathetic to everything; i feel myself struggling to feel empathy sometimes and it's awful
absolutely! it leans into this whole lack of sincerity and how people don’t take anything / art serious anymore, as evidenced by the theatres of people laughing at nosferatu (as just one small example). of course sometimes we have to laugh so we don’t cry, but if we just keep joking and laughing things off, worse things will happen. not everything is a joke!
yes omg ethel cain said it best in her post about irony and taking things seriously. i think it’s good that we can laugh about things but when we laugh instead of confronting difficult emotions it’s just going to make our things harder for us when we’re in real relationships with real people etc
I have been planning to write an article on 21st century reading, but more accurately 2018 and beyond, and why I think it’s the cause of my slow disinterest in reading. It is a shame, I find many books are even lacking in substance and true love of literature nowadays. But I think that it’s less that there aren’t great books now, and more so that certain books are being spotlighted so much it takes the gaze off of the really good ones. I know exactly what I’m going to see the second I walk in a bookstore, and it’s a shame because there are some gems hiding in the back.
i definitely want to get back into simply walking around a bookstore and picking up books that sound great, instead of just recognising titles i’ve seen online
Crushed it. Your point on politics being completely intertwined into society is so important to highlight. I think many forget that being politically minded just means caring about people and about how life can be or is presently lived. Keep writing!! This was so good, and important.
thank you for reading!
Your approach to this subject is really moving. It truly brought up a great deal of emotion. An objective approach is so crucial. I’ve been a part of this discussion from my own place without garnering much attention from my followers when I once posted a similar feeling against and around the way criticism exists crossing the line of hating the books readers pick to read and pressing down harassment on authors for the way they write because they “didn’t like” and I am not talking about utterly absurd novels. I think when I saw those reels and posts on different platforms, it made me question whether that’s sincerely all we can say about the book because I’ve seen countless posts. In the name of carrying an opinion, are we really carrying an opinion/criticism against the book, or has it been immaturity projected onto the books and authors! And the fact that some of the books are categorised into so-so box because two percent of the population didn’t like and while it doesn’t even matter whether the book comes from, or the author’s circumstances and where the story is set in, is extremely deteriorating to the mind. The way some of the rating systems have existed and approached in the past one-two years has been more insensitive for us being humans than anything it has been. When I read a book, I’ve slowly learned to understand and look up in which year the book is published, the author’s presence in the world, or the kind of circumstances they encountered before or during writing such a book/story got me more involved with reading as a way to connect and less disconnect due to my own shallow dismissal and leading inability to capacitate deeper emotion, understanding and thought. My mind has gone through a lot from the time this discussion started and I only recently let it die down a bit because I thought that this concern needs its time, since our world is largely now dependent on collective consciousness. Everyone needs time to learn, reflect and I hope we all do more often. Thank you for writing this post. Truly restored faith in connection as a reader again. I’ve felt that online is so one-dimensional that it’s hard to exchange good time with another reader but no, it really does look like I can. So yes, the way we have been talking about books online is problematic!
your point about researching the author / context is a great one, i’ve enjoyed & understood books much more by doing that!