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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I just really did not enjoy this book. I thought Odell might have had a few good points, but they got drowned out in the sea of unnecessary prose. The book would have been better served if she had limited the amount of tangents she went off on - tangents way too specific to the SF Bay Area, too specific to her unique lifestyle, too inaccessible and lengthy for a wide audience. Overall it was a struggle to finish and I didn’t take much away from reading it. Two stars because the writing was technically competent.
it exceeded my expectations. I thought it would be a lame self-help book. but it wasn't!
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
DNF - 30%.
I really wanted to like this book, but couldn't keep up with it - the way it's written makes it repetitive and stretches waaaay more than I could stand - the idea was good and that's what drove me to read it, but it just didn't deliver.
Also, I disliked the author conveniently omitting the why's of communal places in the US being a failure. Creating an equal and communal life inside a capitalist system will never work, and one of the good examples in the book is that someone has a better salary than others in their community, that would never happen in communism - as it didn't in the URSS, people had a margin and couldn't earn more than a simple farmer, making it possible to share the same style of life. It hurts me to see the author deciding to leave out the explanations of those and just waiting for the reader to make the easiest way out and simply thinking it wouldn't work because it's a failure and not because of the environment they live in.
I really wanted to like this book, but couldn't keep up with it - the way it's written makes it repetitive and stretches waaaay more than I could stand - the idea was good and that's what drove me to read it, but it just didn't deliver.
Also, I disliked the author conveniently omitting the why's of communal places in the US being a failure. Creating an equal and communal life inside a capitalist system will never work, and one of the good examples in the book is that someone has a better salary than others in their community, that would never happen in communism - as it didn't in the URSS, people had a margin and couldn't earn more than a simple farmer, making it possible to share the same style of life. It hurts me to see the author deciding to leave out the explanations of those and just waiting for the reader to make the easiest way out and simply thinking it wouldn't work because it's a failure and not because of the environment they live in.
Not the ground-shaking manifesto that some have claimed, but a fairly decent set of similarly themed essays that respond in a reasonable way to societal pressures to be always "on" in the modern wash of information.
I suspect that the book is limited by its essential contention about social media and fundamentally unambitious set of alternatives. As Odell expresses late in the book,
There are words for these concepts, of course, and it is "efficiency" and "intentionality". And yet the usual rejoinders to these neoliberal-associated terms are applicable. What Odell ignores is the actuality of communication and the reasons that not all communication can be "efficient", which is because there are an infinite plurality of persons and perspectives. Perfect communication is impossible, et cetera, et cetera. In the frame of social media, it does feel reasonable as a complaint about Twitter (now X), but it's hardly a revolutionary insight. In fact, the history of the platform may suggest that the thrill was exactly to break down the walls between people that enforced context - the joy of seeing a comedian's irreverent response to a politician, of seeing a blue collar response to a high-minded academic, and so on. Of course, that has all changed, but what I am trying to say is that I don't think this seemingly-reasonable complaint holds the water that Odell feels it does.
Anyway, the essays are good and provide a lot of thoughtful things for their reader. A popular book for a good reason.
I suspect that the book is limited by its essential contention about social media and fundamentally unambitious set of alternatives. As Odell expresses late in the book,
What if we spent that energy instead on saying the right things to the right people (or person) at the right time? What if we spent less time shouting into the void and being washed over with shouting in return - and more time talking in rooms to those for whom our words are intended? Whether it's a real room or a group chat on Signal, I want to see a restoration of context, a kind of context collection in the face of context collapse. If we have only so much attention to give, and only so much time on this earth, we might want to think about reinfusing our attention and our communication with the intention that both deserve.
There are words for these concepts, of course, and it is "efficiency" and "intentionality". And yet the usual rejoinders to these neoliberal-associated terms are applicable. What Odell ignores is the actuality of communication and the reasons that not all communication can be "efficient", which is because there are an infinite plurality of persons and perspectives. Perfect communication is impossible, et cetera, et cetera. In the frame of social media, it does feel reasonable as a complaint about Twitter (now X), but it's hardly a revolutionary insight. In fact, the history of the platform may suggest that the thrill was exactly to break down the walls between people that enforced context - the joy of seeing a comedian's irreverent response to a politician, of seeing a blue collar response to a high-minded academic, and so on. Of course, that has all changed, but what I am trying to say is that I don't think this seemingly-reasonable complaint holds the water that Odell feels it does.
Anyway, the essays are good and provide a lot of thoughtful things for their reader. A popular book for a good reason.
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.5 stars. Some really excellent insights at various points but also a lot of the book felt meandering and overly intellectual.