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ktinka's review
1.0
I seriously could not finish this. This book has so many raving reviews. So, maybe I did not get the irony, but not only did I find it pretty unreadable but also quite pretentious.
piccoline's review
5.0
This is it. This is the darkness laid bare, this is the evisceration of our rotten-boweled reality. Rage, yes, righteous rage but *funny*. If you're going to be filled with righteous rage, you might as well be funny too.
Kobek wrote the brilliant book [b:Atta|12005936|Atta (Intervention #9)|Jarett Kobek|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1444230617s/12005936.jpg|16970592] a few years back. Powerful, brilliant work. Hard to shake. This is better. I'm so honored and glad to have found this book. It feels like freedom, and if it's the freedom of death, of finding out that, yes, we're all already dead, well, that's a freedom of a sort.
Absolutely brilliant, and an instant classic. I just pray, dream, hope that maybe it will someday not apply to our reality. But it's a longshot.
Jarrett Kobek, it's a home run. (A home run is a particular outcome of an "at bat" in the sport called baseball. Sports are a system that provide an illusion of meaning...) I salute you.
I want to post excerpts. But it's all gold. The excerpt is the whole book. Go read the whole book. I just had the typo "go dread the whole book". That applies too. Go. Do it.
Kobek wrote the brilliant book [b:Atta|12005936|Atta (Intervention #9)|Jarett Kobek|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1444230617s/12005936.jpg|16970592] a few years back. Powerful, brilliant work. Hard to shake. This is better. I'm so honored and glad to have found this book. It feels like freedom, and if it's the freedom of death, of finding out that, yes, we're all already dead, well, that's a freedom of a sort.
Absolutely brilliant, and an instant classic. I just pray, dream, hope that maybe it will someday not apply to our reality. But it's a longshot.
Jarrett Kobek, it's a home run. (A home run is a particular outcome of an "at bat" in the sport called baseball. Sports are a system that provide an illusion of meaning...) I salute you.
I want to post excerpts. But it's all gold. The excerpt is the whole book. Go read the whole book. I just had the typo "go dread the whole book". That applies too. Go. Do it.
secretbookcase's review against another edition
challenging
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it is an enjoyable ripping apart of our obsession with social media and a biting satire of American society and technological utopia. The author has a knack for stripping down humanity to its underwear and pulling out one-liners that manage to drive home some basic truths while making you chuckle with delight. The book’s hopscotch writing style and the absence of a clear narrative direction also worked well as a reflection of the disjointed form digital-era communication often takes. At the same time though, the book felt like an interminable rant about absolutely everything while lacking any real depth, with a focus on a main character which I found truly annoying. By the end of the book, I just felt weary and was glad to leave this world of anger and unpleasant people behind me. But maybe that is precisely the purpose of the book?
ktlove's review
4.0
If you're looking for a plotty book, full of rich characters and lush visual prose, go elsewhere. However, if you're looking for a laugh out loud, bitter polemic of modern day society chock full of biting wit and memorable quotes on nearly every page... have I got the book for you. It's less a narrative plotline than a series of rants strung together by a set of characters, yet I couldn't put it down, waiting for the next caustic take on internet culture... our culture...to appear. My only regret is that this came out too early for Kobek to point his scathing rhetoric at our current political nightmare.
miche11e's review against another edition
3.0
Mercifully short "bad" novel that examines the Bay Area's changing culture in the meta-manner of a Stewart Lee monologue. Amusingly familiar for anyone who lived in San Francisco between the late-nineties and today, but probably best for those who have left. Not sure the author deserves to be so cynical about a city he only lived in for only four years.
ineffablebob's review against another edition
3.0
This is not the kind of book I'd normally read...little in the way of plot, choppy writing style, not much action or character growth. But there is plenty to think about, so I enjoyed it nonetheless.
i hate the internet is largely a rant about the many imperfections in modern society, with special focus on how those imperfections tend to benefit white straight rich men over everyone who doesn't fit one of those four categories. The Internet is a primary target but far from the only one. Kobek pokes at everything, from religion to capitalism to despotic oppression to science fiction to music to celebrity. He shines the worst possible light on whatever he deems unfair, wrong, or just unlikable.
A few examples:
"...all revolutions happened because everyone everywhere wanted to be Americans."
"Wars were giant parties for the ruling elites, who sometimes thought it would be great fun to make the poor kill each other."
"A fluency with Black culture would attract more advertisers. Actual Black people would scare advertisers."
Those are some clean examples, of which there are not many...lots of profanity and tons of sexual references. But most of it is either humorous or thought-provoking, which makes it worthwhile in my view.
Now, this is not to say that I agree with all of what i hate the internet describes about our world. Far from it - I think much of what is said takes the imperfections in history and/or society, and blows them all out of proportion. But it's all entertaining and thought-provoking, whether you agree with how he describes something or not.
i hate the internet is largely a rant about the many imperfections in modern society, with special focus on how those imperfections tend to benefit white straight rich men over everyone who doesn't fit one of those four categories. The Internet is a primary target but far from the only one. Kobek pokes at everything, from religion to capitalism to despotic oppression to science fiction to music to celebrity. He shines the worst possible light on whatever he deems unfair, wrong, or just unlikable.
A few examples:
"...all revolutions happened because everyone everywhere wanted to be Americans."
"Wars were giant parties for the ruling elites, who sometimes thought it would be great fun to make the poor kill each other."
"A fluency with Black culture would attract more advertisers. Actual Black people would scare advertisers."
Those are some clean examples, of which there are not many...lots of profanity and tons of sexual references. But most of it is either humorous or thought-provoking, which makes it worthwhile in my view.
Now, this is not to say that I agree with all of what i hate the internet describes about our world. Far from it - I think much of what is said takes the imperfections in history and/or society, and blows them all out of proportion. But it's all entertaining and thought-provoking, whether you agree with how he describes something or not.
ederwin's review against another edition
4.0
The words I write here will provide 'content' to a website owned by a major corporation based in SF. They may put advertisements next to it. They may use my words to promote the book. They will use my rating and browsing history to influence which ads they show me. And... I'm ok with that.
Other popular 'social media' websites are the same. While these companies say that they are giving voices to the powerless and improving democracy, etc, the real driving force is still making money off of advertising. The content provided by all of us, in bulk, makes a few people richer, and our use of the products fuels that money transfer. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about fostering positive change, grieving over a tragedy, spreading rumors and hate speech, insulting each other or making threats in comments sections. All the content gets served-up with a side of advertising.
These issues are the major themes of this 'novel'. Other themes include how internet companies and their employees have contributed to significant changes in San Francisco, making it increasingly hard to survive there if you are not rich.
It isn't a very good 'novel'; it even says so itself! It is basically an extended comedic rant with characters and plot thrown in to support the rant. But it is, at most times, quite funny. Especially if, like me, you are have witnessed the changes in SF over the last two decades.
So, hey, I use social media; I work in tech; I use an iPad. There is good in all these things. This novel focuses mostly on the dark sides, but it can really make you laugh, and think, while doing so.
BTW: this book appeared in my mailbox totally unexpectedly. Apparently somebody thought it was my birthday [it isn't] and that I'd like this [I do].
Other popular 'social media' websites are the same. While these companies say that they are giving voices to the powerless and improving democracy, etc, the real driving force is still making money off of advertising. The content provided by all of us, in bulk, makes a few people richer, and our use of the products fuels that money transfer. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about fostering positive change, grieving over a tragedy, spreading rumors and hate speech, insulting each other or making threats in comments sections. All the content gets served-up with a side of advertising.
These issues are the major themes of this 'novel'. Other themes include how internet companies and their employees have contributed to significant changes in San Francisco, making it increasingly hard to survive there if you are not rich.
It isn't a very good 'novel'; it even says so itself! It is basically an extended comedic rant with characters and plot thrown in to support the rant. But it is, at most times, quite funny. Especially if, like me, you are have witnessed the changes in SF over the last two decades.
So, hey, I use social media; I work in tech; I use an iPad. There is good in all these things. This novel focuses mostly on the dark sides, but it can really make you laugh, and think, while doing so.
BTW: this book appeared in my mailbox totally unexpectedly. Apparently somebody thought it was my birthday [it isn't] and that I'd like this [I do].
brigeorgie's review against another edition
5.0
The 21st century, internet culture, feminism, politics and pop culture. Man this book!!
wordlover's review against another edition
3.0
Not a great novel (nor does the author claim it is), but some good, fun rants about contemporary culture and the current tech mayhem in San Francisco.