Scan barcode
A review by courtney_mcallister
It Chooses You by Miranda July
5.0
Miranda July can be excessively precocious and twee, but I tend to enjoy her writing. In It Chooses You, July finds the perfect outlet for her navel-gazing tendencies. By compulsively interviewing people who have placed ads in LA's PennySaver, she finds a way to connect to other people, while also reflecting on the bizarre (often awkward) dynamic between herself and these strangers. The accompanying photographs are very apt and provocative.
The project brings up a whole panoply of topics and memorable moments. I especially enjoyed July's commentary on technological isolation. When the PennySaver eventually disappears into the cloud, what physical artifacts will be left to connect random strangers to one another? She also makes a point of asking most of the interviewees if they use computers (most don't), just to illustrate how technological progress threatens to deepen the separation between haves and have-nots.
While July still has a tendency to get trapped in her own head, instead of responding directly to what is going on around her, she tries to resist that pattern and effectively incorporates her struggle into It Chooses You. On some level, the whole project can be interpreted as a meditation on the differences between digital interaction (internal, self-contained) and live, physical interaction (raw, unpredictable, often awkward). Regardless, It Chooses You creates a very moving reading experience. It's one of those rare books that makes the world open up just a little.
The project brings up a whole panoply of topics and memorable moments. I especially enjoyed July's commentary on technological isolation. When the PennySaver eventually disappears into the cloud, what physical artifacts will be left to connect random strangers to one another? She also makes a point of asking most of the interviewees if they use computers (most don't), just to illustrate how technological progress threatens to deepen the separation between haves and have-nots.
While July still has a tendency to get trapped in her own head, instead of responding directly to what is going on around her, she tries to resist that pattern and effectively incorporates her struggle into It Chooses You. On some level, the whole project can be interpreted as a meditation on the differences between digital interaction (internal, self-contained) and live, physical interaction (raw, unpredictable, often awkward). Regardless, It Chooses You creates a very moving reading experience. It's one of those rare books that makes the world open up just a little.