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A review by shimmery
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
5.0
This book perfectly encapsulates the nauseating absurdity of social media (in particular twitter) that led me to delete my own account at the end of last year. Lockwood here articulates an uneasy feeling I’m sure many of us have — that the internet is shaping our perceptions, speech patterns, even thought patterns for the worse. This passage (about the internet, called the portal in the novel) particularly struck me:
‘It had also once been the place where you sounded like yourself. Gradually it had become the place where we sounded like each other, through some erosion of wind or water on a self not nearly as firm as stone.’
The first half of the book shows the total lack of sincerity and originality online and then the second half of the book serves as a contrast to that, with the main character’s sister born with a rare condition that means she is in constant need of intensive care. Yet even in this serious situation the main character finds herself processing what is happening in the bizarre language of the internet.
A very poignant read, and a thought provoking appraisal of the way many of us live now.
‘It had also once been the place where you sounded like yourself. Gradually it had become the place where we sounded like each other, through some erosion of wind or water on a self not nearly as firm as stone.’
The first half of the book shows the total lack of sincerity and originality online and then the second half of the book serves as a contrast to that, with the main character’s sister born with a rare condition that means she is in constant need of intensive care. Yet even in this serious situation the main character finds herself processing what is happening in the bizarre language of the internet.
A very poignant read, and a thought provoking appraisal of the way many of us live now.