Scan barcode
A review by persephonora
Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
2.0
I don’t think this book deserves the hype it has. Tolentino was compared to Sontag by The Washington Post and I don’t think Trick Mirror is nearly groundbreaking enough to deserve that high praise. Some of the essays were interesting, but more than half of them sort of fell flat. I think this book would be great for like if Aliens came to earth and we needed to explain the last decade to them. But, for people who have lived through the 2010’s, and who, like Tolentino, use the internet on a regular basis, most of her observations feel pretty obvious. Here are my more detailed thoughts about which essays are worth the read.
* The I in internet – This chapter was pretty interesting, it deals with the way social media has affected our psychology, but because the internet moves so fast, I felt like parts of it were out of touch even now.
* Reality TV me – This was really just a personal narrative of her time on a reality show. In my opinion, it’s not a universal enough experience to be relatable, and it’s not a famous enough reality show/life changing enough experience, for it to be interesting to read about.
* Always be optimizing – This chapter was really good (and also super depressing). I think she wove her personal experience really well into the discussion of body image and beauty standards. I did think that some of the feminist discourse was a little derivative.
* Pure heroines – I actually liked this one, but only because I’m an English Major so I like hearing literary analysis, and also because I had read most of the books she cited so it made me feel good about myself. If you haven’t read most of the books though, I would stay away because there are major spoilers. I think she relied a lot on quoting other authors, though, and there wasn’t that much original work.
* Ecstasy – This one felt really pointless to me. Maybe you would get something out of it if you grew up super religious or have done ecstasy, but to me it felt really out of place in the collection.
* The story of a generation in seven scams – One of my least favorites. Most of the “scams” weren’t actually scams – one of her examples is the 2008 financial crisis. This chapter felt like she watched the Fyre Fest documentary and wrote a summary of it, and then did the same thing for the other 6 “scams.” Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last 10 years would be familiar with nearly every scandal, and there is so much summary. I didn’t feel like her larger points were good enough to justify the amount of summary, especially because not all of the examples really constitute a “scam.”
* We come from old Virginia – This was an interesting chapter about rape culture and journalism in the #metoo era. Nothing that she said was groundbreaking, and I had kept up a lot with the UVA stories so I felt like I was just hearing a lot of summary that I knew already. But I thought some of her points towards the end were interesting.
* The cult of the difficult woman – This was so derivative. She’s articulating the pitfalls of “girls support girls,” as a way of silencing criticism of conservative women, and the fact that celebrity culture doesn’t reflect normal person life. But I found it a little too neoliberal, even though that seemed to be what she was trying to critique.
* I thee dread – This one was fine. I felt like the type of weddings she described are only the norm in very specific demographic circles. I found the historical background on wedding traditions to be interesting, but I felt like her tone was a little too judgey and not-like-other-girls-y
One final thought: Tolentino criticizes “professional opinion-havers” and the fact that social media has made us all think that our thoughts and opinions are worth sharing. And I get that critique. But it felt a little ironic given that so much of her work was really derivative. Like the Pure Heroines chapter was basically just her musings on some of her favorite books loosely told through a feminist lens. To me that chapter is a perfect example of “professional opinion-having.” And I didn’t dislike that chapter, I merely point this out because I think Tolentino falls into a lot of the traps that she outlines. I personally didn’t connect with her personal essays: “Reality TV and Me” and “Ecstasy” because they felt incredibly self-indulgent. Obviously she can do that if she wants to, it’s her book, but I didn’t enjoy reading about it. And it felt like reading a super long social media post from someone you only marginally know.
* The I in internet – This chapter was pretty interesting, it deals with the way social media has affected our psychology, but because the internet moves so fast, I felt like parts of it were out of touch even now.
* Reality TV me – This was really just a personal narrative of her time on a reality show. In my opinion, it’s not a universal enough experience to be relatable, and it’s not a famous enough reality show/life changing enough experience, for it to be interesting to read about.
* Always be optimizing – This chapter was really good (and also super depressing). I think she wove her personal experience really well into the discussion of body image and beauty standards. I did think that some of the feminist discourse was a little derivative.
* Pure heroines – I actually liked this one, but only because I’m an English Major so I like hearing literary analysis, and also because I had read most of the books she cited so it made me feel good about myself. If you haven’t read most of the books though, I would stay away because there are major spoilers. I think she relied a lot on quoting other authors, though, and there wasn’t that much original work.
* Ecstasy – This one felt really pointless to me. Maybe you would get something out of it if you grew up super religious or have done ecstasy, but to me it felt really out of place in the collection.
* The story of a generation in seven scams – One of my least favorites. Most of the “scams” weren’t actually scams – one of her examples is the 2008 financial crisis. This chapter felt like she watched the Fyre Fest documentary and wrote a summary of it, and then did the same thing for the other 6 “scams.” Anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last 10 years would be familiar with nearly every scandal, and there is so much summary. I didn’t feel like her larger points were good enough to justify the amount of summary, especially because not all of the examples really constitute a “scam.”
* We come from old Virginia – This was an interesting chapter about rape culture and journalism in the #metoo era. Nothing that she said was groundbreaking, and I had kept up a lot with the UVA stories so I felt like I was just hearing a lot of summary that I knew already. But I thought some of her points towards the end were interesting.
* The cult of the difficult woman – This was so derivative. She’s articulating the pitfalls of “girls support girls,” as a way of silencing criticism of conservative women, and the fact that celebrity culture doesn’t reflect normal person life. But I found it a little too neoliberal, even though that seemed to be what she was trying to critique.
* I thee dread – This one was fine. I felt like the type of weddings she described are only the norm in very specific demographic circles. I found the historical background on wedding traditions to be interesting, but I felt like her tone was a little too judgey and not-like-other-girls-y
One final thought: Tolentino criticizes “professional opinion-havers” and the fact that social media has made us all think that our thoughts and opinions are worth sharing. And I get that critique. But it felt a little ironic given that so much of her work was really derivative. Like the Pure Heroines chapter was basically just her musings on some of her favorite books loosely told through a feminist lens. To me that chapter is a perfect example of “professional opinion-having.” And I didn’t dislike that chapter, I merely point this out because I think Tolentino falls into a lot of the traps that she outlines. I personally didn’t connect with her personal essays: “Reality TV and Me” and “Ecstasy” because they felt incredibly self-indulgent. Obviously she can do that if she wants to, it’s her book, but I didn’t enjoy reading about it. And it felt like reading a super long social media post from someone you only marginally know.