I can’t even pick a favorite quote from this piece… so much resonated with me. But your thoughts on aesthetic intellectualism and performative intellectualism were particularly astute.
You took these words out of my mouth (keyboard?) Eliza! I did love this line though: "We’re performing capitalism like clapping monkeys at a circus as if that’s all we know how to do, unsure why we’re doing it."
You kept taking this essay to places I didn’t see coming and I loved it! So many point resonated and I, too, wish there was more room for nuanced, thoughtful conversation around books on social media.
I would 100% love to know what Sally Rooney’s thoughts are on the social media craze her books create. If only we could read her diaries…
100% same! It feels like the conversation is either “this is good” or “this is bad” and that isn’t realistic (also, what’s the point…)
Sally, please give us your diaries! We must know! I imagine she just kind of removes herself from it as much as possible, but surely she has some thoughts?
I equally would love Rooney to post an article about her thoughts on the craze of her books! She’s described herself as a Marxist so I could only assume for her being an author in this heightened age of capitalism & social media comes with bucket loads of discomfort and contradiction!
Ok so not to project/assume or hold her to an unfair standard, but part of me wonders why she doesn’t just SAY something if it were really bothering her … so maybe it doesn’t, or maybe she doesn’t have a say in it. It doesn’t seem in line with the values she presents in interviews etc but she does still need to sell books at the end of the day and the publisher might not care what she thinks hahah I guess we shall never know
maybe thats why she seemed to unleash a ton of thoughts about it in beautiful world where are you, like about the place of the author and the death of the author and the unhealthy nature of fan culture. idk if you know what i'm talking about, but i read that part as a total self insert of her own experience, but kind of tongue in cheek since obviously some of the people probably reading that section in the book were the issues themselves. but she wrote it in a "fictional" book so she doesn't necessarily have to take complete accountability for it and can remain shielded from any effect those opinions would have on her sales if she'd expressed the same ideas through an essay or interview.
You both are in to something here! I wonder the same about the essay-ish parts of BWWAY that felt like declarations on her part. Also interesting that she insists she isn’t writing about herself and at the same time it’s so obvious it’s at least partly her views too?!
You know what I actually really agree w this. In my previous comment I’m speaking about her as if she doesn’t have autonomy or the opportunity to speak her mind - she’s bound to publisher deals! she has to exist however we want her to be rather than know her opinions! I think we do project an element of innocence onto her? Making her our ideal modern day female author? Idk it’s one thing to say you’re Marxist in theory, it’s another to live your life that way. It absolutely does not seem in line w the values she presents. Idk can you be Marxist if your successful under capitalism as to be successful under capitalism you have to be selling and making money? That direct conflict is probs why she’s not on social media.
Oh! Also the merch of it all!! I receive a handful of PR packages for books I’m not interested in and they are always full of things that end up in the garbage. I cannot help but think about what a waste of money it is for publishers (and the detrimental effects on the planet) and am boggled at why they blindly send these packages out to people. I know it’s someone’s job to create these, but there has to be a better way.
Also the PR stuff is so interesting! It does seem like a lot of garbage. I really do think it’s just hopping on the influencer culture of PR that just feasts on and feeds our hyperconsumption, but I don’t know that it makes a lot of sense in the publishing world? Like, just send the book and a bookmark! And surely they can ask? If for nothing else then to at least ensure their books end up in the hands of people who are genuinely interested and will read them
This is so interesting because out of all the PR that circulates in the world, book PR (on paper) is the simplest? It’s just the book? The fact it has grown to include other things, like the infamous bucket hat, or random totes, is fascinating. I wonder if it’s because publishers feel they need to compete with the PR of the beauty industry for example.
Oh, I’m sure it is! I get some lovely boxes with products I use (candles, a nice tote, etc.) but mostly they are filled with very cheap, poorly designed things. So I’m not even sure where the initial ideas spurred from!
Also I think sending anything to anyone without asking is so rude, as well as wasteful! If they’ve managed to source your address, they can source your email to double check you even want it!!!!
This is a fantastic piece. Thank you for writing it! Your writing is so smart and tight and lucid — especially in your reflections on Rooney's Didion-esque wariness of the status her literary popularity imparts. I really like how you've strayed from other "lit girl" think pieces I've seen that mostly just denigrate women for wanting to present intelligently or with some level of intellectualism; you make sense of the performativity of it all in a way I really resonate with. So happy to find your work!
Thank you, this was lovely to hear! I always try to stay away from just mocking women because as you said, of course some women want to present intelligently and you could make an argument that we SHOULD in a patriarchal society … but social media always throws a wrench in it, doesn’t it!
Right? It's like...what's wrong with wanting to present intelligently, especially when it's a lot of work to gain credibility as a woman intellectual? But, as you said, social media throws a wrench in it all, and I thought your piece did such a good job untangling the many knots in the issue.
100% and I think women SHOULD want to come off as intelligent and prove ‘em wrong (the number of blonde jokes I hear and assumptions made, in the year 2024, is astounding — can only imagine what it’s like for groups with actually harmful stereotypes) but that’s different than performing for consumption, I think. Thanks!!
This was such a good essay! I have so many tabs open in my browser now of your linked articles to read. Definitely some excellent provocations here, it makes me question whether I’m personally contributing to the problem or not with my own Bookstagram account and what bias I’ve been leaning into subconsciously that I need get in check.
Thank you! I had fun reading all the articles while writing this. I view it as less of a “problem” and more just something to be conscious of. Social media is social media either way! I don’t know that there is a right way to do it.
Ooh, love this! I think one can be a Lit Girl and intellectual (off camera), but one can't be intellectual and a Lit Girl, insofar as intellectualism = actually interacting critically with books and other related topics. I think this has to do with the way the Internet loves to interact with the *aesthetic* not the actual behavior. We love to be a pretty, white, well-read young city gal, drinking our oat milk lattes and carrying around our status galleys, but we don't like to do the work of thinking critically or sticking our necks out to express an actual opinion, or, god forbid, engage in something *political*. Reality really harshes the vibe and if it's not on trend the algorithm will ensure no one sees it anyway. I always wonder how much is performative for performance sake vs meeting platform requirements.
read this right after finishing conversations with friends and feeling like a real bookstagrammer, hahaha! love the fresh take you’ve given on the lit girl discourse, now probing how much I’ve been aspiring to the heights of the literary hottie 🤔
Oh how perfect! I’m tempted to reread conversations with friends and normal people ahead of the new one … also no judgment on wanting to be a literary hottie, I could only hope to be 🤣
I’d never heard of Kaia Gerber’s book club, and the name of it made me take pause. (For context, I’m a librarian with an MLIS.) My first thought was “Oh, she’s becoming a librarian?! That’s awesome!” Then, after clicking that link to her Instagram, I was admittedly a little disappointed by what I found, but not because I think she has bad intentions. I appreciate your acknowledgment that most of this lit girlie culture still encourages people to read books and think critically. I mostly agree with that assessment.
However, the presence of an Audre Lorde photo in one of the account’s posts made me feel…well, I think you said it best with the quote, “It’s also not a coincidence that these women’s aesthetics are primarily defined by their whiteness, and their politics benefit from the same privilege.” Using Audre Lorde—a black activist, lesbian, and librarian known for her critical theories and work on racism, feminism, colonialism, and capitalism—to sell the aesthetic of intellectualism is so ridiculous. I don’t even think someone could make that shit up if they tried.
yeah, it makes me think about when jenna bush hager’s book club slapped their heinous sticker on the cover of the bluest eye and you couldn’t buy a new copy without it. felt very performative because toni morrison does not need a bush endorsement. also, would have been so cool if kaia gerber actually became a librarian lol
Love this. I feel in constant fear of my own inability to shut the fuck up instead of harvesting some mysterious personality that is more consumable. Anyway. Hard relate.
Beautifully written piece, Steph! I also don’t want to sound jealous (or sound like I’m “gatekeeping” reading in general) but I would love to see more diverse book recommendations from the lit girls, too. I’m all aboard (and have read many of) the SJM, spicy/dark romance train — but at some point, it seems like everyone is regurgitating the same books. The whole Colleen Hoover obsession almost made me lose my damn mind. I’d love to see lit girls who recommend sci-fi or cyberpunk books. OK… sorry for rambling 😅
agree, it starts to feel really stale at some point. and I say that as someone who reads most of the popular books too! this specific aesthetic is overwhelmingly white and class-privileged, tbh
I absolutely loved this Steph, so brilliantly written! Ironically, I discovered it by way of a share from someone who had seen one of these "literary it girls" post about it, which made the nuanced reading all the more entertaining. I used to work in book pr pre-2020's pandemic and content media explosion, and the multi-faceted rise of the Lit Girl is so interesting to me. It all feels like something out of a Gossip Girl or Plum Sykes book. Is she the Romance Girlie with the bubblegum aesthetic? The Sad Girl Novel binge-reader who loves self-care? The lifestyle influencer whose personality trait is whichever book is currently trending? The thriller reader who knows exactly the right sort of wine to pair with her latest read? It's probably why I've stopped seeing niche community platforms like Instagram and TikTok as "social" media, but rather "content" media - that's not a bad thing, but more of a way to separate my life after living it in online bookish spaces for so long. "I think there’s a difference, however small, between aesthetic intellectualism — stemming from our compulsion to warp every possible aspect of the self until it’s digestible online — and performative intellectualism. The former is often rooted in some version of reality, just romanticized beyond authenticity. The latter is also concerned with image above all else, but attempting to look like you’re thinking without actually thinking feels like anti-intellectualism in disguise." This sums it up perfectly!
Thank you so much for this perspective! I would love to hear more about your work in book pr — you’ve seen it all I imagine.
Oh my gosh yes so many different aesthetics! I’ve only really covered one here but there are sooo many in the bookish spheres (and honestly the biggest accounts have very different aesthetics than the one I’ve mentioned so it’s clearly complex). Content media vs social media is a valid distinction. I feel like the lines are easily blurred, but there are definitely aspects of our lives that benefit from being kept offline.
I do hope the real literary it girls can join in the conversation and I’ve tried not to just judge them but that is interesting how you got here 🤣
It's like you put all my thoughts on bookfluencers into words. I want to be them so badly but if I were one, what kind of person would I be? Which part of it would I prioritize, the books or the influencing? Love your writing!!
it is an interesting thought exercise! I think traditional influencing is inherently toxic (consumerism etc) but there’s much more room for “good” influencing in bookish spheres. and there’s nothing stopping us from prioritizing books AND the social aspect either! thanks for reading ❣️
“She isn’t engaged in controversy, she isn’t posting about anything political or overtly deep, but she projects an air of intellectualism anyway that is supposed to imply her values.” This was a read!
The part where they don’t post anything and are never in controversy oh girl preach
👀 god forbid they take even the most lukewarm of stances lmao
I can’t even pick a favorite quote from this piece… so much resonated with me. But your thoughts on aesthetic intellectualism and performative intellectualism were particularly astute.
Thank you so much! I have so many thoughts on this 😅
You took these words out of my mouth (keyboard?) Eliza! I did love this line though: "We’re performing capitalism like clapping monkeys at a circus as if that’s all we know how to do, unsure why we’re doing it."
You kept taking this essay to places I didn’t see coming and I loved it! So many point resonated and I, too, wish there was more room for nuanced, thoughtful conversation around books on social media.
I would 100% love to know what Sally Rooney’s thoughts are on the social media craze her books create. If only we could read her diaries…
100% same! It feels like the conversation is either “this is good” or “this is bad” and that isn’t realistic (also, what’s the point…)
Sally, please give us your diaries! We must know! I imagine she just kind of removes herself from it as much as possible, but surely she has some thoughts?
I equally would love Rooney to post an article about her thoughts on the craze of her books! She’s described herself as a Marxist so I could only assume for her being an author in this heightened age of capitalism & social media comes with bucket loads of discomfort and contradiction!
Ok so not to project/assume or hold her to an unfair standard, but part of me wonders why she doesn’t just SAY something if it were really bothering her … so maybe it doesn’t, or maybe she doesn’t have a say in it. It doesn’t seem in line with the values she presents in interviews etc but she does still need to sell books at the end of the day and the publisher might not care what she thinks hahah I guess we shall never know
maybe thats why she seemed to unleash a ton of thoughts about it in beautiful world where are you, like about the place of the author and the death of the author and the unhealthy nature of fan culture. idk if you know what i'm talking about, but i read that part as a total self insert of her own experience, but kind of tongue in cheek since obviously some of the people probably reading that section in the book were the issues themselves. but she wrote it in a "fictional" book so she doesn't necessarily have to take complete accountability for it and can remain shielded from any effect those opinions would have on her sales if she'd expressed the same ideas through an essay or interview.
You both are in to something here! I wonder the same about the essay-ish parts of BWWAY that felt like declarations on her part. Also interesting that she insists she isn’t writing about herself and at the same time it’s so obvious it’s at least partly her views too?!
You know what I actually really agree w this. In my previous comment I’m speaking about her as if she doesn’t have autonomy or the opportunity to speak her mind - she’s bound to publisher deals! she has to exist however we want her to be rather than know her opinions! I think we do project an element of innocence onto her? Making her our ideal modern day female author? Idk it’s one thing to say you’re Marxist in theory, it’s another to live your life that way. It absolutely does not seem in line w the values she presents. Idk can you be Marxist if your successful under capitalism as to be successful under capitalism you have to be selling and making money? That direct conflict is probs why she’s not on social media.
Oh! Also the merch of it all!! I receive a handful of PR packages for books I’m not interested in and they are always full of things that end up in the garbage. I cannot help but think about what a waste of money it is for publishers (and the detrimental effects on the planet) and am boggled at why they blindly send these packages out to people. I know it’s someone’s job to create these, but there has to be a better way.
Also the PR stuff is so interesting! It does seem like a lot of garbage. I really do think it’s just hopping on the influencer culture of PR that just feasts on and feeds our hyperconsumption, but I don’t know that it makes a lot of sense in the publishing world? Like, just send the book and a bookmark! And surely they can ask? If for nothing else then to at least ensure their books end up in the hands of people who are genuinely interested and will read them
This is so interesting because out of all the PR that circulates in the world, book PR (on paper) is the simplest? It’s just the book? The fact it has grown to include other things, like the infamous bucket hat, or random totes, is fascinating. I wonder if it’s because publishers feel they need to compete with the PR of the beauty industry for example.
Oh, I’m sure it is! I get some lovely boxes with products I use (candles, a nice tote, etc.) but mostly they are filled with very cheap, poorly designed things. So I’m not even sure where the initial ideas spurred from!
Also I think sending anything to anyone without asking is so rude, as well as wasteful! If they’ve managed to source your address, they can source your email to double check you even want it!!!!
Yes!! Exactly. It’s such a waste of their money.
This is a fantastic piece. Thank you for writing it! Your writing is so smart and tight and lucid — especially in your reflections on Rooney's Didion-esque wariness of the status her literary popularity imparts. I really like how you've strayed from other "lit girl" think pieces I've seen that mostly just denigrate women for wanting to present intelligently or with some level of intellectualism; you make sense of the performativity of it all in a way I really resonate with. So happy to find your work!
Thank you, this was lovely to hear! I always try to stay away from just mocking women because as you said, of course some women want to present intelligently and you could make an argument that we SHOULD in a patriarchal society … but social media always throws a wrench in it, doesn’t it!
Right? It's like...what's wrong with wanting to present intelligently, especially when it's a lot of work to gain credibility as a woman intellectual? But, as you said, social media throws a wrench in it all, and I thought your piece did such a good job untangling the many knots in the issue.
100% and I think women SHOULD want to come off as intelligent and prove ‘em wrong (the number of blonde jokes I hear and assumptions made, in the year 2024, is astounding — can only imagine what it’s like for groups with actually harmful stereotypes) but that’s different than performing for consumption, I think. Thanks!!
This was such a good essay! I have so many tabs open in my browser now of your linked articles to read. Definitely some excellent provocations here, it makes me question whether I’m personally contributing to the problem or not with my own Bookstagram account and what bias I’ve been leaning into subconsciously that I need get in check.
Thank you! I had fun reading all the articles while writing this. I view it as less of a “problem” and more just something to be conscious of. Social media is social media either way! I don’t know that there is a right way to do it.
Ooh, love this! I think one can be a Lit Girl and intellectual (off camera), but one can't be intellectual and a Lit Girl, insofar as intellectualism = actually interacting critically with books and other related topics. I think this has to do with the way the Internet loves to interact with the *aesthetic* not the actual behavior. We love to be a pretty, white, well-read young city gal, drinking our oat milk lattes and carrying around our status galleys, but we don't like to do the work of thinking critically or sticking our necks out to express an actual opinion, or, god forbid, engage in something *political*. Reality really harshes the vibe and if it's not on trend the algorithm will ensure no one sees it anyway. I always wonder how much is performative for performance sake vs meeting platform requirements.
This, this is the take for me. Particularly that you can be both (Lit girl & intellectual) but which you prioritise over the other reveals a lot.
Very well said
read this right after finishing conversations with friends and feeling like a real bookstagrammer, hahaha! love the fresh take you’ve given on the lit girl discourse, now probing how much I’ve been aspiring to the heights of the literary hottie 🤔
Oh how perfect! I’m tempted to reread conversations with friends and normal people ahead of the new one … also no judgment on wanting to be a literary hottie, I could only hope to be 🤣
The Intermezzo comment is too real 😪 Faber have created a Rooney army and to not be a part of it is tragic x
They really have haven’t they 🤣
I’d never heard of Kaia Gerber’s book club, and the name of it made me take pause. (For context, I’m a librarian with an MLIS.) My first thought was “Oh, she’s becoming a librarian?! That’s awesome!” Then, after clicking that link to her Instagram, I was admittedly a little disappointed by what I found, but not because I think she has bad intentions. I appreciate your acknowledgment that most of this lit girlie culture still encourages people to read books and think critically. I mostly agree with that assessment.
However, the presence of an Audre Lorde photo in one of the account’s posts made me feel…well, I think you said it best with the quote, “It’s also not a coincidence that these women’s aesthetics are primarily defined by their whiteness, and their politics benefit from the same privilege.” Using Audre Lorde—a black activist, lesbian, and librarian known for her critical theories and work on racism, feminism, colonialism, and capitalism—to sell the aesthetic of intellectualism is so ridiculous. I don’t even think someone could make that shit up if they tried.
Lots of consider here—thank you for writing this!
yeah, it makes me think about when jenna bush hager’s book club slapped their heinous sticker on the cover of the bluest eye and you couldn’t buy a new copy without it. felt very performative because toni morrison does not need a bush endorsement. also, would have been so cool if kaia gerber actually became a librarian lol
Love this. I feel in constant fear of my own inability to shut the fuck up instead of harvesting some mysterious personality that is more consumable. Anyway. Hard relate.
Beautifully written piece, Steph! I also don’t want to sound jealous (or sound like I’m “gatekeeping” reading in general) but I would love to see more diverse book recommendations from the lit girls, too. I’m all aboard (and have read many of) the SJM, spicy/dark romance train — but at some point, it seems like everyone is regurgitating the same books. The whole Colleen Hoover obsession almost made me lose my damn mind. I’d love to see lit girls who recommend sci-fi or cyberpunk books. OK… sorry for rambling 😅
agree, it starts to feel really stale at some point. and I say that as someone who reads most of the popular books too! this specific aesthetic is overwhelmingly white and class-privileged, tbh
Absolutely agree.
So true!! I'm gna take this and dive into more genres this year. I fear last year I was rotating on the same 3 genres 😅
Which is totally valid because that’s what was recommended! Let’s change it up in 2025 🫡
Yes ma'am!!
truly devastated to learn the new yorker tote bag now officially counts as millennial cringe!
wear that New Yorker tote bag with pride!!
agree agree agree - instant subscribe !!!
I absolutely loved this Steph, so brilliantly written! Ironically, I discovered it by way of a share from someone who had seen one of these "literary it girls" post about it, which made the nuanced reading all the more entertaining. I used to work in book pr pre-2020's pandemic and content media explosion, and the multi-faceted rise of the Lit Girl is so interesting to me. It all feels like something out of a Gossip Girl or Plum Sykes book. Is she the Romance Girlie with the bubblegum aesthetic? The Sad Girl Novel binge-reader who loves self-care? The lifestyle influencer whose personality trait is whichever book is currently trending? The thriller reader who knows exactly the right sort of wine to pair with her latest read? It's probably why I've stopped seeing niche community platforms like Instagram and TikTok as "social" media, but rather "content" media - that's not a bad thing, but more of a way to separate my life after living it in online bookish spaces for so long. "I think there’s a difference, however small, between aesthetic intellectualism — stemming from our compulsion to warp every possible aspect of the self until it’s digestible online — and performative intellectualism. The former is often rooted in some version of reality, just romanticized beyond authenticity. The latter is also concerned with image above all else, but attempting to look like you’re thinking without actually thinking feels like anti-intellectualism in disguise." This sums it up perfectly!
Thank you so much for this perspective! I would love to hear more about your work in book pr — you’ve seen it all I imagine.
Oh my gosh yes so many different aesthetics! I’ve only really covered one here but there are sooo many in the bookish spheres (and honestly the biggest accounts have very different aesthetics than the one I’ve mentioned so it’s clearly complex). Content media vs social media is a valid distinction. I feel like the lines are easily blurred, but there are definitely aspects of our lives that benefit from being kept offline.
I do hope the real literary it girls can join in the conversation and I’ve tried not to just judge them but that is interesting how you got here 🤣
It's like you put all my thoughts on bookfluencers into words. I want to be them so badly but if I were one, what kind of person would I be? Which part of it would I prioritize, the books or the influencing? Love your writing!!
it is an interesting thought exercise! I think traditional influencing is inherently toxic (consumerism etc) but there’s much more room for “good” influencing in bookish spheres. and there’s nothing stopping us from prioritizing books AND the social aspect either! thanks for reading ❣️
“She isn’t engaged in controversy, she isn’t posting about anything political or overtly deep, but she projects an air of intellectualism anyway that is supposed to imply her values.” This was a read!
You just earned a subscriber!