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 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
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.
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?!
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 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.
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!!
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 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 🤣
This is so interesting because I was deep into the online bookstagram world before I came to Substack and perhaps its just because of the algorithm's response to my engagement but my feed is very full of people who actually read, engage in discourse, and have [political] opinions - honestly sometimes the opinions are too much shoved down my throat - there was an entire week where I was consistently yelled at by other people's stories for "supporting Zionists, etc.". I do get the sense that some people over identify with the books they read and make it their entire online personality, which gives me pause. Now I'm out here scrolling with a different eye for what's happening - thank you for that!!
It’s a shame that so many girls seem to hold beauty and what looks cool and popular on a pedestal. I mean, cmon, at least aspire to read Rory Gilmore’s reading list before the New York Times best seller that you don’t actually agree with or care to understand. *sigh* everyone’s life would be a little bit better if they just went to some random bookstore somewhere and picked up anything that looked good and READ. IT. Not some raunchy smut and a few pages of Milk and Honey. -_- really grinds my gears.
I think there can still be value in “non-intellectual” books (not sure what to call them) as well as popular ones, and not every reading experience needs to be a life-altering one. I love to throw a romance in occasionally and I’m happy people are reading no matter what! But I think it becomes a problem if we fail to see the connection between what we read and the real world. I always think of how people can be so passionate online about The Hunger Games, etc. but are silent on the ways in which it reflects our own very real systems of oppression. It’s less about the genre for me and more about our willingness to think outside ourselves.
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 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
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.
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?!
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 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.
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!!
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 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 🤣
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 🤣
Such a thought provoking piece!! Subscribed ✅
Thank you! ❤️
make it count!!! now I’m off to ur Goodreads to see what this lit girl can introduce me to 🤞🏼
I’m sure the real lit girls are curating much better reading lists 😅
Anyone who recommends a good book is a lit girl to me!
Fuck, I loved this. Truly nailed it with the discussion around the performance of it all. Sheesh. Thank you.
Thank you Margaux! I’m always just out here performing myself 🥲
This is so interesting because I was deep into the online bookstagram world before I came to Substack and perhaps its just because of the algorithm's response to my engagement but my feed is very full of people who actually read, engage in discourse, and have [political] opinions - honestly sometimes the opinions are too much shoved down my throat - there was an entire week where I was consistently yelled at by other people's stories for "supporting Zionists, etc.". I do get the sense that some people over identify with the books they read and make it their entire online personality, which gives me pause. Now I'm out here scrolling with a different eye for what's happening - thank you for that!!
It’s a shame that so many girls seem to hold beauty and what looks cool and popular on a pedestal. I mean, cmon, at least aspire to read Rory Gilmore’s reading list before the New York Times best seller that you don’t actually agree with or care to understand. *sigh* everyone’s life would be a little bit better if they just went to some random bookstore somewhere and picked up anything that looked good and READ. IT. Not some raunchy smut and a few pages of Milk and Honey. -_- really grinds my gears.
I think there can still be value in “non-intellectual” books (not sure what to call them) as well as popular ones, and not every reading experience needs to be a life-altering one. I love to throw a romance in occasionally and I’m happy people are reading no matter what! But I think it becomes a problem if we fail to see the connection between what we read and the real world. I always think of how people can be so passionate online about The Hunger Games, etc. but are silent on the ways in which it reflects our own very real systems of oppression. It’s less about the genre for me and more about our willingness to think outside ourselves.
Didion is such a good foil to this idea. Granted, she's iconic in her own way.