Staff Pick
With knife-sharp wit, author Jarett Kobek systematically shines a light on the devastating consequences of the Bay Area tech scene's actions. He dives deeper than the usual grievances to explore less obvious impacts, like how slacktivism on social media financially benefits the patriarchy, and how the idea of freedom of speech is used to justify a horror of online hate against anybody not straight, white and male. The novel follows Adeline, a comic illustrator who discovers that the greatest possible sin in America is being a woman expressing an opinion on the Internet. This book is one of the best social commentaries I've ever read. Highly, highly recommended! Recommended By Mary S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
What if you told the truth and the whole world heard you? What if you
lived in a country swamped with Internet outrage? What if you were a
woman in a society that hated women?
Set in the San Francisco of 2013, I Hate the Internet offers a
hilarious and obscene portrayal of life amongst the victims of the
digital boom. As billions of tweets fuel the city's gentrification and
the human wreckage piles up, a group of friends suffers the consequences
of being useless in a new world that despises the pointless and
unprofitable.
In this, his first full-length novel, Jarett Kobek tackles the pressing
questions of our moment. Why do we applaud the enrichment of CEOs at the
expense of the weak and the powerless? Why are we giving away our
intellectual property? Why is activism in the 21st Century nothing more
than a series of morality lectures typed into devices built by slaves?
Here, at last, comes an explanation of the Internet in the crudest possible terms.
Synopsis
What if you told the truth and the whole world heard you? Would you expect to be believed? What if you lived in a country swamped with Internet outrage? What if you were a woman living in a society that hated women? In this, his first full-length novel, Jarett Kobek answers the questions of our moment: Why do we live with rank misery seeping from the world's cellphones and computers? Why do we applaud the enrichment of tech CEOs at the expense of the weak and the powerless? Why are we giving away our intellectual property? Why is activism in the 21st Century nothing more than a series of morality lectures typed into devices built by slaves? Set in the San Francisco of 2013, amongst the victims of a Silicon Valley bubble, I Hate the Internet offers a hilarious and obscene indictment of our online lives.
About the Author
Jarett Kobek is a Turkish-American writer living in California. His novella ATTA
was called “highly interesting,” by the Times Literary Supplement, has
appeared in Spanish translation, been the subject of much academic
writing, and was a recent and unexplained bestseller in parts of Canada.