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No Judgment: Essays – Trenchant Cultural Critique on Technology, Celebrity, and Contemporary Life
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About This Book
From the national bestselling novelist and essayist, a groundbreaking collection of brand-new pieces about the role of cultural criticism in our ever-changing world. In her writing for Harper's , the London Review of Books , The New Yorker , and elsewhere, Lauren Oyler has emerged as one of the most trenchant and influential critics of her generation, a talent whose judgments on works of literature—whether celebratory or scarily harsh—have become notorious. But what is the significance of being a critic and consumer of media in today's fraught environment? How do we understand ourselves, and each other, as space between the individual and the world seems to get smaller and smaller, and our opinions on books and movies seem to represent something essential about our souls? And to put it bluntly, why should you care what she—or anyone—thinks? In this, her first collection of essays, Oyler writes with about topics like the role of gossip in our exponentially communicative society, the rise and proliferation of autofiction, why we're all so "vulnerable" these days, and her own anxiety. In her singular prose—sharp yet addictive, expansive yet personal—she encapsulates the world we live and think in with precision and care, delivering a work of cultural criticism as only she can. Bringing to mind the works of such iconic writers as Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, and Terry Castle, No Judgment is a testament to Lauren Oyler's inimitable wit and her quest to understand how we shape the world through culture. It is a sparkling nonfiction debut from one of today's most inventive thinkers.
Reviews
"She is so desperate to demonstrate that she is in on the joke that she neglects to ask if the joke is even funny ..."
"This is as intellectually stimulating as it is fun to read."
"If you are a person who spends an inordinate amount of time reading articles you found through X (né Twitter), you will likely be familiar with many, if not all, of Oyler's reference points ..."
"Sort of.') She is stimulating company on the page, and rarely dull."
"Her journalistic explorations of gossip and of online reviews, especially those on Goodreads, are both enlightening and provocative."
"The resulting collection reads like a juvenile burn book, totally uninterested in the world outside her group chat."
"Oyler is frank, fierce, funny, and brilliant; her brainy, passionate criticism exhilarating."
"The book's measuredness cuts both ways."
"And in this collection, Oyler, one of nature's contrarians, does the opposite of what most people do online: she cartwheels gracefully through a series of reverse virtue signals (vice flashes?)."
"Literature – novels, criticism, all of it – seems to be draining away before our very eyes, and it makes me feel very sad and depressed."
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