Currently Reading: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

“In the end, my brand was me, so whatever I said became something I believed.”

These are things I think about these days:

1. How our lives can be reduced to our social media personas
2. How, with this current presidential administration, hatred has found a stronger voice
3. How bipartisan politics has gotten extremely bipolar to the point of being destructive

This book takes a fantastical, yet played premise of alien invasion and spins it into a fresh parable for current times, simply by framing it within our social media-laden society. This framing is superbly executed, to the point where the premise becomes startlingly plausible. What would happen, in this day and age, if aliens randomly placed large robot-like statues throughout the world? Well, the event would be ignored until someone posts it on YouTube, and it becomes viral. How do the aliens spread word of their intentions? Through Wikipedia typos. What happens when the invasion sets off the whole world to have the exact same dream containing a myriad of puzzles to solve? Online communities develop to share their knowledge. Thus, the premise of alien invasion becomes less fantastical by parsing out of the event through social media. Interpreting the event via media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is EXACTLY WHAT WE WOULD DO. Jarringly apt.

And what’s more, the main storyline of the book is not really about the alien invasion, it’s about how the girl who first YouTubed the event decides how to present herself; how she formulates her “brand,” apropos the aliens. Because that is ultimately what a modern-day girl would focus on–how she presents herself, on social media, amidst an alien invasion!

Then, there’s a man who sky-rockets to fame for presenting a dissenting view that the alien invasion is a hostile act. His fame is not related to how strongly he feels about this, or how eloquent he is, but simply because he was the first dissenting voice on a blog. He gains followers that are more passionate, they feel encouraged to voice their agreement, and the movement snowballs. It mirrors this current presidency–how our asshat president will Tweet out vitriol, and his bigoted/racist/fact-ignoring views are amplified by his supporters. It is symbiotic; those who may harbor hateful/wrong views feel validated by a president who voices these thoughts, and in turn they continue to support him. Loudly. Outloud. This is what scares me the most about America now more than Trump–his supporters transforming hateful thoughts into acts of hate. Cf. The Plot Against America.

The book then circles back to how the girl who first YouTubed the event decides to respond to the dissenter. She launches a forceful counter-arguments against him, not because she feels particularly convinced that the invasion is benevolent, but because the dissenting opinion is in opposition to her Brand. And staying On Brand necessitates her to forcibly dissent against the dissent. What is driving her more at this point–belief in the benevolence of the aliens, or wanting to stay On Brand? It mirrors extreme polar bipartisanship in this country. Disagreeing with the opposing political party, and dismantling their agenda has replaced thinking deeply about things, and thinking for oneself.

I love it when I’m reading a book and it mirrors what I am already thinking about. To be fair, I do end up framing everything I read into what I am currently thinking about, and current events. But this book takes away most of the work for me.