>If you’ve ever had a pea coat-wearing liberal arts student talk at you about the genius that is David Foster Wallace then you’d call Infinite Jest bro-lit too
We’re still doing this in the year of our lord 2023 huh?
King_Allant on
As if the literary culture of TikTok is so refined that the presence of “bros” will send the whole machine out of whack.
>“You see [memes] like, ‘If he says his favorite book is [Catcher In The Rye], then run,’” Jackson says. “So it’s always been a joke. But now I feel like people are more upset and talking about it because it seems like every time a conventionally attractive man comes on BookTok and talks about those sorts of books, [they’re not] bringing anything to the conversation that hasn’t already been said.”
Oh, so this is just an excuse to be super sexist.
Thomasnaste420 on
I ALWAYS get my book recommendations from “TikTok creators”. Because when you want serious opinions on literature, you should turn to some random jackass on the internet who got famous making 10 second videos of themselves.
LuinAelin on
Bro-lit? What does that even mean?
AggravatingBox2421 on
God forbid people read anything besides Colleen Hoover and fairy porn
Daihatschi on
I have zero interest onstepping into TikTok or BookTok myself, but ever since I heard how its affecting business and driving sales, I love to read articles like these. Its fun from the outside and far away.
I’m only familiar with the youtube film reviewers who can’t be described as anything other than completely ‘media illiterate’ and presume its essentially the same kind of person on there.
So this is just a counter-culture to the counter-culture, yes?
mediadavid on
ha, I thought this was going to be about airport thriller novels like Jack Reacher or Dan Brown or whatever, but no, it’s David Foster Wallace and J. D. Salinger.
ManyHabit8785 on
So ‘special and different’ female booktok tribe are going to war with the ‘special and different’ bro-tok tribe, to find out who has the right to wear the crown of “I’m not like other girls/boys, I’m special and different because I read books and you lot just watch TikToks!!!
Fuck, people are insufferable. These idiots have too much time on their hands.
-lc- on
Another rage bait “content” like 99% of stuff on social media. I miss the old internet, bring back 2000s trolling.
GoodCatholicGuy on
Tiktok really does create the dumbest controversies.
If BookTok was the sort of space that the creators in this article say it is, i.e. a place predominantly for women to talk about underappreciated literature written by women, then I would get that it’s frustrating to have men come in and reuse their Intro to American Lit final for free content. But it isn’t that, it’s another group of tiktok influencers only instead of selling you skin care products or recipes they sell you books in a specific genre and target audience, usually YA and Extreme Horror for some reason.
smalltownlargefry on
This article felt so pretentious and reeked of gate keeping. I’ll say this, people read books I feel at certain levels of their reading habit and depending how deep they want to read is really up to them.
I do not expect most people to read James Baldwin if they didn’t graduate from college or honestly if they are white. Not saying they wouldn’t still read Baldwin but I doubt it.
But you know what, the same reason people from booktok want to poke fun at litbros are they same reasons I like to poke fun at booktok. It’s all the same book titles, surface level Colleen Hoover trauma porn dog water substances. How many booktokkers are jumping to read Blood Meridian?
At the end of the day, people read what they like, they celebrate what they like.
Dusty_Chapel on
This might be the stupidest thing i’ve ever read. But at least I haven’t read the likes of Colleen Hoover, Sally Rooney, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Madeline Miller, which is what 99% of BookTok solely orbits around.
What’s this? Young men aren’t reading? Oh I know, let’s gatekeep what they *should* be reading and malign their choice of books – that sounds like a marvellously productive idea! /s
shinyCloudy on
Most people on TikTok recommend absolute trash regardless of their gender.
DoopSlayer on
well this outrage bait kinda worked on me as I did read the article nut I would bet a lot of money that most booktok users have not read any James Baldwin, or any of the books they’re calling bro-lit
When I attend conferences where people are sharing their analysis and research of these authors there are almost always more women than men — tik-tok teens seem really bent on repackaging toxic gender stereotypes in like progressive wrapping paper and I hope they mature out of it
DevinB333 on
Before reading the article, I assumed it was going to be very gate-keepy about men booktockers enjoying the “wrong” books. After reading it, that seems to be a part of it. Men pushing classics written by mainly white men as better than anything else is another part of it. Which I can acknowledge is a thing. Another problem the article talks about is men identifying with problematic characters, which I understand. Reading Catcher in the Rye and thinking “that’s totally me” is a major red flag.
Overall, though, the article felt like women booktockers not liking men coming into “their” space and liking the “wrong things”. Bro-lit fees like a term created to minimize and insult what a large number of men like. Like how chick-lit is used.
Let people enjoy what they enjoy. Avoid them if you want.
Handyandy58 on
“Bros” don’t really read at all in my experience.
Sir_Grox on
Booktok when the recs arn’t published fanfiction
SpiritSeeker99 on
Look at that headline. BookTok? Bro-lit? If you understand either of those words you need to spend less time online.
StarfishIsUncanny on
How dare men (checks notes) read books?
Monster_Hugger93 on
TikTok creating divides where there doesn’t need to be one, what a shock
20 Comments
>If you’ve ever had a pea coat-wearing liberal arts student talk at you about the genius that is David Foster Wallace then you’d call Infinite Jest bro-lit too
We’re still doing this in the year of our lord 2023 huh?
As if the literary culture of TikTok is so refined that the presence of “bros” will send the whole machine out of whack.
>“You see [memes] like, ‘If he says his favorite book is [Catcher In The Rye], then run,’” Jackson says. “So it’s always been a joke. But now I feel like people are more upset and talking about it because it seems like every time a conventionally attractive man comes on BookTok and talks about those sorts of books, [they’re not] bringing anything to the conversation that hasn’t already been said.”
Oh, so this is just an excuse to be super sexist.
I ALWAYS get my book recommendations from “TikTok creators”. Because when you want serious opinions on literature, you should turn to some random jackass on the internet who got famous making 10 second videos of themselves.
Bro-lit? What does that even mean?
God forbid people read anything besides Colleen Hoover and fairy porn
I have zero interest onstepping into TikTok or BookTok myself, but ever since I heard how its affecting business and driving sales, I love to read articles like these. Its fun from the outside and far away.
I’m only familiar with the youtube film reviewers who can’t be described as anything other than completely ‘media illiterate’ and presume its essentially the same kind of person on there.
So this is just a counter-culture to the counter-culture, yes?
ha, I thought this was going to be about airport thriller novels like Jack Reacher or Dan Brown or whatever, but no, it’s David Foster Wallace and J. D. Salinger.
So ‘special and different’ female booktok tribe are going to war with the ‘special and different’ bro-tok tribe, to find out who has the right to wear the crown of “I’m not like other girls/boys, I’m special and different because I read books and you lot just watch TikToks!!!
Fuck, people are insufferable. These idiots have too much time on their hands.
Another rage bait “content” like 99% of stuff on social media. I miss the old internet, bring back 2000s trolling.
Tiktok really does create the dumbest controversies.
If BookTok was the sort of space that the creators in this article say it is, i.e. a place predominantly for women to talk about underappreciated literature written by women, then I would get that it’s frustrating to have men come in and reuse their Intro to American Lit final for free content. But it isn’t that, it’s another group of tiktok influencers only instead of selling you skin care products or recipes they sell you books in a specific genre and target audience, usually YA and Extreme Horror for some reason.
This article felt so pretentious and reeked of gate keeping. I’ll say this, people read books I feel at certain levels of their reading habit and depending how deep they want to read is really up to them.
I do not expect most people to read James Baldwin if they didn’t graduate from college or honestly if they are white. Not saying they wouldn’t still read Baldwin but I doubt it.
But you know what, the same reason people from booktok want to poke fun at litbros are they same reasons I like to poke fun at booktok. It’s all the same book titles, surface level Colleen Hoover trauma porn dog water substances. How many booktokkers are jumping to read Blood Meridian?
At the end of the day, people read what they like, they celebrate what they like.
This might be the stupidest thing i’ve ever read. But at least I haven’t read the likes of Colleen Hoover, Sally Rooney, Taylor Jenkins Reid and Madeline Miller, which is what 99% of BookTok solely orbits around.
What’s this? Young men aren’t reading? Oh I know, let’s gatekeep what they *should* be reading and malign their choice of books – that sounds like a marvellously productive idea! /s
Most people on TikTok recommend absolute trash regardless of their gender.
well this outrage bait kinda worked on me as I did read the article nut I would bet a lot of money that most booktok users have not read any James Baldwin, or any of the books they’re calling bro-lit
When I attend conferences where people are sharing their analysis and research of these authors there are almost always more women than men — tik-tok teens seem really bent on repackaging toxic gender stereotypes in like progressive wrapping paper and I hope they mature out of it
Before reading the article, I assumed it was going to be very gate-keepy about men booktockers enjoying the “wrong” books. After reading it, that seems to be a part of it. Men pushing classics written by mainly white men as better than anything else is another part of it. Which I can acknowledge is a thing. Another problem the article talks about is men identifying with problematic characters, which I understand. Reading Catcher in the Rye and thinking “that’s totally me” is a major red flag.
Overall, though, the article felt like women booktockers not liking men coming into “their” space and liking the “wrong things”. Bro-lit fees like a term created to minimize and insult what a large number of men like. Like how chick-lit is used.
Let people enjoy what they enjoy. Avoid them if you want.
“Bros” don’t really read at all in my experience.
Booktok when the recs arn’t published fanfiction
Look at that headline. BookTok? Bro-lit? If you understand either of those words you need to spend less time online.
How dare men (checks notes) read books?
TikTok creating divides where there doesn’t need to be one, what a shock