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It's a sharp take on social media and internet fame and a great piece of contemporary writing. But even though I understand and justify the stylistic approach of the book, in terms of the story itself it left me wanting more.
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Most of the time I read this, I couldn't help but feel like Colleen's friend Kevin who yelled at her over the phone near the end: "Get. The fuck. Over yourself." This whole book could stand to follow that advice, honestly. This book is like if the Zac Efron movie We Are Your Friends switched genders and joined an MFA program. This book tells me nothing new. I have heard this story so many times before, and as a millennial, it makes me understand complaints about (white) millennials. (We sure as hell can't get over our own mundane-ass, cynical, self-involved sadness, huh?) If you want this sort of thing, read Sheila Heti or Walter Scott instead. There are so many worthwhile, similar experiences you could have that aren't reading this book. ...more
The first half was a grim, but highly engaging, account of post-college soul-crushing mall work and existential loneliness. It's bleak, funny, and fascinating. The characters are fleshed out, the story-lines make sense and the reader is engaged. Why? Good writing (otherw
It's like Natasha Stagg decided to "Write A Book About Fame" but didn't have enough to say so decided to just slap two different narratives together to try and create a cogent point and "Say Something Important." It didn't work.The first half was a grim, but highly engaging, account of post-college soul-crushing mall work and existential loneliness. It's bleak, funny, and fascinating. The characters are fleshed out, the story-lines make sense and the reader is engaged. Why? Good writing (otherwise known as "hard work" if you're a writer).
The second half centered around a barely explained on-line relationship that results in the sort of corporate-endorsed trashy celebrity status given to internet "stars." Stagg never showed us anything of the beginning of the relationship, instead choosing the refrain "you can look it up on-line, it's all there in print - forever." Except... this is a work of fiction so no, it's not on the internet and pretending your backstory is solidly fleshed out elsewhere is insanely lazy writing! I didn't give two shits about the characters or their relationship because Stagg didn't earn it.
I would have loved 300 pages about Colleen (who works at the mall and experiments with sex work and does too many drugs and has crazy neighbors) but Colleen ("I'm really famous on the Internet" professional party-er who spends all her time obsessing over her cheating ex)? NO. NO. NO.
Overall, one of the most frustrating books I've read in ages.
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I feel like if this book was critiqued in a fiction workshop there would be a lot of people who would argue that the Internet celebrity lover should have been introduced MUCH earlier, because he really does just come out of nowhere and it's a bit jarring. Still, it kind of works? In general the book's plot is dependent on those kinds of weird little twists and I guess it will either work for you or it won't.
Also (spoiler alert) the ending did not involve the protagonist realizing the errors of her Internet-dependent ways, which I also appreciated.
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So it's set in the American southwest in 2011 and that's important because in 2011 there are no non-minimum wage jobs for recent college graduates, the word 'hipster' has just lost all meaning, and the term 'social media influencer' has just started being something people aspire to. The plot is that a young woman attempts to n
My opinion of this book changed every twenty pages. If nothing else, it is very smartly written, not so much in what it says, but in what is left unsaid between the lines.So it's set in the American southwest in 2011 and that's important because in 2011 there are no non-minimum wage jobs for recent college graduates, the word 'hipster' has just lost all meaning, and the term 'social media influencer' has just started being something people aspire to. The plot is that a young woman attempts to navigate this.
Often I read an article, or watch a video, or see references to, about some Drama (TM) that's happening between internet celebrities, and after reading the article or watching the video, I know all about their drama but I'm typically left with three burning questions: Who tf are these people? What do they do/why are they famous? And who tf are their legions of fans? It's also bizarre in that everyone assumes the consumer of the article/video/whatever already knows the life history, biases, and general unreliability of everyone involved. Through short (blog post-esque?) chapters, lies by omission, and shifting timelines Surveys conveys the strangeness of this. In other words, the narrator might be shallow but the text is rather complex.
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1. Colleen is far more honest then many people can handle
2. This book is not like anything i've read. This book how can i explain this book. I think going into it you need to know only two things.
1. Colleen is far more honest then many people can handle
2. This book is not like anything i've read. ...more
Surveys is essentially a dispatch on "influencer" culture and how people can become famous for no reason, just based off of the fact that they are pretty or interesting online. The main character/narrator of Surveys, Colleen, works a dull job at a mall in Arizona, helping to conduct surveys. I found the first part of this book incredibly boring and confusing, much like Colleen's occupation. Several chapters of talking about surveys just didn't do it for me, but I suppose it was meant to capture the monotony of Colleen's life working at the mall.
Then, the novel switches into something else entirely. Colleen becomes internet famous, turning into a character that reminded me of a Lana Del Rey/Slayyyter hybrid (Natasha Stagg has stated, in interviews, that she is a huge LDR fan). She meets an internet boyfriend named Jim, meets up with him in person, moves to LA, and the pair begin throwing parties together. Thus begins a whirlwind tour around the country of various little vignettes taking place in a bunch of different American cities. Some of these vignettes were interesting, and contained poignant commentary on fame. Others were confusing, completely missing the mark.
The plot in Surveys is like a piece of cardboard. Completely one-dimensional with barely any depth at all. The writing wasn't fabulous either, it often felt like something I would write for my creative fiction class. I never felt fully immersed in the setting, which was a shame for a book that could have pulled the reader into the various cities where these parties were taking place. From a writer as talented and well-traveled as Natasha Stagg, I expected more.
However, part of me wonders if this was all intentional. Maybe Stagg wanted her commentary on instafame to be convoluted, flat, much like scrolling through the feed of one of the most annoying influencers on Instagram. It's a catchy idea, but doesn't make for interesting reading. For a book that could have been so much more, I found that I was left cold by the end.
Surveys feels like a long, monotonous scroll through 2014 Tumblr. Which, in all honesty, was what Natasha Stagg was probably going for. I'm sad that this book didn't really grab me, but am still a huge fan of Natasha Stagg, as well as her nonfiction writing and opinions. Looking forward to diving into Sleeveless this spring/early summer.
...more I wanted to know the specifics of what Colleen and Jim did online that got them
I found this title on a list on Electric Lit about books about fame/social media. As someone who spent their adolescence on YouTube and still has a fondness and cultural curiosity about influencers/YouTubers today, I thought this book was written for me. While there were some moments of prose and insight that I liked and founded interesting, I found most of the book confusing and a bit of a let down. (Spoilers below)I wanted to know the specifics of what Colleen and Jim did online that got them famous. I wanted to see what they were wearing and what the parties were like. I didn't understand why Colleen was so jealous of Lucinda, who Colleen described as "just like her but better," because I didn't know what Colleen was doing online in the first place to conceptualize how Lucinda could be doing it better. I was frustrated that so much about the story was about Colleen's relationship with Jim because we barely saw any of it. We didn't get to read about their online interactions before they met IRL and we barely got to see what they were like together before tour when their relationship got rocky. I wanted to care about this pairing, but I felt my interest in them wasn't earned because I didn't get to read about their dynamic. I'll admit I'm often too easy on less-than-stellar partners in books, so if I was given any romantic scenes between Jim/Colleen, I probably would've rooted for them. But we were given bread crumbs and it frustrated me.
It also felt unclear to me what Jim and Lucinda's relationship was; were they exes whom Jim had cheated on Colleen with, was it a one-night stand? Questions like this sum up my primary problems with this novel that it was too abstract. I wanted details to be able to understand and empathize with the characters, but the reader was given very little context and made the story's very intriguing concept feel quite hollow.
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This is one of the most honest fictional approximations I have read that depicts what "influencer" status might look like behind the scenes. After reading the book Followers earlier this year, Surveys is a mega step up given its quality and clear understanding of the Internet and those who power it.
In it, the main character mentions how she liked Catcher and the Rye and after that I couldn't stop thinking of this as a modern day Holden kind of escape story but with all of the horror and baggage of the Internet and smart phones attached.
After finishing the book, I do not feel like I understand the specific mechanics that gave Colleen the chance to rise to celebrity status in the way that she did, but I do understand viscerally what it felt like before, during, and after.
Would recommend to anyone else interested in thinking about fame/celebrity, specifically the Internet-bred kind.
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The book moves on, though, to LA, to a world tour, to the protagon
This novel begins with the protagonist working at a mall in Arizona, and that part I absolutely loved, just because something in Stagg's writing absolutely evoked the essence of mallness for me -- the pleasure-pain of the sterility and promise and colours and lights and the absolute deadness, the thing that I feel reading about mallwave or remembering my own mall-focused teenage years and how differently the experience reads now.The book moves on, though, to LA, to a world tour, to the protagonist experiencing social media fame for something never spoken or explained, to some kind of work which is left deliberately vague, and that is where it lost me -- I have never been someone who follows celebrities on social media or tracks the fashion world or understands who the Kardashians are (Star Trek aliens?) or why Paris Hilton is someone people care about. I am not saying this with judgement, it is just not where my interests are, but I think what Stagg is drawing from is the inside of that world, the weird bubble of modern celebrity and being famous for being famous and all these things and it went places I did not have enough information to follow. I am glad I read it and hope to read her more recent book of essays now that the library system is becoming more available again.
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first section is basically fake raymond carver which is seemingly the only effective style these post-tao lin disaffected women can write in -- thank you so, so, so much, undergraduate writing workshops for making this happen
the second part is just a dirge, a death march -- i'm sorry but "muh superficiality" is a massively banal and unidimensional critique of online culture an
on page like 120 and idk if i'm going to finish this fucking shit heap even though it's like "goosebumps"-tier difficultfirst section is basically fake raymond carver which is seemingly the only effective style these post-tao lin disaffected women can write in -- thank you so, so, so much, undergraduate writing workshops for making this happen
the second part is just a dirge, a death march -- i'm sorry but "muh superficiality" is a massively banal and unidimensional critique of online culture and celebrity culture -- it the undergraduate writing workshop teacher in question recommended this budding young star "less than zero" or fuckin "rules of attraction" but TRAGICALLY was not there to guide the critical engagement with the text
if you're going to read one of these chic nihilist post-Brat Pack types just read the fuckin moshfegh short story collection and put the rest in the trash
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A quick, recommended read.
A decent book about a young woman going from an unknown human to a widely-known online celebrity. More than anything, this book effectively shows us the monotony of a "nine-to-five" job and the monotony of sponsoring events and partying as a celebrity. It's also a book that, slyly, forces the reader to think about capitalism, and our role in a society that lures us into its void.A quick, recommended read.
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