Marie Le Conte is one of my favourite panelists on the Oh God What Now podcast. I thought I should make an effort to read one of her books, hence “Escape†(affiliate link). It is about how Millennials were the first generation to grow up with the internet and how they shaped it.
Whatever you make of the ideas or commentary1, one thing is abundantly clear: her personality shines through. You can hear her speaking every sentence. Fast, slightly scattered thoughts with the occasional random aside. In books of this type, it’s rare to come across lines such as:
Still, that isn’t quite the point I was trying to make
In works with less personality the preceding paragraph would have been edited out!
Another example.
(I’m very sorry, I’m going to have to pause for a moment to childishly laugh at the sentence ‘we were using our fingers instead of our mouths.’)
(Okay, I’m good.)
It’s not pretending to be a serious book, though there are serious points to make. It doesn’t quite hang together as a whole. She describes the chapters as essays, and that’s pretty accurate. Think of it as a collection of loosely related essays rather than a cohesive, single narrative.
The essays cover topics from finding your tribe to dating to how nothing is ever as good as it used to be2.
One of the serious points continues to be very relevant with the recent changes in ownership, and therefore moderation, of Twitter and Tumblr.
All we have now is this tiered internet, where everything non-sexual can co-exist — including racism, fake news, abuse, misogyny and the like — but nipples are beyond the pale.
And apparently I’m a terrible person.
I have been in full-time employment for nine years and I still bristle whenever someone sends me a short message with a full stop at the end.
I’ve seen people sign off their text messages. I don’t do that. But tapping space twice at the end of a text message feels like a small price to pay for have a full stop in the correct place3.
Overall, I quite enjoyed “Escape.†I wouldn’t say that it’s essential reading, or that it uncovers many new and unique insights, but you might find it relatable or funny.