I don’t usually review too many non-fic books here (well I did Scott Adams), but I just read Dangerous Gamers: The Commentariat and it’s war against video games, imagination and fun. I have to say this is probably the most poignant and relevant analysis of our culture and it’s direction I’ve ever read.
It goes into depth on the armchair-quarterback social media outrage, it’s effect on entertainment news and its effect on culture itself. the main thing the book taught me which I’d never thought of before, is pop culture works we consider “political” actually have little to do with politics. I’ll let you read to figure out why, but it’s an extremely interesting hypothesis.
People try to find outrage in everything now, and it’s based on identity of the creators more than the actual content of the messages of the entertainment itself. It’s so ridiculous, and though this book just got me thinking about it anew, the detailed, logical perspective it takes actually made me take a step back to look at the global trends.
It’s heavy, and it’s a little on the long side for the premise, but it’s worth the time if only to open up your mind to what the commentariat class is doing, and how it’s ruining everything for everyone.
https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Gamers-Commentariat-against-imagination-ebook/dp/B071W99VMZ/
It is heavy and long. I found that it made for great filler reading. It’s so packed with ideas that I could only read a little bit at a time. Thankfully, it’s broken up into a lot of short chapters, which makes it easy to do. Rather than crack it and read for an hour, I’d just pick up and read a random bit and just mull over the concepts for a while.
Yes I thought exactly the same thing, part of why it took me so long to read.
Huh. Kinda like your outrage over a doctored Wonder Woman page. Or your outrage over a woman breaking up with her boyfriend because of a “converged” church. Or your outrage over athletes taking a knee. Or your outrage at all the “virtue signaling” in Marvel comics. Or your outrage at Star Trek: Discovery. Or your outrage at female sci-fi/fantasy writers increasingly getting a seat at the table. And the list goes on and on…
Thanks for posting this. I’ll be adding this to my TBR stack.
Sure thing!
This book did help me look at the media debate in a very new way that I hadn’t considered. It didn’t go for cheap outrage, but actual analysis of things that don’t seem obvious at first.
Yeah it’s actually hard to describe the book without feeling like I’m failing the author lol