The Most Terrifying Book I've Ever Read
Should be required reading for all, bruh
… I admired that about you. You thought about things. You seemed in touch with the ways that humanity was being fundamentally changed—how we were moving from an idiosyncratic species that coveted our independence to one that wanted, more than anything, to shrink and to obey in exchange for free stuff.
— Agarwal, The Every by Dave Eggers
Independence.
If there’s anything I’d consider myself an advocate for, it’s that: the fostering and preservation of the individual's beauty and uniqueness. I’ve kind of always been that way—admiring one’s individuality—but I never labeled myself an advocate until last night.
Last night, well, the second half of yesterday was an interesting day, to say the least. See, I worked on my new book and stopped when the getting got good. I could have taken a break and returned to writing later that night. Or watch a film. Or play the guitar. But, I ended up spending way too much time on social media to the point that I felt so ashamed when I finally put the phone down.
But, when I finally put the phone down, I had the beautiful chance to think. To breathe. To let my mind wander anywhere and everywhere. And it wandered to a book I read about a year ago called…
… The Every by Dave Eggers
The Every is a sequel to The Circle which came out in 2013. To sum up, I see The Circle as a case study on how social media kills the beauty of the individual. It uses the plot formula of The Devil Wears Prada or Mean Girls which is: to transform a perfectly healthy and happy young woman into a monster and see if they’ll redeem themselves.
The Every, on the other hand, doesn’t explore the individual but the collective. It shows how this new age of social media fucks with society and it’s downright fucking terrifying.
And depressing.
Seriously. By the time I finished The Every, I felt so fucking hollow, no different than I did after finishing the Buried at Sea DLC for Bioshock Infinite. But, this emptiness was worse because everything shown in The Every is real.
It’s happening here.
It’s happening now.
This revelation hit me like a motherfucking freight train last night. It got me thinking about the themes I’ve subconsciously explored in my new books—advocating for the individual being the biggest one—and made me jot down a bunch of random thoughts I wanted to save for this post and upcoming books.
Here’s a peek into my random notes:
David Foster Wallace on technology killing us. Killing sense of community.
My belief, my advocacy in protecting the self. The individual. Their dreams, their beauty and originality, their ability to think for themselves and fearlessly be themselves.
The world seems like it doesn’t want us to unlock that superpower.
Nor does it seem like they want us to have a safe and real sense of community.
They make us believe we’re connected with groups in Reddit or something similar but it’s different. We need human interaction. We need to see and hold each other in real life.
I don’t know. I’m tapping into something here. Something real and powerful. Be careful. Be ready. And lean on your friends and family.
So, what happened in the book, and what’s happening in life?
I don’t want to share too much, partly because if I do, I’ll write a fucking novel, but mostly because I want you to experience this book for yourself. I want you to shape your own opinions. I want to discover where you hit your breaking point—where the book stopped being a satire and started becoming a grim documentary you had to absorb in small doses.
For me, it was the bus scene. Prior to that scene, I laughed at every ridiculous thing that happened. Like Kiki’s obsession with learning and practicing twenty new words every day. And making sure she gets ten thousand steps in while listening to the newest podcast. And scoping out the video feed of her five-year-old son, always tending to his every need while she’s giving the main character, Delaney, a tour. But wait, hold on, did she just get a notification alerting her of the horrors going on on the other side of the world? Donate, donate, donate. Help, help, help. Hey, look, did you hear about this horror also? And this? And this? What about this? Donate, donate, donate. Help, help, help. Because, if you don’t, YOU’RE a horrible human being. YOU’RE what’s making the world a horrible fucking place. God, please, do better. Matter of fact, you’re fired. No, matter of fact, we’re putting you on surveillance and tracking your every move, holding you accountable and helping you become a better person. You’re welcome.
You:
Me:
Got a feeling of what’s happening now? Feeling overwhelmed and terrified? Good. That’s the overall feeling you’ll experience reading The Every. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a far more difficult book to read than its predecessor, but, I’d say it’s a far more important book than The Circle.
Why?
We’re all well aware of the negative side effects social media has on the individual. I don’t need to tell you that because you’ve probably already been told by social media and experienced those negative side effects for yourself, que no?
Everyone has lived through their own Circle.
What everyone needs to realize, though, is that the negative side effects of The Circle have cast its wide net on The Every—on the collective. And the mission of The Every is to bully and kill the beauty of every individual.
I won’t let that happen, man.
And I know I’m not the only one that feels that way.
Final Thoughts
Labeling myself an advocate for the individual naturally got me thinking about George Carlin. About what he said about the individual and his stance on humanity.
On humanity:
I figured out years ago that the human species is totally fucked and has been for a long time. I also know that the sick, media-consumer culture in America continues to make this so-called problem worse. But the trick, folks, is not to give a fuck. Like me. I really don't care. I stopped worrying about all this temporal bullshit a long time ago. It's meaningless.
The truth is, of course, deep down, George did care about humanity. Because inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist.
I refuse to be a cynic. As difficult as it is, I choose to remain an idealist. To see the world in a positive light no matter how dark it becomes. And sure, sure, all the shit that’s covered in The Every is scary and depressing, and sure, sure, it may seem like the world’s getting worse and worse, but, I don’t know, man, I just have a feeling we’re on the cusp of a renaissance. Not just in the arts but for all of humanity. I don’t know. I know how that sounds so I won’t expand that thought here and let my fictional books do the talking.
Anyway.
Anyway.
I’ll end this post with Carlin’s quote on…
The individual:
The larger the group, the more toxic, the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought. And when you suspend your individual beauty you also give up a lot of your humanity. You will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own. Injuring, hurting, killing, drinking are all part of it, because you've lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that's bigger than you are and that controls you.