#but seriously she also was probs either provoking ppl or dicking around

[mermaidsirennikita]

Any thoughts on the most recent booktok drama with that girl complaining about Six of Crows? I'm seeing romance readers getting dragged again...

As is often the case with BookTwt/other spaces reacting to BookTok things, it's got moral/pseudointellectual panic vibes, because everyone wants to act concerned about literacy while actually dunking on people they look down on (primarily young women) and making themselves feel better/victimized.

Oh noooooes, literature is dying! Except please look at how many litfic novels trad publishing is putting out, often with marketing blitzes that DWARF what adult genre releases get (especially niches like historical romance) with placements on the NYT bestseller lists which probably don't reflect what the books are actually selling. In order to induce people into buying these books. Despite the genre releases everyone sneers at keeping the lights on.

And all this is provoked from one random dumb BookTok vid, which honestly may or may not be ragebait, I don't know that girl, utilized as an example and used to create a monolith out of a huge community. Whether that community is BookTok in general, YA readers, romance readers (and I'm very "why are y'all bringing us into this" about THAT because SoC is thoroughly YA fantasy with a smattering of romantic subplots) (but they bring us into this because it gets them attention because we are the Moment, apparently) or what have you.

What I always find interesting about this is that another highly commercial genre that keeps the lights on, thrillers, very rarely gets dragged into this. Despite the fact that it's also pumped out on the regular, also tends towards a set formula, and also can lean towards shock value and big headline-grabbing bites, similar to YA and romance. I do think this has to do with the perception of the primary audience. Not so much on a gendered level (because thrillers, like much of lit, have women as the main makeup of their VOCAL audience) but on an "intellectual" versus "silly" level.

I mean. That video is dumb lol. But I feel like part of why it caught on is that a conventionally feminine, attractive girl posted it. The exact type of girl that a lot of nerdbros, and a lot of nerdgirls, want to dunk on. Again, I don't know her. She very well could be The Worst. But come on. A lot of the people reacting don't know her either. Her inner self and TikTok habits are not why they're freaking out.

I think her video is stupid; I think the reaction is stupid. Like, to be truly real, if the girl genuinely can't read well the issue probably lies less with BookTok and more with

a) public school funding issues

b) a lack of focus on literacy in schools in general (which is absolutely a political issue as well, it's not because teachers don't want to teach kids how to read properly)

c) the filtering of privileged kids into private schools that more purposefully de-emphasize the importance of reading (because the focus is on other things... like knowing the books of the Bible by heart...)

I would assume. At least.