It has to take place in our universe in the teens. Think of it as the book someone from 2030 would choose to best describe that decade. (note, nothing by politicians or failed presidential candidates)
There is no "2010s feel". The 90s were the last decade. The Bush Era was the last era with a distinctive feel (such as it was). 2011 was the last distinctive year. Everything else blurs together now.
I feel like the internet killed "decade feels" because it allowed so much niche diversification that there was no longer any "universal narrative" in the media that everybody experienced regardless of their subculture.
Yup, some days I feel like the world actually ended in 2012 and we're in some kind of goofy purgatory
Honestly that's normal, I don't think decades get a "decade feel" until well into the next decade. You don't have anything to contrast it against, because the new one hasn't really done much.
Even looking back to the Bush Era 2001-2011 may be a distinct "decade" but it was an absolute wasteland for memorable pop culture that stands the test of time. Its legacy in that regard is the deranged, cynical, paranoid "this was the post 9/11 Iraq War era" shit that reflected the insanity of the time like 24 and Children of Men.
Say what you will about Lindsay Ellis but one of her best videos was the one on Iraq War "protest music". Contrast that with the 60s Vietnam tradition, its horrific.
After 2011 pop culture becomes an absolute blur, the Duff Beer/McDonald's chicken nugget slurry, because of the mass cultural phenomena of Game of Thrones and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, combined with social media hitting its real heyday. We're so inundated with formulaic spectacle now that no one will remember anything. Hell since COVID started the years have basically stopped passing at all, we're in limbo.
I think of Bush Era culture as mostly being Newgrounds, Albino Black Sheep, and the like. Not whatever media companies were putting out.
:hillgasm:
i see your retroactive rules edit, i thought this was the 2010s not 1984
Asking "what book encapsulates the 2010s the best" is like asking "which Native American tribe dominated the 1900s"
Uh, I don't read because I'm sad but Ready Player One? Not because it's good or anything but it sits right when nostalgia nerd shit took off in a big way. Every bit of media in the 2010s was some self-referential commercial for some other shit you had to read/watch/buy in order to fully understand the thing. Or something. I'm not great at this.
Edit: Oh yes, I also remember there being some part of the book where the MC finds out his best bro or something is actually a black lesbian IRL, and he's cool with it because "he realized she's a person too" or some shit. It even has the empty, cynical identity politics and rep.
Yeah, Ready Player One is a pretty good representation of the 2010s as full of unfunny, poorly crafted, soulless cash-grabs.
Perhaps one of Pinker's books, like Better Angels of our Nature, where he bloviates about how good we've got it now and there's no impending doom to worrywart about
Capitalist Realism is pretty solid on defining the current state of that decade. I'd probably have to go with something about hauntology really since thats where most of the 2010s were so, Ready Player One? I didnt read that book tho
This sounds kinda cool like x-files or something. Is it good?
The Ron Paul 2012 thread on SomethingAwful, but as a coffee table book.
Relevant Onion: https://www.theonion.com/if-i-could-live-in-any-decade-it-would-definitely-be-t-1819584856
Should I read that book? It sounds fascinating but I think I would get super pissed off while reading it.
I read it when I was in my early 20s and it was a very interesting story about a plainly garbage asshole of a guy. imo it's a fascinating look at life in the time period and also weird rome popery. And again, the author is a real dickhead, but in a kind of oblivious way.
Twilight is more 2000s tho. It's even literally from the 2000s (just the movies came out in the 2010s)
Reading fiction is a very pre-2010s thing to do.
The Sellout, by Paul Beatty.
For the Trump years . . . best candidate I've read so far is Red Pill, by Hari Kunzru. Here's a good review.
