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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
I heard this crazy story, and I want you to know.
It is the age of internet gossip; of social networks, repackaged ideas and rating everything out of five stars. Mega-famous celebrities respond with fury to critics who publish less-than-raptuous reviews of their work (and then delete their tweets); CEOs talk about reclaiming reclaiming ‘the power of vulnerability’; and in the world of fiction, writers eschew actually making things up in favour of ‘always just talking about themselves’.
In this blistering, addictive and very funny first book of non-fiction, Lauren Oyler - one of the most trenchant, influential and revelatory critics of her generation - takes on the bizarre particularities of our present moment in a series of interconnected essays about literature, the attention economy, gossip, the role of criticism and her own relentless, teeth-grinding anxiety.
Illuminating and thought-provoking by turns drily scathing and disarmingly open, No Judgement excavates the layers of psychology and meaning in how we communicate, tell stories and make critical judgements - to offer dazzling insights into how we live and think today.
Lauren Oyler is a novellist, essayist and cultural critic. This collection of 6 interconnected essays about gossip, cultural criticism, vulnerability, ‘auto-fiction’, living in Berlin, and mental illness makes some interesting points at times but too many of the essays left me wondering what the point was while I didn’t see the purported humour and the constant mentions of her Ivy League education made her too try-hard for my tastes.
I picked this up without knowing anything about Oyler’s background but as someone who uses social media too much for her own good, I was interested to see what she had to say about it. This book consists of 6 essays plus a foreword and post script.
In terms of an over-arching impression, the book is designed to spark a reaction because Oyler takes some definite positions on subjects such as Goodreads that is unlikely to endear her to some reviewers and raters there. There’s nothing wrong with that - I don’t mind a polemic so long as there is a definite position being taken. Unfortunately, I don’t think that Oyler has the courage to set out some of the arguments that she is circling, which is pretty cowardly. If you are going to argue against something, then at least have the courage to say what you are for.
One recurring theme of the book is that she is clearly unhappy with the lack of regard people have for literary criticism and rightly points out that it has a role to play in terms of shaping cultural mores. However she also takes a sneering attitude towards people who are not interested in literary criticism and the way she likes to repeatedly tell the reader how she went to an Ivy-league college undermines any irony about elitism that she may be trying to convey. At the same time, she essentially seems to see criticism as a way of telling creators how to improve their work, while completely ignoring that it’s also a way of telling would be readers/viewers etc whether something is any good. The reason this struck me is because she also bemoans how newspapers, magazines etc are reducing the amount of reviews that they carry and that’s a fair point but when she recognises that finances are tighter at newspapers etc especially as readerships are down. Yet she doesn’t make the connection that maybe criticism has a role to play in trying to attract readers and therefore cover what they want to see rather than what a critic wants to tell the creator - i.e. it’s a conversation with many potential consumers rather than a conversation with a limited number of creators.
EMBARRASSMENT, PANIC, OPPROBRIUM, JOB LOSS, ETC is broadly about the parallels between gossip, gossip websites and the downfall of Gawker. This was one of those essays where I wondered what the point was. Oyler seemed to me to be trying to draw a line between gossip between a small group of friends and celebrity gossip but the essential difference between them is (a) no one outside of a small friend pool cares about what happened to X and (b) gossip among friends is usually verbal and difficult to prove who said what, celebrity gossip is a broadcast that can be found and therefore more liable to litigation. The central hook here is the Hulk Hogan law suit that brought down Gawker, which was the publication of a private sex tape and therefore a breach of privacy, a topic that Oyler shows no interest in exploring when it is central to the tension with the desire to gossip.
MY PERFECT OPINIONS is structured in a way that will no doubt wind up some sectors of Goodreads as it is fairly sniffy about the worth of the site. As someone who uses Goodreads, I can’t say that I disagreed with some of her comments and I actually learned some things (e.g. I had never known there was a ranking system on there that is apparently pretty easy to manipulate) but the central thrust of her argument is that there is no substitute for elite, high literary criticism. I also learned some interesting things (e.g. how the star system of reviewing got started), and out of all the essays it’s the one that held my attention the most, but I can’t say that I found it especially persuasive or even relevant.
WHY DO I LIVE HERE? is about Oyler’s relationship with Berlin, where she currently lives. It was my least favourite essay in the collection as it just drips with American entitlement and is everything that locals find infuriating about immigrants. To be fair, I think there’s supposed to be a knowing irony to the way Oyler describes her relationship with the city but it all just fell flat for me, especially when she talks about her failure to get to grips with German. Ultimately I was left wondering why she liked living in Berlin and what she got out of it.
I AM THE ONE WHO IS SITTING HERE, FOR HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS is about the phenomenon of auto-fiction. I found this to be interesting because I hadn’t realised that this was a genre and although I’ve obviously heard of authors like Sally Rooney (who gets name checked a lot in this essay) I hadn’t realised that they were writing in this genre. As a result, I think this was probably the most persuasive of the essays in the collection and certainly the one that I took the most from.
THE POWER OF VULNERABILITY is sparked by a TED talk of the same title by Brené Brown. This is one of the essays where Oyler’s snide and elitist tone really gets in the way of the argument, which is in itself an interesting one - that vulnerability is being weaponised as a means of control and minimising criticism. That’s a real shame because she does make some interesting points here, even if she does rely on anecdote more than data.
MY ANXIETY is the last and most personal of the essays but even then Oyler holds back, talking about mental health at a distance and frankly, the extent to which you empathise with this depends on how much you like her and I just didn’t care enough about her. I do know how bad that sounds, and yet it’s true so when she talks through her symptoms it just didn’t matter to me.
Ultimately I think that this is one of those books where if you are familiar with and enjoy Oyler’s magazine work then you’ll probably enjoy this. Although I can see it getting a harsh reception on Goodreads and tonally this just didn’t work for me, I don’t think it’s a bad book. It’s just one that I didn’t ultimately care enough about and as such, I am not going to rush to read her other work.
The Verdict:
Lauren Oyler is a novellist, essayist and cultural critic. This collection of 6 interconnected essays about gossip, cultural criticism, vulnerability, ‘auto-fiction’, living in Berlin, and mental illness makes some interesting points at times but too many of the essays left me wondering what the point was while I didn’t see the purported humour and the constant mentions of her Ivy League education made her too try-hard for my tastes.
NO JUDGEMENT: ON BEING CRITICAL was released in the United Kingdom on 7th March 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
It is the age of internet gossip; of social networks, repackaged ideas and rating everything out of five stars. Mega-famous celebrities respond with fury to critics who publish less-than-raptuous reviews of their work (and then delete their tweets); CEOs talk about reclaiming reclaiming ‘the power of vulnerability’; and in the world of fiction, writers eschew actually making things up in favour of ‘always just talking about themselves’.
In this blistering, addictive and very funny first book of non-fiction, Lauren Oyler - one of the most trenchant, influential and revelatory critics of her generation - takes on the bizarre particularities of our present moment in a series of interconnected essays about literature, the attention economy, gossip, the role of criticism and her own relentless, teeth-grinding anxiety.
Illuminating and thought-provoking by turns drily scathing and disarmingly open, No Judgement excavates the layers of psychology and meaning in how we communicate, tell stories and make critical judgements - to offer dazzling insights into how we live and think today.
Lauren Oyler is a novellist, essayist and cultural critic. This collection of 6 interconnected essays about gossip, cultural criticism, vulnerability, ‘auto-fiction’, living in Berlin, and mental illness makes some interesting points at times but too many of the essays left me wondering what the point was while I didn’t see the purported humour and the constant mentions of her Ivy League education made her too try-hard for my tastes.
I picked this up without knowing anything about Oyler’s background but as someone who uses social media too much for her own good, I was interested to see what she had to say about it. This book consists of 6 essays plus a foreword and post script.
In terms of an over-arching impression, the book is designed to spark a reaction because Oyler takes some definite positions on subjects such as Goodreads that is unlikely to endear her to some reviewers and raters there. There’s nothing wrong with that - I don’t mind a polemic so long as there is a definite position being taken. Unfortunately, I don’t think that Oyler has the courage to set out some of the arguments that she is circling, which is pretty cowardly. If you are going to argue against something, then at least have the courage to say what you are for.
One recurring theme of the book is that she is clearly unhappy with the lack of regard people have for literary criticism and rightly points out that it has a role to play in terms of shaping cultural mores. However she also takes a sneering attitude towards people who are not interested in literary criticism and the way she likes to repeatedly tell the reader how she went to an Ivy-league college undermines any irony about elitism that she may be trying to convey. At the same time, she essentially seems to see criticism as a way of telling creators how to improve their work, while completely ignoring that it’s also a way of telling would be readers/viewers etc whether something is any good. The reason this struck me is because she also bemoans how newspapers, magazines etc are reducing the amount of reviews that they carry and that’s a fair point but when she recognises that finances are tighter at newspapers etc especially as readerships are down. Yet she doesn’t make the connection that maybe criticism has a role to play in trying to attract readers and therefore cover what they want to see rather than what a critic wants to tell the creator - i.e. it’s a conversation with many potential consumers rather than a conversation with a limited number of creators.
EMBARRASSMENT, PANIC, OPPROBRIUM, JOB LOSS, ETC is broadly about the parallels between gossip, gossip websites and the downfall of Gawker. This was one of those essays where I wondered what the point was. Oyler seemed to me to be trying to draw a line between gossip between a small group of friends and celebrity gossip but the essential difference between them is (a) no one outside of a small friend pool cares about what happened to X and (b) gossip among friends is usually verbal and difficult to prove who said what, celebrity gossip is a broadcast that can be found and therefore more liable to litigation. The central hook here is the Hulk Hogan law suit that brought down Gawker, which was the publication of a private sex tape and therefore a breach of privacy, a topic that Oyler shows no interest in exploring when it is central to the tension with the desire to gossip.
MY PERFECT OPINIONS is structured in a way that will no doubt wind up some sectors of Goodreads as it is fairly sniffy about the worth of the site. As someone who uses Goodreads, I can’t say that I disagreed with some of her comments and I actually learned some things (e.g. I had never known there was a ranking system on there that is apparently pretty easy to manipulate) but the central thrust of her argument is that there is no substitute for elite, high literary criticism. I also learned some interesting things (e.g. how the star system of reviewing got started), and out of all the essays it’s the one that held my attention the most, but I can’t say that I found it especially persuasive or even relevant.
WHY DO I LIVE HERE? is about Oyler’s relationship with Berlin, where she currently lives. It was my least favourite essay in the collection as it just drips with American entitlement and is everything that locals find infuriating about immigrants. To be fair, I think there’s supposed to be a knowing irony to the way Oyler describes her relationship with the city but it all just fell flat for me, especially when she talks about her failure to get to grips with German. Ultimately I was left wondering why she liked living in Berlin and what she got out of it.
I AM THE ONE WHO IS SITTING HERE, FOR HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS is about the phenomenon of auto-fiction. I found this to be interesting because I hadn’t realised that this was a genre and although I’ve obviously heard of authors like Sally Rooney (who gets name checked a lot in this essay) I hadn’t realised that they were writing in this genre. As a result, I think this was probably the most persuasive of the essays in the collection and certainly the one that I took the most from.
THE POWER OF VULNERABILITY is sparked by a TED talk of the same title by Brené Brown. This is one of the essays where Oyler’s snide and elitist tone really gets in the way of the argument, which is in itself an interesting one - that vulnerability is being weaponised as a means of control and minimising criticism. That’s a real shame because she does make some interesting points here, even if she does rely on anecdote more than data.
MY ANXIETY is the last and most personal of the essays but even then Oyler holds back, talking about mental health at a distance and frankly, the extent to which you empathise with this depends on how much you like her and I just didn’t care enough about her. I do know how bad that sounds, and yet it’s true so when she talks through her symptoms it just didn’t matter to me.
Ultimately I think that this is one of those books where if you are familiar with and enjoy Oyler’s magazine work then you’ll probably enjoy this. Although I can see it getting a harsh reception on Goodreads and tonally this just didn’t work for me, I don’t think it’s a bad book. It’s just one that I didn’t ultimately care enough about and as such, I am not going to rush to read her other work.
The Verdict:
Lauren Oyler is a novellist, essayist and cultural critic. This collection of 6 interconnected essays about gossip, cultural criticism, vulnerability, ‘auto-fiction’, living in Berlin, and mental illness makes some interesting points at times but too many of the essays left me wondering what the point was while I didn’t see the purported humour and the constant mentions of her Ivy League education made her too try-hard for my tastes.
NO JUDGEMENT: ON BEING CRITICAL was released in the United Kingdom on 7th March 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.
