The Joyless Internet

This week’s great literary drama is author Elizabeth Gilbert pulling a novel from publication because it happened to be about a Russian family, and for this reason it got bombed with one-star reviews on the site Goodreads before anyone had even read it. I have strong feelings about people writing reviews and having opinions about content they haven’t actually consumed, and basically those feelings boil down to: keep those opinions to yourself. If a book’s content makes you uncomfortable, don’t read it. Alas, in our present era getting bent out of shape because a store sells a t-shirt you don’t like or someone who doesn’t look like you drinks a certain brand of beer has become the norm. Anyway, giving a book a bad review without having read it is really scummy behavior.

Scummy is a good word to describe Goodreads. If you are an author, I would warn you to avoid reading Goodreads reviews of your books. I ventured onto the site just to screenshot one of many bad reviews I’ve received on Goodreads over the years. At least this person at least skimmed my book:

There are many things troubling about the Elizabeth Gilbert incident. As I understand it, Gilbert’s novel focused on a single Russian family in roughly the mid-twentieth century. So a) not present-day Russians and b)not from anything I’ve read a book that glorified the entire Soviet/Russian nation. However, the one star reviews focused on the evilness of Russians for their invasion of Ukraine, which I think most of us (including, I’m guessing, a whole mess of Russians) can agree was a deplorable action. Painting all the residents of a particular country as villains, because their nation has done something evil seems like a dangerous precedent. As an American who lives in a country that has, since it’s inception, done things that I don’t agree with I feel this pretty keenly.

As an author, I know that publishing moves at a glacial pace. First of all, a novel needs to written, and sure, there are some people out there who write a book in a month, but most authors take longer, some of us a lot longer. But as slowly as authors write books, publishers, in many cases, take even longer to publish them. Gilbert likely wrote her book well before the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and set it literally decades before this), and there’s a very good chance the publishing contract was signed pre-invasion as well. So, she is now ridiculously paying the price for her inability to predict the future actions of different world governments.

What’s happening to her, though, is part of a larger trend that I see happening online. There are a lot of joyless individuals out there who manage to find something negative to say about even the most positive, feel-good of stories. Last week I read a story about the time back in the 1980s when a major league baseball player saved a young boy’s life after the child was accidentally hit in the head with baseball. Nice, heartwarming story, or so you would think until you read the comments. Some negative nellies decided to leave comments about how racism is an awful thing. It is, no argument here. What did it have to do with the story? Well, the hero baseball player was black, so I guess they figured it was a good opportunity to discuss racism. Some decided to weigh in on the fact that the ballplayer could have accidentally injured the boy in his rescue attempt. I mean, he didn’t, but I guess sure, anything is possible.

This was just one example, but it’s something I see again and again online. There’s an old saying that goes, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all.” Alas, a lot of people do not follow this advice, and the internet is a worse place for it. I am begging you to understand that it’s one hundred percent okay to not express every single thought that pops into your head.

I think a lot of these keyboard warriors would be a lot happier, if they simply reduced their screen time. Frankly, I think we would all be a lot happier if we reduced our screen time. So, if you’re reading this on a screen right now, my advice is to put the computer or phone or whatever away, and get out there and so something that brings you joy.

And speaking of joy, a happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. I hope you find some joy this weekend playing with the new toys you receive for Father’s Day!

— Alissa