booktok, brainrot, and why it’s okay to be a hater

i want a booktok tiktoker whos obsessed with "spice" in books to be tricked into reading the entire 6 book Dune series

“You can’t ‘I’m just girl’ your way out of everything. You pay taxes and vote. You’re not healing your inner child. You’re regressing into ignorance” My favorite quote !!

“Does it have spice?” The booktok gooners say in unison

As a fanfic reader, this discussion is so interesting to me. What I’ve really noticed is that a huge chunk of booktok people, didn’t have fanfic phases as teens or young adults. Bc it’s so clear to me that what they want, is just fanfic. The same tropes over and over again, large quantities of smut, and even sometimes questionable material are all easily found in fandom content/culture (at least the ones I’m in). And this gap has even negatively affected the fanfic community. Many booktok fans have begun to read fanfic (specifically dramione but other fandoms too) without knowing how the system runs, only for them to illegally bind and sell these fanfics. Resulting in said fanfics, all of which are insanely popular in that fandom, to be taken down off of sites like ao3. As much as I do thing that booktok can be positive in niches, as a whole, it’s causing problems for other reading communities. And don’t get me wrong, fanfic has its own problems for sure, but I think if most of the booktok people had fan fiction phases, booktok as a whole would prob look pretty different. (edit for clarity): obvi not ALL fanfic readers are into the things i talked about but even so, there ARE plenty who are. and also, fanfic and published books can talked about/criticized differently so im not sure how much that would really change anything. its still a very interesting thing ive noticed between the two :) another edit, really an update: some of the fics that were deleted are now back on ao3. im not sure when they were put back on, but it’s been a bit over a month since the whole situation went down. i’m glad the fics are back up, but the cause is still very much a problem within fandom communities. final edit: thank you all so much for 1k likes!! i’m so glad others are agreeing with me on this lol. have a great day <3

“Book stylist” is one of the most dystopian terms I’ve ever heard in my life.

Sometimes books are jusy poorly written. People need to learn to accept that some of the books they like are of poor standard, but theres nothing wrong with enjoying it. A book being bad and a book being enjoyable are not mutually exclusive things, and someone critiquing a book you like is not a personal attack??

"youre not healing your inner child, you are regressing into ignorance" what a great line

honestly at this point all mainstream books have become so soulless i can find more well written pieces on ao3 😭

I feel so vindicated after years of being told I'm no fun or take things too seriously just because I have critical thoughts about movies and books lol

I had to stop engaging with booktok when I got a tiktok of a girl proudly saying "Guys, if your girl says she's a bookworm ... she's just reading thousands of pages of smut." And I know it was a joke but. Bestie ... first of all, speak for yourself. Second, while women can, should, and do enjoy erotic literature, art, and films, there's something so strange and insidious about suggesting that all women read is porn. There's a subtle anti-intellectualism embraced there, that is also highly gendered. As someone who does enjoy reading smut, but also reads a broad range of other genres, I've never been able to quite articulate what about the joke feels so blatantly anti-feminist and unfair without just sounding like I am anti-erotica, or think that smut is anti-feminist (I do not think that to be clear). I think there is real value to be found in erotic writing, and reading smut can be a fun way to explore sexuality. But I cannot imagine someone saying "Ladies, if he tells you he's a film buff, just know he's actually just watching porn."

i Realized recently that the reason why i am deeply upset by the words “its Not that deep” or the attitude that it comes as a result of is because Everything Is That Deep

i cannot thank u enough for this video!! i am genuinely tired of the "im just a girl" phenomenon. when i spoke up abt it and how i think women are perfectly capable of comprehending intellectual media someone accused me of internalised misogyny 😭

"Let people enjoy things" I enjoy critical thinking and being a hater

The Pro Golfer going "Touch her and die" was hilarious. My dude, you may have a mean swing but murder is still illegal. That only works in feudalistic fantasy novels.

“We can begin the book confidently, knowing the enemies will turn into lovers and the fake dating will turn into real dating - all will be tied up with a neat bow” YA romance books are the reinvention of Hallmark Christmas movies, safe, digestible, and easily produced

One time on Instagram I criticized a recent film by a female director. I was immediately told in the comments ✨by a man✨ that my criticism was tantamount to betraying my own sex. That as a woman, I should be supporting women creators by default and being a good "sister" rather than "bringing other women down." I'm an art history PhD and engaging critically with visual media is literally all I have done for the past decade of my life, so being told to silence my intellectual expression and instead mindlessly clap like a seal for a terrible movie exclusively because it was headed up by a fellow woman was so condescending and infuriating. And that's only one example of the growing anti-intellectualism I have contended with in online spaces. This video is so important. Thank you for making it.

The frustrating thing is that it's not even REALLY being a "hater", right. I just share my personal experiences with a text and yet somehow there is always a booktok girlie who will scream that I am being a hater, trying to cancel the author, or am being a bully. ACOTAR and Fourth Wing fans are some of the worst for this, and they're the loudest/largest groups within the booktok community. I hate that I can't even say "This book made me uncomfortable because xyz" without someone harassing me and dismissing my experience.

Haters are an important part of any ecosystem.

""let people enjoy things"" are you so hell bent on getting external validation for everything you do that someone criticizing any of it is literally stopping you from doing things you want? do we not have free will anymore?