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World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

newstatesman.com

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Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#31

Post by mullingitover »

Sort of an aside, but what's next now that Tiktok is deeply into end-stage enshittification? It'd dead now, a formerly fun app morphed into grotesque eyeball milking system owned by one of the worst people on the planet. I deleted the app this week after the feed ramped ad content up to being an ad every other video, frequently with ads back to back to back.

It's cooked.

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#32

Post by bethekidyouwant »

sph wrote: post #23
nlawalker wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>on YouTube, has 1.5 million subscribers and 158 million views

There are 8 billion people on this Earth. It is an extraordinary claim to say that a channel with 1.5 million subscribers is the "world's most powerful" in its niche. Unless, and much more likely, this is clickbait and by world only USA, or the Western world at best, is considered; of those, only the terminally-online that seek literary criticism on TikTok.

So you’re saying there’s some Chinese guy that has more subscribers?

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#33

Post by gammarator »

mullingitover wrote: post #31

Sort of an aside, but what's next now that Tiktok is deeply into end-stage enshittification? It'd dead now, a formerly fun app morphed into grotesque eyeball milking system owned by one of the worst people on the planet. I deleted the app this week after the feed ramped ad content up to being an ad every other video, frequently with ads back to back to back. It's cooked.

Evaporative cooling of the best content, likely, but plenty of social networks with worse ad loads still have plenty of users.

My question is whether Ellison does to it what Elon did to X: revamp the algorithm to support his politics.

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#36

Post by cdrini »

jalev wrote: post #15

I went and looked at the Tiktoks. As far as I can see from the few videos I've watched it's not so much "criticism" as "plot overview, small background details, and what I liked about it". It's kind of weird it's being framed as a tiktok sensation when there's nothing to really differenciate him from other booktokers? Other than perhaps more subscribers than usual. Also, per the article: > Edwards champions BookTok a…

I've seen a few of his videos over the years and remembered them similarly to your description, but watching that video you linked to I think he does do a proper critique. Goes into what makes the writing weak, plot drag, links books to other books, and even has a deep understanding of an authors' body of works to be able to compare and provide insight.

And in the beginning of the video he gives quite a lot of praise to BookTok, so I reckon the title is more tongue-in-cheek hyperbole, with a dash of clickbait!

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#37

Post by huhkerrf »

Xmd5a wrote: post #4
dang wrote: post #2

I expected that to be a hit job but it's actually rather poignant.

poignant? > His next major growth spurt came when his university career ended. When Oxford University rejected his master’s application in 2020, Edwards posted a video of himself crying, entitled “oxford university rejected my masters application… (sorry this video is sad)”. Social media rewards confession. Authenticity, sincerity and vulnerability were important – more important than orthodox intellectual baubles. I…

I really have a hard time understanding why people post videos of themselves crying. Maybe I'm already old in my 30s, but it's hard for me to wrap my head around it.

Like, I get that at some level it's fishing for sympathy and pity, but your real friends are going to be there whether they have a video of you crying or not. Everyone else just... doesn't matter that much?

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#38

Post by bummy_commenter »

dang wrote: post #2

I expected that to be a hit job but it's actually rather poignant.

Echoing another commenter: poignant? Reading the article, for me it was poignant, only mildly, in the archaic sense of the word (sorry! But seriously—dystopian is the first word I'd use.)

I'm interested in your interpretation and what you took away from reading that. Can you elaborate?

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#39

Post by squidsoup »

kubb wrote: post #3

I wish we had more plurality. Not just convergence on one ultra influencer for books, but an ecosystem, with offerings tailored to audiences.

If you're looking for literary criticism and exploration that's a bit more leftfield and nuanced, highly recommend Sam Pulham's video essays https://www.youtube.com/@SherdsTube - I've discovered some brilliant writers through him that I would otherwise never have encountered.

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#40

Post by wongarsu »

kubb wrote: post #3

I wish we had more plurality. Not just convergence on one ultra influencer for books, but an ecosystem, with offerings tailored to audiences.

With a recommendation algorithm that shows you new content from various "literary critics", with an emphasis on a good exploration/exploitation tradeoff that shows you content from influencers you haven't seen before as well as familiar content? And maybe a reasonable system that allows content creators to reply to other creator's takes?

That's TikTok

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