In Shteyngart's novel, Super Sad True Love Story, everyone who is anyone owns an apparat. On the apparat, people can shop, check stocks, search up people, view ratings, and basically do anything in the virtual world. Despite how convenient and useful this device is, it has turned human beings into shallow people with low self-esteem.
"The world they needed was right around them, flickering and beeping, and it demanded every bit of strength and attention they could spare." (p.86)
When Lenny meets up with his friends, they are in a bar hanging out, but buried in their devices and paying very little attention to one another. This is not a very social thing to do when we go out with friends today, but later we see how Noah came out to broadcast his show and is only worried about his number of viewers. In this case, his friends seem less important than the anonymous people viewing his show.
"My father looked away in some shame...So this was at the heart of their anger with me. i had told them so many times not to look at any streams or data about me."(p.141)
When Lenny visits his parents, they confront him about being on the list of people to feel sorry for and his low rankings. Even his own parents are judging their own son. Since there is practically no privacy anymore, everyone is able to access information about another. Since it is his own parents criticizing and judging him, Lenny has developed a low self esteem as we can see in his character throughout the book so far.
"So he's brain-smart. Who cares??? It's not like he's some superstar Media guy or VP at LandOLakes... Anyway, looking good is the new smart, and i don't think you should have kids with him because you'll have really ugly children." (p.147)
Precious Pony writes to Eunice who feels intimidated by Lenny's smartness. Normally, a guy who cares a lot and smart is a good catch. In their world, even though the nation is full of poor and unsuccessful people, the youth is still hypnotized by the good looking, rich, successful, and famous people. Eunice's low self esteem and her friend's shallowness is a good example of the side effect of being exposed to so much artificial culture made accessible by the apparat.
No comments:
Post a Comment