Doppelganger
- A Trip Into the Mirror World
- Written By: Naomi Klein
- Narrated By: Naomi Klein
- Length: 14 hrs and 52 mins
- Categories: Computers & Technology, Content Creation & Social Media
- Publisher: Allen Lane
- Format: Unabridged Audiobook
- Release Date: 12-09-2023
- Language: English
Publisher's Summary
Brought to you by Penguin.*WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION**THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, GUARDIAN, OBSERVER, AND PROSPECT*When Naomi Klein discovered that a woman who shared her first name, but had radically different, harmful views, was getting chronically mistaken for her, it seemed too ridiculous to take seriously. Then suddenly it wasn't. She started to find herself grappling with a distorted sense of reality, becoming obsessed with reading the threats on social media, the endlessly scrolling insults from the followers of her doppelganger. Why had her shadowy other gone down such an extreme path? Why was identity - all we have to meet the world - so unstable?To find out, Klein decided to follow her double into a bizarre, uncanny mirror world: one of conspiracy theories, anti-vaxxers and demagogue hucksters, where soft-focus wellness influencers make common cause with fire-breathing far right propagandists (all in the name of protecting 'the children'). In doing so, she lifts the lid on our own culture during this surreal moment in history, as we turn ourselves into polished virtual brands, publicly shame our enemies, watch as deep fakes proliferate and whole nations flip from democracy to something far more sinister.This is a book for our age and for all of us; a deadly serious dark comedy which invites us to view our reflections in the looking glass. It's for anyone who has lost hours down an internet rabbit hole, who wonders why our politics has become so fatally warped, and who wants a way out of our collective vertigo and back to fighting for what really matters.‘If I had to name a single book that makes sense of these last few dark years, it would be this one’ New York Times‘A deeply compelling read … urgent and necessary’ Evening StandardNaomi Klein, author of era-defining bestsellers, The Shock Doctrine, This Changes Everything and No Logo, is back with her most compulsive and personal book yet: a revelatory journey into the mirror world of our polarised age©2023 Naomi Klein (P)2023 Penguin Audio
Saraghina –
There’s so much to love about this book: it’s often thrillingly incisive, and always entertaining and engaging. I was obsessed with it while listening, and there are sections of the book that take your breath away with the suppleness of Klein’s language and the illumination of her insights.
But her blind spots are infuriating. She makes a broad plea for compassion and empathy, while not extending that to her doppelgänger or people in ‘the mirror world’. (A low point was her one-sided account of the Canadian trucker strike, akin to the laziest mainstream media coverage that painted the truckers as selfish Nazis, without any real appreciation of the community and solidarity they found in the protest, Indigenous Canadians who were a part of it, or interrogation of the truly authoritarian response of the Canadian Govt in freezing their bank accounts.)
She makes a beautiful case to love every child on earth however they present in the world, but follows it with scathing contempt for other parents of autistic children who harbour questions about what caused autism.
She critiques our cultural tendency to split the world into binaries, but her own worldview is a rigid binary (left wing = kind goodies, right wing = selfish baddies: full disclosure, I’m very left wing).
She’s appalled by ‘the mirror world’s’ falsehoods and fantasies, but repeats falsehoods and fantasies of her own (“Russian bots” threatening our world has as much basis in reality as “vaccine shedding.”)
She refreshingly critiques the smugness and superiority of liberals, but her own smugness and superiority persist throughout – particularly obvious with her tone while narrating the audiobook.
She tells us stories where doppelgänger tales are ultimately about integrating one’s shadow self, but does not face her own shadow (except in the most superficial way).
For all her pleas for humanity, she ultimately defines people by their ideology, not their human-ness.
This book had the potential to be a timeless masterpiece, but is held back by Klein’s blindness to her own shadow.
admin –
Only critique is that it could have done with a good edit in places. That said, totally worth it.