One would not expect an online community devoted to discussion of dragons, vampires, and teenage heroes to be a cesspool of almost unimaginable toxicity. And yet! In this episode, Jesse walks Katie through a recent history of young adult fiction Twitter, aka "YA Twitter," and attempts to explain how it got to be such a Hobbesian hellscape. The latest scandal involves Jessica Cluess, a YA author falsely accused of racism and violent speech, and the opportunistic authors, consultants, and agents rushing to denounce her in as colorful and overwrought a manner as possible.
Show notes/Links:
Please pre-order Jesse's book, "The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills," if you can: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780374239800?aff=macmillan
Or on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Fix-Psychology-Cant-Social/dp/0374239800/
Vulture: The Toxic Drama on YA Twitter - https://www.vulture.com/2017/08/the-toxic-drama-of-ya-twitter.html
Tablet: How a Twitter Mob Derailed an Immigrant Female Author’s Budding Career - https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/how-a-twitter-mob-destroyed-a-young-immigrant-female-authors-budding-career
Reason: Teen Fiction Twitter Is Eating Its Young - https://reason.com/2019/05/05/teen-fiction-twitter-is-eating-its-young/
Reason: He Was Part of a Twitter Mob That Attacked Young Adult Novelists. Then It Turned on Him. Now His Book Is Canceled. - https://reason.com/2019/02/28/he-was-part-of-a-twitter-mob-that-attack/
Reason: A Review of a Book That Will Never Be Published, Thanks to the Young Adult Twitter Mob - https://reason.com/2019/03/15/a-review-of-a-book-will-never-be-publish/
Twitter stuff:
Jessica Cluess' apology: https://twitter.com/JessCluess/status/1333906316247457794
Brooks Sherman denouncing Cluess but not dropping her: https://twitter.com/byobrooks/status/1333967020258373632
Brooks Sherman denouncing Cluess, amplifying a false rumor about her, and dropping her: https://twitter.com/byobrooks/status/1334685571449556994
Some tweetstorms by Jesse running down some highlights of the craziness:
https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1334156650467520513
https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1334356668273070081
https://twitter.com/jessesingal/status/1334642155437101058
YA Twitter's Victims and Critics Speak Up (four-part series on Singal-Minded):
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/ya-twitters-victims-and-critics-speak
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/ya-twitters-victims-and-critics-speak-855
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/ya-twitters-victims-and-critics-speak-4b5
https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/ya-twitters-victims-and-critics-speak-c56
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Episode 41: Inside The Vicious, Deranged, Literally, Metaphorically Violent World Of Young Adult Twitter