BookTok, Reading, And Anti-intellectualism

Why I Don't Think BookTok Is The Problem

The Stranger by Albert Camus, an intellectual book I love

Hello!!!

This is Joyie and welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet where I talk all things books!

This week, I finished book five of Anna Karenina and have moved on to book six. Have you been reading anything this week?

So, on Friday, I was watching YouTube and came across a video about BookTok . I watched it and then the algorithm kept recommending me many more similar videos and I watched them all and now, I have thoughts. 

Those videos were addressing the ‘problems’ surrounding BookTok . For example: promoting overconsumption, turning reading into an ‘aesthetic’, and hyping up books that are objectively not great literature, and promoting anti-intellectualism.

I’m not disagreeing that a big chunk of people in the online book community are not interested in intellectual discussions. They want a book they can just sit with and devour, not having to stop to think. These books are generally quite shallow and clearly the product of our capitalistic system that keeps churning out commodities for us to indulge in for a while before we move on to the next one. I agree with all of this. 

But I also think BookTok is not the problem. 

I believe BookTok is merely a representation of society at large where most people are not very intellectual. Because society is consciously designed to encourage anti-intellectualism.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, a not so intellectual book that I love

When people are intellectual, they question things, and they question the system they live in, which has a weakness: it is man-made, and anything that is man-made can be challenged by man. But if we all start to understand that, it becomes an existential threat to the system. This is why the people in power do their best to make us believe that the system is just the law of nature. Because if we believe that, we stop trying to challenge it and instead start conforming to help maintain it. 

Intellectualism is bad because it threatens the system. Throughout history, intellectuals have been persecuted precisely because of this. 

Also, intellectualism is a privilege. You need time and energy to think about big ideas. But the modern working individual living in the current socio-economic system, after a long and tiring day you simply want to switch off your brain, fall into the bed and enjoy something for an hour or two before you have to go to sleep to start the cycle again the next day. 

I think it’s perfectly fine to read just as a way to unwind, like any other hobby. I think if you insist on making reading purely intellectual, which you cannot do because you cannot control how others read, it only creates this exclusive club of elitism which is not helpful. Similarly, no-one can stop you from reading intellectually and having intellectual conversations which you should be having because those conversations are extremely important. And maybe someone will randomly drop by and be intrigued by your conversation and that for them will be the beginning of a new chapter.

What about you? What are your thoughts on intellectualism and anti-intellectualism with regards to reading? I'd love to hear about it!!!

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That’s it for today, I'll be back in your inbox next week.

Until then,

Joyie 🌻