Brooke Gladstone: The trouble with reality (2017)
92 pages
English language
Published Aug. 22, 2017
"Reality. It used to seem so simple -- reality just was, like the weather. Why question it, let alone disagree about it? And then came the assault, and unending stream of 'fake news,' 'alternative facts,' and lies disguised as truths, all of it overwhelming our notions of reality. Now we can't even agree on what a fact is, let alone what is real. How on earth did we get here? Here's how." --
3.5 stars?
It's my own fault for continuing to read SUPER short books when I know I'll just be frustrated by how they don't delve more deeply into their topics.
I need to stop reading them. They clearly aren't for me.
More like a long essay than a short book, you can and probably will want to read this in one sitting as I did. As the 'On the Media' radio show often is, this can serve as a needed slap across the face of those caught in an hysterical political death spiral brought on by the election of the 45th president.
When all the news stories had been scandal and red flags, when all the signs had pointed one way, when, perhaps, everyone's expectations had been wrong and suddenly everything ended up different; when day one was an argument over alternative facts and most every day since has been the realm of fake news and not-quite decrees started being issued via twitter - one could be forgiven for being a bit hysterical, for wondering how reality really was.
This book may as well have the Hitchhiker's Guide's calming 'Don't Panic' …
More like a long essay than a short book, you can and probably will want to read this in one sitting as I did. As the 'On the Media' radio show often is, this can serve as a needed slap across the face of those caught in an hysterical political death spiral brought on by the election of the 45th president.
When all the news stories had been scandal and red flags, when all the signs had pointed one way, when, perhaps, everyone's expectations had been wrong and suddenly everything ended up different; when day one was an argument over alternative facts and most every day since has been the realm of fake news and not-quite decrees started being issued via twitter - one could be forgiven for being a bit hysterical, for wondering how reality really was.
This book may as well have the Hitchhiker's Guide's calming 'Don't Panic' written on the front. As usual, Ms Gladstone shows a great ability to condense, summarize, and relate a story (or series of stories) in a way that is informative, digestible and historically relevant and surprisingly actionable. In a media landscape that continues to explode with scandal hourly, this offers context and even strategies for weathering the accelerated news cycle; what you realistically can, cannot or really should not do with yourself.
For my part, I only wished that the book had gone a bit deeper into the existential details of a shared or non-shared reality -- not to say that wasn't addressed -- but I could see how that might derail the fake news focus here. Still, though this was just a bit short for what I would've liked, there is plenty here to dig into and the book can stand up to a re-read or two.
Would recommend to ... well, anyone, really, but those refreshing their news site of choice non-stop since the election most strongly.
