LIFE & STYLE APRIL 5, 2019
THE STUDENT LIFE
PAGE 5
IN MY BOOK
The lovely fantasyland of bookstagram SAMANTHA RESNICK
Welcome to #bookstagram, population 29.9 million. Here lives square shot after square shot of books with food, books with leaves, books with other books-with-food-and-leaves. It is a world where languid legs drape across ruffled beds, texts perch on woolen-clad feet and coiffed lattes lounge amongst tea candles. Everything is color-coded, every hour is golden hour and everyone owns either a fluffy cat or tortoise-shell glasses. This Instagram subculture has caused quite a stir amongst the literati. Critics hiss that the trend is vapid, superficial — a pursuit of aesthetics rather than blushing, beating, literary love. Vulture contributor Hillary Kelly wrote: “These people are beautiful literary hermits, dammit, Brontë sisters wandering the wild moors of the inside of your iPhone, seekers of beauty and truth and a shit ton of unearned likes.” She’s right. They certainly are beautiful seekers of beauty — alchemists that transform books into art. Every bookstagram account glows gorgeous. But “hermits”? “Unearned” likes? Unlikely. From the closeknit community formed between posters to the hours spent crafting content, these creatives seem more like sedulous socialites than spoiled insolates. Kelly, however, doesn’t stop there. She accuses bookstagrammers of reducing books to backdrops, calling their posts “devoid ... of any engagement with what books really do.” This comment implies that there is one correct way of interacting with books — and
it isn’t through bookstagram. I do believe that books merit a certain amount of respect. Pinterest craft posts that call for the cutting of books — shame, shame on you. The still-prevalent practice of book-burning: sheer horror. In other words, any form of book engagement that involves breaking or burning is wrong. But bookstagrammers don’t do that. They interact by posting lovely book photos, and then they go on to like other people’s lovely book photos. Is it really so awful for a group of mostly female book-lovers to appreciate not just content, but also form? Besides, I don’t see Kelly, or anyone else for the matter, calling cover designers superficial for expressing themselves through an aesthetic lens. No one bristles at the idea that books need siren call covers to shipwreck readers as they sail down bookstore aisles. My question, then: What is so different between cover art and bookstagram art? In fact, in a world where people are reading less on average, we can’t afford to shun any practice that encourages respectful engagement with books. And between bookstagrammers’ millions of followers and daily posts, they are at least causing engagement. Best case, their posts inspire someone to read. Worst case, they at least remind people that books do, in fact, exist in real life. Instagram is part of the new age, and so associating books with the platform’s aesthetic drive might help combat the view of books as anachronistic, old-fashioned and unnecessary. The publishing industry itself continues to trip and
tumble its way through our blinking, fresh-lidded digital era. Like it or not, we live in a time where social media is the game. Judgments such as Kelly’s will only further alienate the exact demographic publishers need: readers of the modern age. Readers who grew up interacting over visual platforms like Instagram, and will continue to do so. These Instagrammers have become a powerful, Hail Mary force when it comes to book marketing. And they d o n ’t j u s t treat their books like arm-candy (or, in this case, bed and books h e l f candy?). Often, reviews, quotes and other comments get posted right alongside their professional-looking photos. In my book, that certainly counts as engaging “with what books really do.” All this being said, for me the world of bookstagram is elusive, divine, out of reach. My real-life reading experience is ugly in comparison. Reading happens when it can, where it can — be that in a sticky chair at the train station, under the jaundiced lights of a waiting room, or in the five free minutes I have between classes. Nothing about these environments is glamorous or Instagram-worthy.
I wish this wasn’t the case. I wish reading was an activity in itself, an ideal these Instagrammers sell. One that involves the soft blaze of a fireplace and an overstuffed, Victorian parlor chair. For now, though, it’s enough for me to feast on the glittery world of bookstagram.
Samantha Resnick PO ’19, TSL’s book columnist, is a linguistics major. She likes reading words, and sometimes, she likes writing them, too.
UGEN YONTEN • THE STUDENT LIFE
UNPACK THE FACTS
Five things you didn’t know about April Fools’ Day MADY COLANTES Mark Twain once said that April Fools’ “is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four.” And finally, that day has arrived. Whether you are on the giving or receiving end of a prank, make sure to take some time to embrace your inner fool –– or at the very least, learn about this light-hearted holiday.
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“Whence proceeds the custom?” April Fools’ Day is a much older tradition than you may think. Some of the earliest recordings, however, question its exact origins: A 1708 letter to the British Apollo magazine asked (in speech appropriate for 18th century Britain), “Whence proceeds the custom of making April Fools?” One theory is that it comes from a calendar change in 16th-century France. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar moved New Year’s Day from April 1 to January 1, and unaware people who still celebrated the New Year on April 1 were labeled “April Fools.”
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Worldwide foolishness
In France, April 1 is called “Poisson d’Avril,” or “April Fish.” On theme with the French name, the most common prank involves taping a paper fish to someone’s back. An old Scottish tradition is a bit more extreme: The holiday used to be called “Hunt the Gowk Day,” with “gowk” being an old Scottish word for “fool.” People would ask a “gowk” to deliver a sealed message, which secretly read, “Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile.” The victim would then be sent from person to person delivering the same message. Today, the Scottish maintain their enthusiasm by celebrating April Fools’ for two days. In Ireland, on the other hand, pranks are not supposed to continue past noon; those who play pranks after
NATALIE BAUER • THE STUDENT LIFE
are considered fools themselves.
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“Okay Google … is this a joke?” Google has proven itself to be a company with a good sense of humor, annually pranking its users with nonsensical product advertisements April 1. A Google team in the Netherlands, for example, unveiled Google Wind in 2017, which was supposedly a series of “machine learning” windmills that could blow away cloudy skies. A n o t h e r ye a r, G o o g l e Maps released a joke feature
that turned your map into a game of Pac-Man, complete with the pixelated screen, four ghosts and music. (Personally, I wish this function was real.) People have grown so accustomed to Google’s yearly pranks that when Gmail was launched April 1, 2004, many assumed it was a joke. Meanwhile, Microsoft is choosing to not be as festive: The company has banned its employees from pulling any public-facing April Fool’s pranks, saying that such stunts have “limited positive impact.”
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April Fools’ Day by the numbers Microsoft is not alone in its disapproval of April Fools’ Day festivities: 68% of advertising and marketing executives consider April Fools’ pranks inappropriate, while only 3% see them as “very appropriate.” Employees, however, are not always aware of their boss’ opinions. Onefifth of people have played a prank in the workplace, 52% of which were played on the boss. Outside of work, 40% of Americans in a survey say they will definitely play a
joke, with only 5% saying they never participate. The numbers also show that Americans generally enjoy the holiday: 56% of those surveyed said their general attitude April 1 is “mischievous,” while only 11% claim to feel annoyed.
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Let loose loads of laugh-
ter
Perhaps the benefit of April Fools’ Day is not just the joy of watching a friend fall for a fantastic prank; the holiday can also bring out one’s best sense of humor, a highly significant trait.
According to a psychological study, stressed-out people with a strong sense of humor become less anxious and depressed over time compared to people with a less-developed sense of humor. There are also benefits of laughter from a purely biological perspective: Studies have shown that levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A drops far less during stress for people who score high on a humor scale. Mady Colantes PO ’22, who makes lists for TSL, is from Seattle. When not in shock over the lack of rain in Claremont, she enjoys reading and getting too excited over small things.