From the Big Short to Normal People: Books That Defined the Decade | Hacker News Reader

From the Big Short to Normal People: Books That Defined the Decade

theguardian.com

80 pointsdiodorus33 comments

No Piketty? Come on now. You don't have to agree with it, but it was a big part of the "conversation" about inequality in the 2010s.

Strange, especially for The Guardian.

it's here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Times_and_McKinsey...

And here I thought the normal people reference was to “The War on Normal People” by Andrew Yang which,10 years from now will look like a glaring omission.

I do have quite a lot of sympathy for Andrew Yang, and I don't doubt the book is a well-crafted long essay of his central thesis of economic disruption.

But if it looks like a glaring omission ten years from now, it almost by definition is the defining book of that decade, not the last one.

It would not even surprise me if Yang, if asked, would name some work that came before his book to be more deserving of distinction. Because while he is a very effective promoter of UBI and why it's needed, it isn't exactly his idea.

It's The Guardian, so more of a list that defines their rather politically loaded view of the decade.

Obviously that sort of bias is not unique to The Guardian, but I'd prefer a list that genuinely sheds light on the times we are in.

Have you found a better list?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Times_and_McKinsey...

better, but different.

I haven't looked.

Monoculture days are behind us and have been for the past decade, so that is going to be a very very long list.

I disagree somewhat - even within a society with a mix of cultures, there we be both tendencies to shared experience, and particularly notable events and themes within that.

Perhaps not an entirely fair comment... Is 'Gone Girl' a politically loaded choice?

The list as a whole reflects their curious priorities in a definition of the decade.

As for Gone Girl itself, I'm struggling to see it's importance.

After that novel's success, there was a noticeable upsurge in novels that shared a number of features and styles and themes. I suspect that it was something of a Pulp Fiction effect; reading it again now makes it seem almost derivative, much as Pulp Fiction now looks like a homage to itself.

Granted, this is of importance to the publishing industry and the novel reading public rather than, say, the economy or politics.

Whatever the influence of “Gone Girl” on the decade is, it certainly can’t be bigger than “50 shades of Grey” from 2011/2012.

That's interesting; I genuinely haven't noticed that impact. I don't read much bondage-light (or whatever genre 50 Shades was). Was there a sea change in that section of the industry? The book itself was, from what reviews I read, pretty badly written (although this review alone made it worth it! - https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/340987215 ), so I guess the impact can only be mainstreaming bondage-light; is there a new thriving sector of the industry providing that to people?

I don't know what it's effect on books is but it generated a lot of interest in bdsm and normalised it some IRL. I'm too young to speak for the before times from personal experience, but in the non-fiction bdsm books I've read they've talked about finding partners or opening up about it to be scary and risky. Whereas I'm just finding normal girls through normal methods (tinder) and "I'm in to bdsm" or "I'm a dom" has been met with either enthusiasm and interest because they're in to it themselves, or simply because they're open to giving it a go and don't have anything against it. Much like if I'd said I'm really in to cowgirl or some other mundane thing like a preferred position. Not at all the experience I've read about.

There were like 100 major-publisher books that clearly modeled their title, if nothing else, on Gone Girl in the years after it came out. Didn't see that with 50 Shades. Both got a movie. Gone Girl seemed to have wider and more lasting cultural impact outside its immediate readership, as more than a joke or rapidly-fading reference.

For the record I haven't read either nor seen their movies, but I see the influence of Gone Girl around way more than I see 50 Shades.

Honest question, what do you mean by this? In your opinion, what is The Guardian’s bias / “politically loaded view of the decade”?

It is a particularly narrow and somewhat shallow list, even for the guardian.

Isn't this the institutional version of an ad hominem?

Every article from the Guardian, the NYT, or really any other large publisher gets this comment, and it's often voted to the top.

It adds nothing. Everyone knows half of the population doesn't trust any newspaper to get the date on the front page right.

So the Guardian thinks #metoo and the financial crisis were among the topics of salience on the last year? I would actually bet both Bernie Sanders and Rupert Murdoch would agree the financial crisis mattered. And even Harvey Weinstein would agree #metoo had some sort of impact.

Because we might no longer have a shared truth, but there's still quite a lot of agreement on what to disagree about,

There is no "bias-free" book that shaped the decade. Unless you go by print run, and it's the leaflet that comes with every new iPhone. Or go by sales figures, in which case it's 50 Shades of Gray. Which is obviously wrong, but kind of fitting. After all, this seems to be the decade were anything but black and white disappeared.

Your first three paragraphs are rendered extremely questionable by the bizarre comments in the replies claiming The Guardian isn't biased.

That's why reminders of its very skewed perspective are needed.

The effects of the financial crisis (austerity) or the complete lack of accountability in the UK don't seem to be represented in the list as I pointed out - despite being of profound importance, instead The Big Short (excellent, but describing the venality of the previous decade) is.

Apart from that, I acknowledged the difficulty in finding a bias free source, but I don't think there are as many places in the supposedly "serious" press that the tone leaps out so regularly.

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