It all began, as so many things do, with a simple tweet:
What followed will, to the weary eye, perhaps not be entirely unexpected. Some were offended. Some missed the point. Some protested too much. And some were funny. As the August heat bore down ever more oppressively, people of the internet came together to react, and overreact, to a tweet about literary red flags. And like waves on a lonely shore, the reactions will just keep coming.
Let’s just get this out of the way: Jess McHugh’s list is obviously intended as comedy and is made up of broad generalizations; the list is not titled ‘Bad Authors,’ nor ‘Books Which If Owned Automatically Mean The Person Who Owns Them Is An Asshole.’ Maybe they had to read Ayn Rand for a class! You don’t know! Be open-minded! But in this, the age of respectability bookshelves and performative Zoom decorating, it’s a fine time to consider what books on a person’s bookshelf—a bookshelf they really, really want you to see—might give one cause to perhaps begin ever-so-slightly to worry.
That performative piece is important. Does the person really like Hemingway, or do they just want to impress upon you their own profundity?
Now, some true warning signs:
Of course, there’s more than one way of looking at a copy of Infinite Jest: