Monday, June 8, 2015

Who wrote this amazing, mysterious book satirizing tech startup culture?

Article by Alexis C. Madrigal for Fusion.net.

Another S.F. area author thought that Madrigal wrote the tiny book possibly as a joke but that was the first that Madrigal had even heard of it until he received his own copy slipped through the mail slot but not by the Postal Service along with another copy for his wife, also a S.F writer. Turns out a whole list of people received self-published copies in this same hand delivered manner, containing hand drawn tweets in calligraphic form as if practicing penmanship. All the recipients are bay area authors. Mostly.

The book is lauded for its tone and its expertise. It hits the right notes precisely. The authority is perfect, the revelations timed exquisitely. The story moves at a clip and leaves everyone wondering, "who in the heck did all this and why did they do it?" 

Alexis Madrigal thinks he might have the answer narrowed to a member of a group of highly successful bay area writers known as Grotto. 

It's a fun story that Madrigal scanned and republished here. The hand-drawn tweets as aphorisms and as art are interesting too. It is interesting from the point of view of writing as example of what writers appreciate and laud and pass around. 

1 comment:

Methadras said...

If you've met some of the clowns from the bay area tech culture, then this book is really a thesis on the inbred insanity these people keep at bay until they no longer can't. They are all fucking bizarre and not a normal one in the bunch. The normals are ground into dust after a while by the mid/upper management douchebags that foist their NewAge prattling nonsense on everyone down below. Don't believe me? Then go back and watch any number of release launches by say Apple when Jobs was still alive, when he looked like a shadow of himself launching iPod, iPhone, iPad, et al. and all of the language used to describe such devices. Now, project that gibberish into the internal torture sessions within such an organization and you will see how utterly insane the whole thing is and Apple isn't even a startup.