his decline has accelerated in such a crazy way in the last year it’s sort of fascinating. he has always seemed like a (mostly) nice guy but the blatant and unapologetic descent into pure celebrity worship seems like it’s happened so quickly and drastically: he doesn’t even really make ‘booktube’ content anymore, doesn’t make videos, the content he puts out is his celebrity interviews (which are hard to watch they’re so sycophantic) where he gushes at them and recommends like the most famous litfic books i can think of (piranesi in 2026? 😭) or his author podcast things which…personal preference but i really don’t want to listen to someone who isn’t even a critic interview an author, that’s just not interesting to me because you know the tone is going to be so cloying and awestruck and lopsided. his position within the industry has sort of destroyed his ability to make the content he used to, you can’t make honest videos reviewing books when you’re now famous enough to interview those authors but lacking any of the genuine credentials that would give you like. for want of a better phrase, editorial independence. he wants to be socialising with authors so he’s got to suck up to them. we’re seeing and have been seeing for a long time the decline of published literary criticism and the literary critic as a job and I’ve seen arguments that it’s okay because book influencers are coming to occupy that space and I think this is the perfect case study to demonstrate why that doesn’t work. You need actual literary critics who are paid and who are not celebrities themselves and who are employed by publications. there is no book influencer the industry can’t co-opt and i don’t say this as if Jack edwards was some shining beacon or intellectual mind i do gently think he’s an idiot but he WAS, far and away, the biggest creator for litfic and classic lit and lit criticism—I cant think of who would be coming in second, and when these people are hailed as replacements for a dying literary criticism culture it’s concerning and morbidly fascinating to see them so successfully hollowed out so quickly
germansingergirl
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
pixelskylines
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
andulkaphoto
prguitarman
