Westerfeld, Scott - So Yesterday
Finally, I start writing about books again after multiple posts about cooking and food and Good Eats. Apologies for those of you here mainly for the bookishness.
I've been going on a Westerfeld jag lately, largely because I really like his sort of geeky take on science and ideas and how he makes them into plot. The Westerfeld books that I've enjoyed the most are the ones in which the discovery and subsequent exploration of an idea are thoroughly followed and brought to their logical conclusions; Peeps was especially good at that.
This one is about the concept of coolness and trends, and how what's cool gets disseminated and adopted by people in society. I think Rachel mentioned that Westerfeld takes the idea from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, which I read a few years ago. In The Tipping Point, Gladwell divides people into Innovators, Trendsetters, Early Adopters, Late Adopters and Laggards (or something like that); Westerfeld simply changes Late Adopters to Consumers.
Hunter is a Trendsetter coolhunter who freelances and helps various brand name clients evaluate their newest products and ads for coolness, along with spotting trends on the street and passing them on to the mainstream. He meets Jen, an actual Innovator, spotted by her nifty shoelaces, and various hijinks ensue as they both get caught up in a kidnapping, fake brands, and something that may just affect the entire coolness pyramid.
I really liked this one for the same reasons I liked Peeps; it has a very similar feel to Peeps in terms of the way the plot and the Big Reveal are structured. And I just like how Westerfeld has just taken Gladwell's idea (I think it's not original; Gladwell probably just propagated it in his own book) and runs with it. I'm not personally interested in the concept of cool or of what makes things cool, but I just liked having infodumps on the entire system. I also like the little jabs at current consumerism and branding, on how brand names are too focused on focus groups and are trying to commercialize the entire notion of "cool," which, imho, completely undercuts the entire thing.
Of course, I'm probably up there with the Laggards or something ;).
I didn't like how Westerfeld sort of typecast Innovators -- there were a few sentences here and there about something being "typically Innovator," which strikes me as a bit of an oxymoron. If the Innovators are so special and innovate-y, wouldn't there not be a standard look at all?
Small nitpick, as this was a quick and fun read.
ETA: Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker on the coolhunt
Links:
- Emily's review
- gwyneira's review
I've been going on a Westerfeld jag lately, largely because I really like his sort of geeky take on science and ideas and how he makes them into plot. The Westerfeld books that I've enjoyed the most are the ones in which the discovery and subsequent exploration of an idea are thoroughly followed and brought to their logical conclusions; Peeps was especially good at that.
This one is about the concept of coolness and trends, and how what's cool gets disseminated and adopted by people in society. I think Rachel mentioned that Westerfeld takes the idea from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, which I read a few years ago. In The Tipping Point, Gladwell divides people into Innovators, Trendsetters, Early Adopters, Late Adopters and Laggards (or something like that); Westerfeld simply changes Late Adopters to Consumers.
Hunter is a Trendsetter coolhunter who freelances and helps various brand name clients evaluate their newest products and ads for coolness, along with spotting trends on the street and passing them on to the mainstream. He meets Jen, an actual Innovator, spotted by her nifty shoelaces, and various hijinks ensue as they both get caught up in a kidnapping, fake brands, and something that may just affect the entire coolness pyramid.
I really liked this one for the same reasons I liked Peeps; it has a very similar feel to Peeps in terms of the way the plot and the Big Reveal are structured. And I just like how Westerfeld has just taken Gladwell's idea (I think it's not original; Gladwell probably just propagated it in his own book) and runs with it. I'm not personally interested in the concept of cool or of what makes things cool, but I just liked having infodumps on the entire system. I also like the little jabs at current consumerism and branding, on how brand names are too focused on focus groups and are trying to commercialize the entire notion of "cool," which, imho, completely undercuts the entire thing.
Of course, I'm probably up there with the Laggards or something ;).
I didn't like how Westerfeld sort of typecast Innovators -- there were a few sentences here and there about something being "typically Innovator," which strikes me as a bit of an oxymoron. If the Innovators are so special and innovate-y, wouldn't there not be a standard look at all?
Small nitpick, as this was a quick and fun read.
ETA: Malcolm Gladwell in The New Yorker on the coolhunt
Links:
- Emily's review
- gwyneira's review