Category Archives: Jordan Peterson

Andrew Tate and ex-UFC welterweight Jake Shields are two of the most outspoken X/Twitter users, with both men known for their controversial views on anything and everything. This time, they've unintentionally come together to take aim at another controversial figure in clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson.

The topic of contention among the three is the Israel-Hamas war, which has caused a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, along with criticism from the international community. Tate, a Muslim convert, has taken issue with the war due to the large Muslim population in Gaza.

Peterson, meanwhile, supports the Israeli war effort, and replied to Tate's claim that Israel tried to buy his own support by accusing the social media influencer of increasing moral decline. This, in turn, led to a response from Tate.

This drew former UFC fighter Shields into the fold. Shields is a staunch critic of Israel and a proponent of various antisemitic conspiracy theories. Naturally, he had his say on the matter, replying to both Tate and Peterson.

All three men are likely to continue engaging in a social media back-and-forth regarding their political views for as long as the Israel-Hamas war lasts.

While Andrew Tate only addressed Jordan Peterson once, Jake Shields did not. He also replied to the clinical psychologist describing Tate as a worsening person, claiming that the former kickboxer's stance angers him only because he was allegedly bought by Israel.

Shields will more likely continue to prod and poke at those he deems his ideological opposition, but his issues with Peterson are unlikely to lead to any serious discourse between the two men.

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Andrew Tate and UFC veteran join forces to take on Jordan Peterson's views on Israel: "Destroying Peterson feels like bullying" -...

CANDACE OWENS (HOST): Jordan Peterson has built himself as somebody who is calm, who is rational, who relies on logic, who is a person who believes in radical free speech. He's now coming to the aid of his daughter and essentially doubling down on calling, which is, again, a 62-year-old man calling a 24-year-old a rat. And what is the reason, by the way? Because we should also say what is it that Nick Fuentes said that garnered that response from Jordan Peterson. And Nick Fuentes wrote one word on Twitter he wrote Jews. Now what was that in response to? Well, somebody asked the question. We know that Joe Biden is not in control of the White House. So who is in control of the White House? And Nick Fuentes wrote a one-word response Jews. He's saying Jews are in control of the White House, and that garnered a response from Jordan Peterson calling him a psychopathic rat. Now, we all know that Nick Fuentes has branded himself as somebody who expressly hates Zionism, he expressly hates Israel, and he is saying that Jews in the White House are now obviously in control because Joe Biden is not.

Now, to be fair, the Times of Israel has noted in the past this is an actual article from them all the Jews Biden has tapped for top roles in his new administration. This is from back in 2021 when Joe Biden first was inaugurated as president. And it goes on to say, Joe Biden filled the months before inauguration day, lining up a slate of cabinet secretaries, assistants, and advisers, many of them Jewish. It goes on to give us a rundown of all of the Jewish names, all of the Jews that they are saying are in his cabinet. You have Antony Blinken. You have David Cohen, the CIA director. You have Merrick Garland, the attorney general. You have Avril Haines, the director of National Intelligence. You have Ronald Klain, the chief of staff. So it seems a weird tweet for him to be so disturbed about.

Now, again, it's likely because Nick Fuentes has a very long background of focusing his attention on Israel and Zionism, and that's what he is reacting to. Also because Nick Fuentes has called out Jordan Peterson explicitly for a very long time as somebody who he believes has more of an allegiance to Israel than he does to Western civilization in general, essentially that he would put Israel before he would put Canada and before he would put America.

Now I don't know if that's a fair critique of Jordan Peterson, but I do know that it is off-brand for him to respond by calling someone a psychopathic rat. I mean, calling somebody a name, calling somebody an animal when you are billing yourself, right, as the calm, rational psychologist doctor who insists on logic and that the better ideas should win is just going to be off-brand.

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In order to defend Nick Fuentes from Jordan Peterson, Candace Owens discusses how many Jews are in the Biden administration - Media Matters for...

Ex-UFC fighter Jake Shields criticized Jordan B. Peterson and Ben Shapiro for voicing their opinions on the COVID-19 vaccine. While a raging debate has been going on about potential side-effects stemming from the vaccines, the medical community has been split over it and research is still underway to prove the validity of claims made by all parties.

Recently, Shields re-posted a screenshot of a post shared by Ben Shapiro in 2020 and Peterson's subsequent reply to it on X (then-Twitter).

Shapiro posted:

Peterson replied:

Shields commented on the interaction and wrote:

Check out the post below:

In recent years, Shields has voiced his critical opinions of conservative ideologies as well as controversial topics like the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. His opinions are often met with mixed reactions from fans.

Although Jake Shields was critical of Jordan B. Peterson for promoting COVID-19 vaccines, the renowned psychologist also expressed his concerns about the apparent lack of sufficient testing before the vaccines were made available to the general public.

In an interview with Destiny, Peterson argued that a lot of deaths after the COVID-19 vaccine can be attributed to the disruption of healthcare system and other factors like economy and lifestyle changes:

However, he drew attention to the possibility of the vaccine side effects causing an increase in the rate of mortality:

Check out Jordan B. Peterson's comments below (1:19:35):

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UFC veteran slams Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro's stance on COVID-19 vaccine: "Both pushed it on you" - Sportskeeda

The Jordan B. Peterson PodcastMar 21, 2024

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down in-person with Steven Bonnell II, also known as Destiny. They discuss the differences between the left and the right, force versus invitation, the feasibility and pitfalls of command economies, the dangers of ideology, and government response to worldwide crises.

Destiny, also known as Steven Bonnell II, is a prominent political commentator and content creator known for his debate skills and provocative takes on various issues. With a passion for gaming, politics, and philosophy, Destiny engages in lively discussions that often challenge the status quo.

- Links -

2024 tour details can be found here https://jordanbpeterson.com/events

Peterson Academy https://petersonacademy.com/

For Steven Bonnell II:

Destinys YT Channel https://www.youtube.com/@destiny

On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/Destiny/

On X https://twitter.com/TheOmniLiberal?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

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Streaming, Politics, & Philosophy | Destiny (Steven Bonnell II) - The Daily Wire

Are American expats radicalising Portugal?

Complaints about immigration have sparked a surprising Right-wing moment in Portugals latest elections. The immigrants in question? Remote workers and passport bros, mostly Americans, who have flocked to the European country by the thousands to enjoy half-priced rent.

Portugals centre-right party is set to lead a minority government, with the socialists coming in second place. But the countrys Right-wing Chega party performed unusually well and could have considerable sway in the new government, thanks in large part to complaints about immigration and economic woes. Time will tell if Right-wingers will give expats the boot.

For those wishing the Church of England were a little more devout, it will come as no consolation that its senior clergy are increasingly signed up to the gospel of Black Lives Matter. Archdeacon of Liverpool Miranda Threlfall-Holmes was ratioed on social media last night after she postedabout her realisation that what the Church needs is more anti-whiteness.

Having attended a conference on the subject in the autumn, Threlfall-Holmes (who is white) claims she realised that whiteness is to race as patriarchy is to gender. For anyone confused, the cleric explained that lets have anti-whiteness, & lets smash the patriarchy. Sounds good. But whats this? Thats not anti-white, she added. Thats anti-oppression. Bemused commenters on Threlfall-Holmess post were told to seek out the training. When is anti-whiteness not anti-white? Well, Audre Lorde does move in mysterious ways

If you thought vaccine debates were behind us, think again. Theres a new clip doing the rounds of Jordan Peterson getting testy with YouTube personality Destiny over the safety and efficacy of Covid jabs.

Peterson, in a characteristically attention-grabbing jacket, said the vaccine wasnt technically even a vaccine, and that, while mandates have always existed, the scale and speed of Covid vaccine mandates were entirely unprecedented. Whatever the truth, its unlikely well be getting it from either Destiny or Peterson.

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News round-up: Radical expats, Church of England anti-whiteness, and Jordan Peterson - UnHerd

The Jordan B. Peterson PodcastDec 25, 2023

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with author, philosopher, and app developer Sam Harris. They discuss the benefits of routine meditation, deleting X (twitter), the issue of defining a Higher Good, the reality of evil, and the difficulty in establishing a shared morality.

Sam Harris is the author of five New York Times best sellers. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz). The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topicsneuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationalitybut generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.

- Links -

For Sam Harris:

30 FREE days on the Waking Up app https://www.wakingup.com/peterson Website and Making Sense Podcast https://www.samharris.org/ On X https://twitter.com/MakingSenseHQ On Instagram https://www.instagram.com/samharrisorg/?hl=en

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Jordan Peterson & Sam Harris Try to Find Something They Agree On - The Daily Wire

The Jordan B. Peterson PodcastDec 21, 2023

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down in-person with author and podcaster, Michael Malice. They discuss his latest book, The White Pill. From this they explore the philosophy of Ayn Rand, anarchism, the history and rebranded atrocities of Czarist Russia, and why utopian visions cyclically entice generations of people, despite leaving each one devastated for their commitment.

Michael Malice is the author of Dear Reader: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il and The New Right: A Journey to the Fringe of American Politics, The White Pill, and organizer of The Anarchist Handbook. He is also the subject of the graphic novel Ego & Hubris, written by the late Harvey Pekar of American Splendor fame. He is the host of YOUR WELCOME with Michael Malice. Malice has co-authored books with several prominent personalities, including Made in America (the New York Times best selling autobiography of UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes), Concierge Confidential (one of NPRs top 5 celebrity books of the year), and Black Man, White House (comedian D. L. Hughleys satirical look at the Obama years, a New York Times best seller). He is also the founding editor of Overheard in New York.

- Links -

For Michael Malice:

The White Pill (Book) https://www.amazon.com/White-Pill-Tale-Good-Evil/dp/B0BNZ7XZ5T/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1703176917&sr=1-1

On X twitter.com/michaelmalice

On Locals Malice.locals.com

On Youtube https://www.youtube.com/michaelmaliceofficial

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Discussing Communism in All its Glory | Michael Malice - The Daily Wire

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Tammy Peterson's journey to Catholic conversion is really a ... - Florida Catholic

The Tradwives Trilogy is a systematic investigation into a growing movement of women on the internet who identify as traditional wives. Better known as tradwives, these women romanticize their occupation as homemakers and champion traditional gender roles, which appoint men as breadwinners and women as breadmakers. In thefirst installmentof this series, I scrutinized the faces of the tradwife movement three influencers, who have built profitable careers by urging women to quit their own.

When I set out on a journey to spiral deeper into the realm of traditionalism than any other chronically online individual had gone before to become a tradwife myself I resolved to take my research beyond the performances of domesticity that influencers put on for money. Instead, I had to seek out the communal spaces of the internet where real people gathered.

And so, I took my research inquiry to Instagram, where I encountered The Tradwives Club: A community of traditionally-minded, modern-day homemakers that promotes its pro-tradition, anti-feminist, evangelical messaging with 21st-century aesthetics. Immediately, I encountered my first lesson about real feminine traditionalism: Not all tradwives cosplay the aesthetics of a barefoot homesteader or a lobotomized, 1950s housewife. I repeat: Theyre not all blonde. This marriage of antiquated ideologies with contemporary visuals has produced a feed with an aesthetic that falls somewhere between Barbie Dreamhouse, Christian Girl Autumn and the contents of an Old Money Pinterest board.

As far as traditionalist messaging goes, there was nothing original about the cheap shots The Tradwives Club takes at left-leaning, feminist girlbosses: Somehow pink hats, slut walks, frequent random hookups (and) abortions are considered womens empowerment, one post reads, while another states, My pronouns are: trad/wife, anti/feminist, (and) sandwich/maker. The jokes that tradwives make are so unfunny that they somehow justify their sideways logic that women cant make anything but babies and sandwiches. Inadvertently, I learned my second lesson about what it means to be a tradwife: To placate all of the men who are emasculated by funny women, your comedy must fall as flat as Amy Schumers stolen sex jokes.

As ground zero for young, blue-jean-wearing, brunette housewives who render first-century ideologies in millennial pink, The Tradwives Club was the closest I had ever gotten to real traditionalist women. And so, I scoured the comments section of a handful of posts to sketch out an image of what these women really looked like. From a selection of random posts, I categorized a sample of 51 female commenters by the way they identified themselves in their Instagram bio, excluding accounts with no biographical information at all. I found that 82% of female commenters identified as married, 65% as mothers, 37% as homemakers and 65% as Christian.

Above all, the most striking observation I made across these 51 accounts was that 83% of female commenters who were married identified first and foremost as wives. Yes, you heard that right: A vast majority of tradwives really do privilege their status as a wife over their identification with religion, hobbies, interests or even motherhood. This fact taught me my third lesson about feminine traditionalism: Marriage dynamics, in the eyes of a tradwife, are no different than those outlined in thousands of matrimonial unions each year. I now pronounce you man and wife is code for Men can exist as autonomous individuals outside of marriage, while a womans personhood is superseded by her role as his spouse.

One tradwife, for example, makes not one but two allusions to her marital status in her Instagram bio: Wife, Mama, Producer, + Screenwriter is immediately followed by Married. When I clicked on her spouses profile, I was disappointed but not surprised by his lack of identification with his role as a husband. Instead, his bio reads like a man who doesnt put the toilet seat down after taking a piss: Army Veteran, I love playing video games, NASCAR, and Football. But why was this the case? Why were tradwives doting on their husbands so enthusiastically? You could mistake them for a middle schooler who makes their relationship Instagram official with a in their bio.

When everythings packaged in hyper-feminine aesthetics, its easy to overlook what truly lies at the heart of the tradwife movement: the promotion of red-blooded, patriarchal masculinity. From patriarchy appreciation posts to photographs of men who are never seen without a wife or child in their arms, the prevalence of masculine messaging from The Tradwives Club taught me my fourth lesson about feminine traditionalism: Your ascension to domestic bliss is only made possible by the presence of a hot, muscular man who looks like he drinks whole milk.

One particular post illustrates how The Tradwives Club advocates so strongly for hegemonic masculinity that theyll come to the defense of the kind of man who only talks about himself on the first date. In a carousel that claims to debunk the myth of toxic masculinity, a series of nine screenshotted tweets overlay an image of a man strutting out of a restaurant in a black suit, holding his daughter in his arms like an accessory. As a term used to emasculate and feminize men, the tweets argue that the nomenclature of toxic masculinity is a form of cultural brainwashing from feminist lies that demonize masculinity and condition women to court non-threatening males. This pursuit of sheep among wolves has blinded women from what the female psyche really craves: A lion among wolves. A man amongst men. A warrior in the world and a Lover in the home. This was it: an image of the enigmatic tradhusband, the self-identified alpha male who only appoints himself as the breadwinner of his family because hes allergic to washing his sheets.

But maybe I was wrong maybe traditionalism doesnt just appeal to the men who are looking for a woman who will force them to graduate from their collegiate navy sheets. And so, to better acquaint myself with traditional men, I looked to those lurking in the comments section of The Tradwives Club, which included a Trad Catholic who uses Based/Redpilled pronouns, a PragerU personality and four separate men who are so deluded by self-importance, they offer life-coaching services. Yes, that means you can pay $74.99 for a 30-minute coaching session with the kind of man who will offer you five solutions to your wife (keeping) your balls in her nightstand drawer. After surveying the pool of eligible (touch-deprived) bachelors in the comments section of The Tradwives Club, I still felt like I had to dig deeper to understand what else governs the psyche of a traditional man besides his obsession with playing the devils advocate.

Accordingly, I relocated my investigation of traditionalism to what I can only describe as the frightening male equivalent of The Tradwives Club. If the feed of The Tradwives Club is like a meticulously organized Barbie Dreamhouse, male traditionalists, on the other hand, envision their idyllic past more like the inside of a barf bag: a gag-inducing amalgam of ran-through Chad Wojak memes, teary-eyed soyboys, nearly naked male physiques, condemned Only Fans temptresses and fantastical European architecture. But as much as I disdained the Mojo-Dojo-Casa-fication of tradwife aesthetics, it wasnt the only thing that bothered me about male traditionalists.

When I started seeing traditional values through the eyes of a man, it became obvious how women fit into their vision of the restored past they dont. At almost every juncture, male traditionalists prioritize masculine self-improvement above all else. To rally men behind hegemonic masculinity, post after post after post after post after post (seriously, I could go on) dangles the promise of perfectly chiseled abs in front of you like a carrot on a stick. If you ask me, its a little homoerotic. Women, on the other hand, are antagonized, othered or cast as props in the campaign for radical male self-improvement. On eight separate occasions, provocatively posed female bodies are intercepted by the likes of Jordan Peterson, Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, GigaChad, Jesus Christ and others who appear before you to dispense wisdom like BREASTS ARE TEMPORARY, FREEDOM IS FOREVER.

Oddly enough, male traditionalists refuse to give the same treatment to their inhumanely proportioned anime waifus, making a post that frames the rejection of them as just a joke post btw. Apart from their waifus, the only other women they cast in a remotely positive light are female Wojak memes with large breasts and stock photos of women dressed in traditional European garments. Yes, thats right the objects of male admiration belong to a class of women who arent even real humans. Theyre pure, unadulterated fantasy.

I was dumbfounded by my discovery. It felt impossible for a traditional woman to center her life around a man who cares about himself first and his waifu second. But if this was really the case, how do tradwives fit into the lives of men who only embrace these imaginary women because theyre so clearly afraid of being emasculated by the real ones? The answer to this question is not only simple but also probably the most important lesson I learned about feminine traditionalism thus far: Tradwives act as agents of the alpha-male fantasy by casting themselves as the protectors of the male ego.

If this fact wasnt already made obvious by their vilification of man-hating feminists, just look at the marital advice tradwives prescribe to one another. When broaching conflict, tradwives are so scared of emasculating their husband with criticism that theyll advise each other to do just about anything but have a real, adult conversation. Seeking advice about a man who puts zero effort into his appearance/hygiene, one female commenter from The Tradwives Club asked how she could confront her husband when she cant have a serious conversation with him because no matter how gently (she approaches) the subject, he will see it as a personal attack. The best her fellow tradwives could offer in the way of advice was a lethal combination of prayer and mind games. Im being completely serious. One tradwife recommended dress(ing) like a hot mess for a month to let him know thats how (she feels) about him most of the time. Another suggested using sex as an ultimatum: I really dont think I can get in the mood right now unless you do A, B, or C, she wrote. A third tradwife advised her to maybe try setting out his hygiene products for him. To the fourth tradwife, if prayer wasnt enough to compel this man to take a shower, a conversation could act as the last resort, but only on the condition that instead of criticizing what hes doing wrong, try to let him know what you DO appreciate about him/his appearance. Evidently, this aversion to confrontation demonstrates how the alpha male ego is so fragile, tradwives will sacrifice everything, including their dignity, to shield it from a boo-boo.

If my immersion into The Tradwives Club taught me anything, it was the extreme lengths that real women go to in service of the male ego. Maybe this was it: The key to domestic bliss never depended on how well you could bake a loaf of sourdough or how neatly you could fold your husbands boxers. Instead, this ascension hinges on your willingness to shelter your alpha from seeing himself for what he really is: a man-baby. When you cast the tradwife movement in such a masculine light, it starts to lose its pink veneer.

Since the beginning of the 2010s, the internet has played a crucial role in the mobilization of mens rights activism, providing the substrate onto which misogynistic rhetoric has given birth to what scholars call the Manosphere. By now, the origins of the Manospheres subgroups like the red pill, involuntary celibates and MGTOWs are well documented. The origins of the tradwife movement, however, live in relative obscurity.

With a sudden uptick in popularity at the beginning of 2020, the tradwife movements overnight growth seems anything but coincidental. Its possible to trace the proliferation of female traditionalism to Alena Pettitt a tradwife who made headlines in January of 2020 following appearances in British media where she publicly avowed ultra-traditional gender roles. Even then, things still werent adding up. Pettitts radically traditionalist views couldnt have come from nowhere. As I suspected, the progenitor of the online tradwife movement wasnt a real woman like Pettitt. It was a 4chan meme. Trad Girl, also known as Tradwife, made her 4chan debut on July 9, 2019, bearing blonde hair and a blue floral dress. In the same month, her likeness multiplied across 4chan boards, where she became the face of debates surrounding traditional values. Trad Girl broke into the mainstream in October of 2019, when she appeared on Twitter for the first time as a meme and later fan art.

Suddenly, everything started to click: The initial push for feminine traditionalism had nothing to do with real, flesh-and-bone women. Instead, the tradwife movement descended directly from the Manosphere. By packaging their misogynistic, anti-feminist beliefs in girly aesthetics, the Manosphere has successfully marketed itself to communities of women who were predisposed to traditionalist ideologies by their fundamentalist interpretation of religion and politics. Its bad enough that ordinary women have become the target of the Manospheres contagious ideologies, but its even worse when you consider that a vast majority of these women are mothers. Yes, that means the Manosphere is infecting the way mothers are raising the next generation of promising young women young women who will be taught to follow men instead of lead them; to stop yelling and soften your tone; to allow him to speak first; or, worst of all, to offer to take off his shoes.

Having exposed the hairy beer belly of feminine traditionalism, I knew I had entered the late stages of my tradwife evolution. And so, I was finally ready to enter the mothership: Facebook.

Daily Arts Writer Bela Kellogg can be reached atbkellogg@umich.edu.

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The hairy beer belly of the Tradwife movement - The Michigan Daily

The Novelist: A Novelby jordan castro soft skull, 208 pages, $24

Jordan Castros The Novelist: A Novel describes a morning during which an unnamed writer struggles to resume work on an autobiographical novel. He cant stop himself from checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or his email; his progress is further impeded by anxiety, self-doubt, and the sheer variety of impressions and memories that flood his internal monologue. Perhaps he has good reason to avoid writing: His novel confronts his past as a heroin addict.

In the first-person past tense, the narrator agonizes about whether to tell his story in the third-person present tense, or some other, more literary manner. Really, hes worried about how much distance to place between himself and his narrative. The author of The Novelist has evidently wrestled with similar questions; yet the narrator, whatever his name is, turns out not to be Jordan Castro himself. In fact, he admires (a fictionalized) Castro from a distance, and has defended his work against hostile detractors, although he hasnt yet read Castros controversial new book.

At first glance, The Novelist appears to be an autofiction, a literary form less than half a century old. Autofictionists prefer to distinguish their work from both the old-fashioned autobiographical novel, as practiced by every major serious novelist from Goethe to Thomas Mann, and the non-fiction novel that was pioneered by Truman Capote and Norman Mailer in the 1960s.

No novelist can fully escape or transcend what he has lived, no matter how successfully he manages to transform his perceptions into art. Autofiction is an attempt to destroy the illusion that writers might discover truth through artifice, and to cultivate instead the illusion of radical honesty. Their work often feels like an attempt to transfer the writers undigested consciousness into the mind of the reader.

The most distinguished autofictionist in America is Ben Lerner, whose artfully artless 2011 novel Leaving the Atocha Station tells the story of a poet who wastes a year in Madrid on a fellowship and ends up as a not-quite witness to the Madrid train bombings on March 11, 2004. This is a self-portrait of the artist, warts and all, with a special emphasis on the warts, perhaps at the expense of any obviously admirable or redeeming qualities. In less capable hands, this would degenerate into a self-defeating exercise in narcissistic self-loathing. Yet Lerner writes so vividly that he gets away with the conceit.

Alas, Leaving the Atocha Station spawned legions of imitators. Jordan Castro turns out not to be one of these; indeed, one cant help but suspect that The Novelist is a cunningly malicious send-up of the very idea of autofiction.

The Novelist begins at 8:14 a.m. on a Friday, when the unnamed narrator opens his laptop to start his day. First he checks his correspondence, and finds only three unopened emails: one from a writer friend, another from his boss, and a third notifying him that his copy of the latest Jordan Castro novel has shipped. He tells himself that he doesnt want to check Twitter before getting down to work. The spirit is willing; but the flesh is weak.

He has tried to set a rule for himself: No Twitter before noon. But the more he clicks on Twitter, the more he feels compelled to continue. When he sees he has a new follower, his awareness of wasting time is defeated by vanity, which he misinterprets as good manners: He feels that he has to follow his new follower back. He loses interest in social media etiquette when he sees how awful other peoples tweets are and realizes that he should be thinking of novelsnot the one hes trying to read at the moment (Nicholson Bakers The Mezzanine), but the one he should be writing.

The reference to The Mezzanine, Bakers first book, is telling. This is not an autofiction, but a plotless stream-of-consciousness description of an office workers stray thoughts during his lunch hour. When this novel was first published in 1988, reviewers praised Bakers powers of observation and ability to get inside the mind of the common man. But the author took for granted that his readers lived in the same world he did. Now The Mezzanine seems trite and dated; readers under twenty-five will need footnotes to understand Bakers riffs on defunct technologies, quaint-sounding 1980s consumer products, and out-of-date brand names.

Castro has learned from Bakers mistakes as well as Lerners: He concentrates on capturing the effect of a mind wrestling with itself in real time. He has too much tact to spell out what he believes. Addiction is a memory disease, the narrator tells himself. He turns out to be quoting a line from a memoir by an academic. Then he shamefacedly remembers the lie he told the academic in an unsuccessful attempt to impress him. Writing is a memory disease, he thinksand instantly realizes how fatuous the idea is. He is self-aware as well as self-conscious; but hes not nearly as canny as Castro himself.

Castro cant resist reminding the reader of his presence. This is most glaring when his narrator begins gushing over Jordan Castros interesting tweets and claims to find the man himself beautiful. But he rarely overdoes the provocation, even when he makes himself sound like a cross between Jordan Peterson and Bronze Age Pervert. For the most part, Jordan Castro is glimpsed indirectly, as when the narrator recalls an argument he had about Castro with a pretentious hipster-communist art gallery owner, then fantasizes having dominated the encounter.

Over the course of The Novelist, the narrator reveals his reluctance to come to terms with his past. He has replaced an addiction to drugs with a compulsive social media habit that is merely another means of distracting himself from reality. This is Castros way of exploring free will: not through essayistic rumination, but by means of actively demonstrating how we consistently fail to do what we know to be right.

Artistically, The Novelist has a few weak spots. The passage in which the narrator searches for Jordan Castro on YouTube, then tries to watch a music video that someone has made using clips from an interview with Castro, is implausible, and too high-concept; the whole scene is impossible for the reader to visualize. Certain other passages, by contrast, are far too easy to visualize, such as Castros many graphic discussions of defecation. As a means of mocking the conventions of autofiction, this is brilliant. But after the point is proven, the toilet humor becomes as tiresome as constipation.

Happily, there is much more to The Novelist than this. Castro has a light touch, and a knack for deftly evoking not just atmosphere, but the passage of time. He can make the simple act of brewing tea into something dramatic, pregnant with meaning. The narrators inability to find a favorite coffee mug, and the agitation he feels until hot tea and Facebook help him forget about it, ring true, as does his vague guilt about snooping through photos on social media of people he hasnt seen since high school.

Autofiction is ultimately a self-defeating exercisea futile act of defiance in the face of death, as practiced by writers who equate death with annihilation. Castro is more hopeful than this; he tacitly acknowledges that there might be such a thing as eternal, absolute truth that exists outside his mind. This alone makes him stand out from most of his literary peers.

Without getting bogged down in theorizing or abstract speculation, Castro has written a novel about the soul, and the challenges we encounter in trying to save our souls in a world that seems engineered deliberately to endanger them. He has learnt the hard way that there is such a thing as the natural law.

God willing, The Novelist will help kill off autofiction as a literary form. Castro has made its internal contradictions impossible to ignore, and in doing so he has revealed that he has any number of potentially interesting stories to tell about the world outside the writers mind, as it exists beyond the confines of the room in which he writes. Castros next task will be to settle on a subject ambitious enough for his range of talents, which is generous indeed. Now its time to stop procrastinating and get to work.

Jaspreet Singh Boparai is a former academic.

Image byJuanedclicensed viaCreative Commons. Image cropped.

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