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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3399 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm reading the new Malazan Karsa book: No Life Forsaken and I noticed something strange. The foreword is dedicated to Youtube book streamers and Booktok explicitly. This feels oddly tacky and off-putting. I never really thought of Steven Erikson in that light. Anyone know if this is some new weird parasocial thing authors are doing? Or is Erikson a trailblazer.

Every time I see a section of a brick-and-mortar bookshop called "booktok" I cringe.

I've heard of video games that include a little notice at the start inviting the player to stream the game on Twitch, which strikes me as tacky in the same way.

Tacky, yes, but I'll not blame them for trying to be a bit trendy and get sales/numbers/interest up.

Yeah its the tackiness that seems to impact my mind the most. I feel like its one of these costly signals. Erikson is a well established writer with a well established fan base. One would suppose that he has no need to really engage in the new-rich/tacky/booktok style marketing for a mass market audience. The costly signal for high quality reading material is that it doesn't need to try and be trendy because its quality will make it so regardless. It likely jars me, because it is directly coming into conflict with my estimation, making me re-evaluate

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