US literature | A book that hurts: “Fiasco” by Tony Tulathimutte

Bad luck: Social media doesn't have an emergency exit built in. Photo: Unsplash/Franck-v-EIfbfbi In 1991, the writer Bret Easton Ellis caused a scandal. In his novel “American Psycho,” the first-person narrator – a successful Wall Street investment banker – turned out to be a sadist and murderer. The deadly sex scenes described in detail demanded a lot from the readers. Some critics saw it as violent pornography. Yes, the author himself was equated with the main protagonist of the book (probably because of the first person). From then on, Ellis was considered a monster by many.

Of course it was all a misunderstanding. Because of the fixation on the sexual murders, people overlooked the fact that the book was also cruel on a completely different level. Because the real horror was everyday life. When the first-person narrator talked about his life, about status symbols, business lunches and visits to the gym, the reader squirmed because the dullness was unbearable. Never before had an author portrayed the world of the beautiful and rich in such a boring and meaningless way. This was accompanied by conversations with like-minded people. Hardcore small talk for the jaded: Everyone talks past each other, but no one is bothered.

Back then there was no internet and therefore no social networks or chat groups. Anyone who believes that these digital achievements have advanced humanity will be proven wrong in “Fiasco” by Tony Tulathimutte. In five longer stories you meet people, each of whom is highly disturbed in their own way. There is “The Feminist,” who ends up acting out out of sexual frustration - as a good friend, he lends his ear to women, but they don't lend him their bodies. In the second story there is the woman with self-esteem problems who closes her eyes to the fact that her good friend doesn't want to be more than just that. Not to forget the gay man from story 3, who has to realize that coming out doesn't necessarily mean a fulfilling sex life and who therefore wants to commission a very special porno.

In story 4, the woman with self-esteem comes into contact with a megalomaniac who does not see her as an equal partner, but as a reproductive project that will change humanity (one inevitably thinks of Elon Musk). Story 5 is titled “Main Character – Introduction to Botgate V. 1.7.3”. The core of this is an 88-page post by the alleged sister of the main actor from story 3, who creates thousands of social bots - i.e. fictitious selves in social networks - on the computer. This is followed by a ten-page “appendix” in which a fictional narrator attempts to decipher the identity, truthfulness and intention of the author. This is followed by “16 Metaphors” and a fictional publisher’s rejection, which reads like an interpretation of the book. Which brings us to the meta level of the meta level.

The chat group conversations are hard to beat in terms of mendacity. As soon as a conflict arises, the threadbare network of solidarity is torn apart.

Sound confusing? Only if you make the mistake of analyzing “fiasco” from a literary perspective, i.e. trying to establish connections between people, narrative and meta levels. Then you might have a doctoral thesis afterwards, but you're still no smarter. Because it is not the microscopic look at details that creates clarity, but the overall effect.

Anyone who reads “Fiasco” in one go will be just as disturbed as they were when they read “American Psycho”. No, maybe even a little more disturbed. The novel by Bret Easton Ellis offered you the opportunity to distance yourself emotionally - what does your own world have to do with that of an investment banker on Wall Street! “Fiasco” doesn’t give you this mental emergency exit. When the biographies of the main actors are told, you quickly realize that they are just supporting actors in their own lives - that's close. Although there is often talk of sex (especially bad sex and the kind that only takes place in the head), the real topic is loneliness and the inability to commit.

Social networks are no help. In “American Psycho,” the protagonists didn’t even bother to hide their coldness and egomania. The human actors in “Fiasco,” on the other hand, who are influenced by social media, have learned their netiquette. They know how to simulate empathy, feign compassion and catapult themselves into a moral high seat - it's always someone else's fault. The chat group conversations are hard to beat in terms of mendacity. As soon as a conflict arises, the threadbare network of solidarity is torn apart. What remains is a socially ostracized victim.

This shouldn't come as a surprise. »Did it matter that the whole thing took place in a listed pigsty where our behavior was recorded and analyzed to further cement our imprisonment? Actually not. Where else would I have had the power to drive a real, verifiably stupid stranger into apoplexy; Where else could you find such a dense cluster of Cluster B personalities? (People on the Internet constantly accuse each other of being narcissistic and borderline, although the house and yard disorder is obviously histrionic.)« Well, social networks are not a reformatory. Rather, they reinforce negative character traits and behaviors that one would not tolerate outside of the digital world.

This is a truth that not everyone wants to hear. In times when the need for “safe spaces” is growing, Tony Tulathimutte confronts his readers with the fact that such safe spaces do not exist, especially not in the digital world. The actors of “Fiasko,” whom “The New Yorker” magazine half-ironically calls “a bunch of huge fucking losers,” have to experience that they themselves encounter rejection in chat groups. It is no coincidence that the original title of the book is “Rejection”. People go online and yet remain offline, on the sidelines.

“American Psycho” comes to mind again: “You who enter, abandon all hope!” Ellis’ novel begins with this Dante quote. And it ends with “No way out” – it could also be the final sentence of “Fiasco”.

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