Customer Reviews

Hello, I'm Special: How Individuality Became the New Conformity

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Mr. Niedzviecki begins with an interesting subject: main stream culture has co-opted rebellion. The anecdotes and the witticisms are fine when he tones down on the condescension, but the book suffers from deep flaws.

He leaves terms such as pop culture and rebellion ill-defined. However, I gathered that main stream culture is something that the reader does not be a part of. Once he lays out his argument that the main stream has co-opted rebellion, his arguments loop endlessly between the wish to get away from pop culture and the inability to do anything that does not lead back to being pop culture. Instead of trying to find a third path out of his binary sorting of "pop vs rebel", his definitions broaden until his narrative becomes diffused and nearly directionless at points.

At several points, he touches on historical writing on individuality and masses, but fails to capitalize on these opportunities to deepen his argumnt or break the loop that he has built.

I love infotainment reads, and this book is a good example of C+ quality in this genre. As I see it, this book sets out to characterize individuality as a value central to modern life, and does a great job of providing the reader of evidence of this again, and again, and again. By the last third of the book, it became a chore to hear the same argument rehashed with little elaboration.

The greatest downside to this book was that Niedzviecki implies throughout that valuing individuality as highly as he believes contemporary culture does is a bad thing, but absolutely fails to convince the reader on this point. Individuals interviewed by the author offer allusions to their "feeling lonely/disconnected/etc.," and this is the sum total of the evidence that the author is willing to supply to prove the negative effects of contemporary trends.

I think that the most effective thing that this book could do to improve itself is bring in empirical evidence and theory from psychology. A great wealth of discussion about the effects of media consumption on behavior, imitation, reward and punishment, etc. exist in psychology, and tying these lines of thought into "Hello, I'm Special" would have made this book better. The book, as it is, is pure journalism pretending to be cultural theory. (Here it is an ideal read if you like to say "hey, I could write this malarkey!" to yourself and close friends).

Up until the last forty or so pages, I was amused and getting a little bored. At about this point in the book, Niedzviecki decides that going without the conveniences of our cushy modern lives and actually "suffering" like real bushmen is the remedy to the problem of modern existence! So, to re-cap the author's argument: exposure to media leads to imitation, therefore we should all feel guilty for having running water. I can only assume that this derailed logic has its roots in the author's personal problems (e.g. I hate my life, therefore I want to hurt myself). Wow, a little juvenile and embarrassing for our cultural theorist, but I kept reainding. Right after giving Niedzviecki the benefit of the doubt big time, he then hits me with a combination condemnation/ laudatory hailing of "protesters" and "activists." I was like what is going on here? This dude failed to fully develop his pretty good initial argument/topic, so then just totally abandons it to discuss some irrelevant personal fascination of some other topic. The book, as compelling and fun to read as it was for the first 100 pages, became unreadable and I put it down with about 20 pages left to go.

Verdict: stoner rant.

Hal Niedzviecki is the guy who bums a ride with you and then criticizes the way you drive, tells you when to turn, and tells you where to park. He is the guy who walks into your kitchen and asks to be shown what you are cooking, and then makes unhelpful suggestions as to how to improve your recipe. He's the guy who crashes your party and makes snide comments about your taste in music, and how he was into it 'before they went all mainstream'. In short, he is a know-it-all ironic hipster killjoy.

The thesis of "Hello, I'm Special" isn't entirely clear: there is a vague sense of Niedzviecki complaining about the ubiquity of pop culture and how 'just being yourself' has been commercially appropriated, propped up sloppily by largely irrelevant quotations from academic figures like Foucault. Basically, anybody who tries to do anything 'different' is snidely and rather pettily criticized and scrutinized, from progessive Catholics, to Found Magazine founder Davy Rothbart, and the very people who trustingly gave Niedzviecki feedback. In fact, I am on his list of bumbling bourgeois wannabes simply by virtue of writing a review on Amazon (and no, this is not my attempt at earning 'glory' or 'fame'. I simply don't want anyone else to endure this book.).

Despite protestations in the introduction (following a lengthy retelling of his disaffected wealthy suburban youth, druggie days, various print accomplishments, and so on) that the book is not about him, the book is steeped in the context of Hal Niedzviecki: *I* received an email from so-and-so; participants in an alternative publishing event that *I* coordinated said; *my* friend did this; *I* think; *I* believe, etc. Niedzviecki constantly puts down and criticizes people and movements from the outside, without attempting to become involved or develop a personal understanding, and reserving none of this scathing judgement for himself (because publishing an interview with a male stripper who sodomizes himself with a cooked chicken is waaay more revolutionary than protesting the WTO).

As a result, the whole book smacks of sour grapes. Niedzviecki comes across as a disillusioned person who is overcome with jealousy that he is not the sole person in the universe capable of attempting nonconformity. Rather than criticize or act against the institutions and systems which appropriate nonconformity and create a homogenized world, he instead directs scorn towards people, mostly teens and young adults, who are simply rebelling in the only way they know how.

The one thing I learned from this book is how to assert yourself as a true individual: publish a book mercilessly slamming anyone and everything that has ever tried to do anything different, while constantly inserting yourself and your ego in the center of the action.

Going into this, "Hello, I'm Special" appeared to be a valuable exploratory of the self-centeredness that has taken root in today's American culture, from athletic shoe snobbery to "buy this to prove you are different" marketing to million dollar lawsuits against companies that didn't expect you to use their products stupidly. In part, Niedzviecki does do that here, and gets in some pertinent jabs.

Unfortunately, he then goes off the deep end, insisting that (1) you are just a phony if you try to express your sense of individualism the same way others express theirs, and (2) that the only true individualist is the person who escapes social conformity overkill by living in a small town or out in the hinterlands. Both assertions are bunk.

Yes, one has to chuckle about people who claim to thrive on following their own vibe...then wear the same style clothing, drive the same cars, or visit the same websites as other "non-conformists." But that doesn't make them phonies or fakes, that makes them spirited people who may be a bit misguided as to how they define "individuality." The bigger offense is the self-satisfied, condescending attitude that Niedzviecki takes toward such people in this book. No, owning an iPod or driving a Mini Cooper or trying out for a pre-packaged "reality" show doesn't make you smart, hip, OR a true non-conformist. But neither does beating up on those who are just trying to find a way to feel comfortable in their own skin while the rest of the world wants them to be something else.

Likewise, if the author thinks he will escape pressures to conform by moving to a small town, he clearly hasn't lived in a small town, or lived their long enough. Frying pan, meet the fire. Unless by "small town" he means one of those roadside attractions where the three buildings that comprise the town's center are equal to the number of teeth the 90-year-old "mayor" has left. If that's what you have in mind, monkey boy, good luck with that.

Overall, I was just disappointed. Today's culture has a lot of whack-o stuff going on that even us who admit to wackiness sometimes need to take a second (or third) constructive look at. Unfortunately, this book is a missed opportunity that's more about tearing down than building up. Too bad.

Though "Hello, I'm Special" has good ideas and a good premise, it features very long winded examples that alone could be theses. Although somewhat interesting, this book is too much of a chore to read and is, to be honest, quite boring as leisure reading.

Niedzviecki could really also learn that using "I'm Special" or "I'm Specialism" on what seems to be each page really doesn't help pass the pages any faster.

This was a waste of my time to read. Read the first 10 pages and you have the gist of the book; and if you know much about current society, you would be able to realize what he is saying without ever picking up this book.

Niedzviecki's book touches on an interesting topic (which is why it merits two stars instead of one) viz. how counter culture has, in essence, become a manifestation of mainstream culture since the latter encourages rebellion. However, the book is preachy, hypocritical and ultimately unoriginal. Here we have this over-privileged, Bard-Educated American/Canadian Jewish Prince basically going around the U.S. and Canada looking for examples of people doing, or trying to do, new and creative things - from starting a backyard wrestling league to exploring alternative forms of worship to WTO protests and basically arguing from an extremely external, spectator standpoint, that they are neither new nor creative. He throws in a few of his own anachronistic and scarcely relevant personal anecdotes and tosses around a few names (Foucault & Tester) of latter-day sophistication (let's refrain from using the word 'postmodern', shall we?)to embellish his argument that originality is not original, but really, his analysis/deconstruction (or whatever you want to call it) of originality, creativity and individuality could not be any more unoriginal, uncreative or cliched. Numerous sociologists of greater intelligence and clout have pointed out that American culture has more or less always been centered largely around the (myth of the) individual, individualism, and individuality. I could go on about how I think he misinterprets Foucault (who, if anything, encouraged individual rebellion), but I will just point out that hardly any of the previous reviews have been positive which should be reason enough for one to avoid buying this massively disappointing book.

The major line of thought in this book trace back to the 1960's and 1970's, including Tom Wolfe's "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby", Chris Lasch's "Culture of Narcissism" and (more recently) Frank's "Commodify Your Dissent." The author doesn't mention or cite any of those works.

Younger readers who are uninterested in history might enjoy the recent cultural examples in this book, but I find it's got very little new to say.

In the spirit of "I'm Special," I would suggest that people take the reviews (positive and negative) with a grain of salt, read the book, and draw your own conclusions. Niedzviecki is simply presenting an insightful, albeit inconvenient, commentary on our society.

Niedzviecki has done a good job distancing from and reporting on our self-centered (North American) culture; that he's Canadian probably gives him the detachment he needs. It's uneven in places, but there are too many brilliant insights to simply dismiss it. For example, in the chapter called "The Search for Home," he discusses the backlash against the "I'm Special" culture in the form of the neo-traditional movement:

"The neo-traditionalists--from downshifter to right-to-lifer--seek an escape from a society that compels loneliness by placing the highest values on individual achievement. Middle-class joiners also seek to be born again into yesterday, stripped of their fears and uncertainties, protected from the ravages and confusions of the shaper-shifting present." (page 157)

"Hello, I'm Special" is an interesting, disturbing. and challenging collection of essays--I highly recommend it.

This book is a broad look at individuality in 2007. Everything that we hold dear that we think makes us "special" and individual in fact makes us conform to widely accepted norms. The only people who seem to be truly individual in this book, are the ones who aren't even trying, and this somehow makes them special. The book is brilliantly written, and is so indepth, compelling and amusing that I raced through it going from one sadly deluded "special" person to the next one. It even gave me an idea for joining "Live Journal", a blog site, so I too could communicate with other like minded individuals, and thus find my own specialness and individuality, (????) which I didn't expect to do. It can't be all bad eh? If you like reading books that probe and make you think, this is a definate read.

This book is someone's very personal and narcissistic attempt at going public with how 'done' he is being counterculture, probably because it was a huge effort to keep up in the first place, not because he suddenly spotted some hapless teenager dressed just like him. Of course Hal (is this even his real name, or an imitation of a real person's name) knows this and by throwing in some postermodernist references he has published a regretful, lamenting retro 80's geist peice. That's right! I don't think he's done with being a hipster yet! This is what hipsters do-- criticize hipsters, pretend they're not anymore, leave Brooklyn for the boonies with all the other hipsters who went folk. If it weren't for hipsters criticizing hipsters, the masses would never know they exist. I'm telling you, the only person who can write this bombast then shed skins this way in the first place is the ultra-free overeducated, undercommitted white middle class man. People pressed by financial problems, institutionalized racism, sexism, and neo-colonialism don't need to pretend to be outsiders. For us, the more rebels, the better-- until we turn this mutha upside down. And some of us will be wearing punk-inspired Target pants because we work in a Target-contracted factory. He can stop being special now, I know he's tired. The rest of us knew we'd never "Be Somebody" long before we dropped out of public school. Anyway, this book is probably just a secret message to a lover who snubbed him. It will help him form his next psuedo-self, which is a pretend-genuine self. I think I'd like him better if he remained pretentious.