Culture Creep
 | |
| Author | Alice Bolin |
|---|---|
| Genre | Essay collection |
| Publisher | Mariner Books |
| Publication date | June 3, 2025 |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 978-0063440524 |
Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse is a 2025 essay collection by Alice Bolin published by Mariner Books.[1] In seven essays, Bolin tackles "cults, corporate thought control and the end of the world as we know it" with regard to contemporary life; other topics include feminism, internet culture, and video games.[2][3] One of its essays, about Sex and the City and "feminist despair," was excerpted in Literary Hub.[4]
Background
Bolin was inspired to write her essays in order to interrogate the "nostalgia machine" which has taken root in modern culture: "There's a bigger theme about how we're living in this future that feels so much like the past... how much that reflects stagnation and economic stagnation."[5] One point of nostalgia for Bolin was teen magazines at the turn of the millennium, which the book's first essay addresses.[6]
She was also inspired by her time in Memphis, Tennessee, as a professor at the University of Memphis, where she and her husband were married, as well as where "her Memphis memories exist in a haze of pandemic-induced murk."[7]
Critical reception
In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called the book a "ferociously smart collection" and concluded that "Bolin's sharp analysis draws unintuitive connections between a variety of political and cultural targets, offering a caustic take on the vicissitudes of modern life. This solidifies Bolin's status as a vital chronicler of millennial ennui."[8]
The New York Times stated that the book "may struggle to pin down a single thesis—but that's not to say Bolin doesn't have a point. The problem might be that she has too many." However, the reviewer found Bolin's essay on Animal Crossing to be the place where "Her writing shines."[2]
The New Republic wondered if Bolin's use of "citations of academic articles and social theory" was done "to compensate for a concern that Y2K artifacts and early-2000s media are not topics serious enough to constitute an essay collection" and stated that "Bolin's insecurity as a critic appears to stem from self-consciousness about participating in the genre of female-authored criticism-cum-memoir." The reviewer thus concluded that the book was stuck within a contradiction of both self-seriousness and not.[6]
References
- ↑ "Alice Bolin presents Culture Creep | Minnesota Monthly Calendar". Minnesota Monthly. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- 1 2 Bennett, Alanna (2025-05-31). "The Apocalypse Is Here, and It's One Big Cult". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- ↑ "BOMB Magazine | Alice Bolin by Elizabeth Teets". BOMB Magazine. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- ↑ Bolin, Alice (2025-06-23). "How Sex and the City Exemplifies Late 20th-Century Feminist Despair". Literary Hub. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- ↑ Features, Kerensa Cadenas published in (2025-06-12). "2000s Nostalgia Is As Prevalent As Ever. But These Authors Aren't Sure Our Cultural Obsession Is for the Best". Marie Claire. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- 1 2 "Why We Can't Quit Our Y2K Obsessions". The New Republic. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- ↑ Davis, Jesse (2025-06-18). "The Cult of Technology". Memphis magazine. Retrieved 2025-07-11.
- ↑ "Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse by Alice Bolin". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 2025-07-11.