Because Internet
Gretchen McCulloch
£10.99
Mr B's review
This remains a favourite and go-to book on Linguistics.
I picked this up because I have a very specific interest, but I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t enjoy it, whether you were born to the internet, learned how to use it as an adult or still can’t figure out how to google anything. Imo, It doesn’t matter, because Gretchen is here to have a good time and you are invited. Bring on the linguist llama memes.
My copy is now full of post-it notes because there are so many good quotes. Have a random one:
“When you lay a book down and come back to it, you expect all its ink to stay where you left it, but the only languages that stay unchanging are the dead ones. When you step away from a living language, or a network made of human beings, you don’t expect it to fall silent and still without you.”
Also I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where memes and emoji are talked about as exciting innovations rather than mocked, and mapped onto how we work as humans and in this case, English speakers. It’s fascinating and weirdly nostalgic – especially because all the memes have had to be printed in black and white.
This is a book to throw at people who think that “you’re doing English wrong”. (Spoiler alert: you’re boring ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). The internet has created a whole new branch of language innovation in how we display nuance, tone, emotion and life into written words (and emojis and gifs and punctuation and… etc. *insert gif here*). Gretchen is so obviously passionate, her tone is humorous and accessible at the level of pop-linguistics and yet there’s so much detail and thought in here that I didn’t have any trouble at all understanding – and there are huge swathes of Internet culture that I was born too late to be exposed to. Hence why I’m not at all worried about this being isolating for readers who aren’t familiar with our old friend the interwebs. That said, one of my favourite aspects of this book was having iconic memes and language patterns from my adolescence… many of which I have retained as an adult XD… laid out before me for enthusiastic analysis 😊.
Description
THE ACCLAIMED NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.
Have you ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message? Wondered where memes came from? Fret no more: Because Internet is the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that’s a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.
‘McCulloch is such a disarming writer – lucid, friendly, unequivocally excited about her subject – that I began to marvel at the flexibility of the online language she describes, with its numerous shades of subtlety.’ New York Times
Publisher Review
A compelling narrative rich with examples from her own online activities, a healthy dose of humor, and plenty of cat memes… the breadth of topics covered-from conversation analysis to meme culture to the development of texting as we now know it-makes this book useful, engaging, and enjoyable. * Science * An effervescent study of how the digital world is transfiguring English * The New Yorker * McCulloch’s book is a good start in guiding readers to consider the wild language of the internet as a thing of wonder-a valuable feature, not a bug. * Wall Street Journal * Rather than obsessing about what the internet is doing to language, [Because Internet] largely focuses on what can be learned about language from the internet. . . . McCulloch’s book is about the birth of a new medium. * Economist * McCulloch is such a disarming writer – lucid, friendly, unequivocally excited about her subject * New York Times * In prose at once scholarly and user-friendly, McCulloch unpacks the evolution of language in the digital age, providing a comprehensive survey of everything from the secret language of emojis to the appeal of animal memes. * Esquire * McCulloch offers a compelling snapshot of a world in flux, from which readers will learn a lot about language, the internet and themselves * Financial Times * A fascinating analysis * Observer * Covers the backstory of how tildes became the punctuation mark for ~whimsy and sarcasm~…and when we started repeating certainnnnn lettersssssssss for emphasis * Buzzfeed * Because Internet…illustrates how many of us feel about English in the online age… It is hard not to be moved by her McCulloch is an engaging writer who clearly adores her subject * Sunday Times *
Book experts at your service
What are you looking for?