From the writer of Slate's 'Dear Prudence' column and 'literally the funniest person on the internet' (Rachel Fershleiser, co-editor of the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning) comes a witty and clever collection of essays and cultural observations spanning pop culture - from the endearingly popular to the staggeringly obscure.
Sometimes you just have to yell. New York Times bestselling author of Texts from Jane Eyre Daniel Mallory Ortberg has mastered the art of 'poetic yelling', a genre surely familiar to fans of his cult-favourite website The Toast.
In this irreverent essay collection, Ortberg expands on this concept with in-depth and hilarious studies of all things pop culture, from the high to low brow. From a thoughtful analysis on the beauty of William Shatner to a sinister reimagining of HGTV's House Hunters, Something That May Shock and Discredit You is a laugh-out-loud funny and whip-smart collection for those who don't take anything - including themselves - much too seriously.
'Ortberg's playful takes on pop culture as he explores everything from House Hunters to Golden Girls to Lord Byron, Lacan, and Rilke ... Ortberg's writing is vulnerable but confident, specific but never narrow, literal and lyrical. The author is refreshingly unafraid of his own uncertainty, but he's always definitive where it counts ... You'll laugh, you'll cry, often both at once. Everyone should read this extraordinary book.' STARRED REVIEW
-Kirkus Reviews
'Slate advice columnist Ortberg (Texts from Jane Eyre) brings the full force of his wit and literary depth to this genre-bending essay collection. Describing it as 'memoir-adjacent,' Ortberg intersperses searingly honest passages about his journey as a transgender man with laugh-out-loud funny literary pastiche ... Ortberg provides an often hilarious, sometimes discomfiting, but invariably honest account of one man's becoming.'
-Publishers Weekly
'This book is clever and strange and lovely and sad and hysterical and poignant. These are the qualities that make up most of my favourite people and all of my favourite books. You really need to read this now.'
-Jenny Lawson, New York Times bestselling author of Let's Pretend This Never Happened and Furiously Happy
