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Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs
Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs: A Journey Through the Deep State | Kerry Howley
5 posts | 4 read | 4 to read
From the acclaimed author of Thrown, a wild, humane, and hilarious meditation on post-privacy America. A lone young woman stuffs a state secret under her skirt, trusts the wrong people to help, and joins a strange community of fellow travelers. A California teenager sets off on a religious journey, only to find himself trapped in a flooded basement under siege. A nation loses faith in its spies, and finds solace in a fraudulent whistleblower. In this groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction, Kerry Howley builds a map of a parallel universe, drawing in Reality Winner, Lady Gaga, John Walker Lindh, Q, a rescue dog named Outlaw Babyface Nelson, and a mother who will do whatever it takes to get her daughter out of jail. Flooded with information and yet bereft of knowledge, Howleys subjects face a challenge new to history: they are imprisoned by their past selves, trapped for as long as the Internet endures, allowed to forget neither transient moments in their own lives nor the devastating secrets theyre expected to keep. In following these characters, Howley asks essential questions about modern life that most are unwilling to confront. Who are you? You are data about data. You are a map of connectionsa culmination of everything you have ever posted, searched, emailed, liked and followed. A soap opera set in the deep state, Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs is a free fall into a world where everything is recorded and nothing sacred, an enthralling investigation into the nature of memory itself.
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Hooked_on_books
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Mehso-so

I am perplexed by the NYT picking this as one of 2023‘s 10 best books. The subtitle is wildly inaccurate, the organization of the book is clunky, and it‘s largely a brief biography of Reality Winner. While there are some compelling bits in it, overall I thought it was not well done.

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Chelsea.Poole
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Pickpick

A great listen (audio format), but prepared to be disturbed.
This book is about surveillance, particularly by the US government and the fallout when those working in the intelligence sector become “whistleblowers”, focusing heavily on Reality Winner. There‘s also a significant dive into the US‘s use of torture techniques following 9/11 when the country had an “anything goes” mentality. (Still does?) Touches on QAnon and other conspiracies.

Suet624 Wow. I had no idea that‘s what this was about. 3mo
81 likes1 comment
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TheKidUpstairs
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Pickpick

A fascinating, thoughtful, careful, often infuriating look at the world of surveillance, leaks, and the politicization of information in the US. Mind bending and Kafka-esque.

44 likes1 stack add
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TheKidUpstairs
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"The radical transparency we have accepted, step by step, these past years, is a bet we have made: that we and the people with the guns and cages will stay on good terms."

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catiewithac
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Pickpick

This book was so much more than I expected. Howley writes (and teaches) narrative nonfiction and this is an excellent example of that art form. It‘s an examination of privacy, secrecy, and (in)justice in our modern world. By the time the title‘s meaning punches you in the gut, you‘ll be long hooked by this book‘s power. 🛜 🥊

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