The book is so much better than the meme...

It occurred to me, not too long ago, that the Internet sometimes takes things out of context. You’ve noticed this too, haven’t you? Sharp as the proverbial tack, that’s what we are. Sharp. 

*****

I finally read Hyperbole and a Half, ten years after everyone else read it and then filled the entire World Wide Web with ALL THE THINGS. After Hyperbole and a Half was published, “all the things” became the dominant Internet slang of the early 2010s. It replaced “threw up in my mouth a little” (good riddance) and “meh” (meh). It was everywhere. If you were too busy, you had to DO ALL THE THINGS. If you were emotional, you had ALL THE FEELINGS (or God help me, ALL THE FEELS). If you were a glutton, you ATE ALL THE FOOD. You get the point. 

Naturally, I resisted the idea of reading the book that was personally responsible for ALL THE ALL THE THINGS variations that littered every blog and every social media post for literally years. Years! But then one day last summer, H and a H showed up in my daily discount e-book newsletter, and I caved. I read it on Kindle, which is not the best way to read it. Some of the drawing captions are hard to read in the electronic format. 

Format aside, Hyperbole and a Half is quite wonderful, including the essay that spawned the ALL THE THINGS memes, which is hilarious (the essay is hilarious--the memes vary). But as a whole, Hyperbole and a Half is actually quite serious. When it tries to be funny, it’s hilarious; but when it’s serious, it’s as serious as can be. Right after I finished Hyperbole and a Half, I read The Reading Life, a compilation of C.S. Lewis’ essays and letters about reading. You might not think about Allie Brosh and C.S. Lewis in the same literary thought, but you would be wrong, because both writers are intensely religious, though I suspect that Allie Brosh doesn’t intend to be. 

In “Identity Part Two,” the last essay in Hyperbole, she writes “...I am someone who would throw sand at children. I know this because I have had to resist doing it, and that means that it’s what I would naturally be doing if I wasn’t resisting it. I would also shove everyone, never share anything, and shout at people who aren’t letting me do exactly what I want.” 

Well, duh. In those few words, Allie Brosh describes just about nearly everyone in the human race, now and ever, from the beginning of time to the end of the age, though she doesn’t seem to know this. She seems to think that most other people who appear to be good people, who present themselves as good people, are actually good people, all the time. She writes about the “system of lies and tricks” that she uses to convince herself that she’s not a bad person; as if she is the only person who has ever had to fight her selfish impulses, or force herself to do the right thing rather than the easy thing or the fun thing or the vindictive, satisfying thing. She writes about her constant struggle not to act like a shitty person, when she knows that she is a shitty person. She doesn’t seem to realize that everyone else is shitty, too. Shitty is the default human condition. 

*****

After the huge success of Hyperbole and a Half, the Internet waited with bated breath for Allie Brosh’s next book. It waited a long time by any standard; and an eternity by Internet standards. Her second book, Solutions and Other Problems, came out in 2020 and not only did I not wait around for a discount copy, I actually pre-ordered so that I’d have it in my hand on the day of publication. And I wasn’t disappointed. 

Solutions is like Hyperbole in some ways; very funny but very serious, even dark. It’s been long enough now since I read both books that I don’t really remember enough to distinguish one from the other. That is not to say that they are alike, because they’re not. Solutions just expands on the themes that Brosh introduced in Hyperbole. It’s more personal and revelatory; it goes a little deeper than Hyperbole. But there are still ridiculous dogs. I don’t have a dog, but I do love other people’s ridiculous dogs. Hyperbole and a Half and Solutions and Other Problems were among my favorite books of 2020. I will be first in line for Allie Brosh’s next book, even if it takes ten years.