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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | National Indie Bestseller "I've been raving about Naomi Klein's Doppelganger . . . I can't think of another text that better captures the berserk period we're living through." —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times "If I had to name a single book that makes sense of these last few dark years, it would be this one." —Katie Roiphe, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "If ever a book was necessary, it's this one." —Bill McKibben
"Thoughtful and honest . . . Incisive . . . Klein moves her reader toward the truer grounds of solidarity in these times." —Judith Butler What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo? Naomi Klein is one of our most trenchant and influential social critics, an essential analyst of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Here she turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical, and political crises. With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us—and that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror. Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger asks: What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now—and an intellectual adventure story for our times.
This is excellent, yet hard to pin down. A bit like matter and anti-matter, opposite things that seemingly can't exist together but are more alike than we might imagine. This touches on so many topics, from the conspiracy theories of the pandemic to the conflict in Palestine, the way each of the topics are explored is so excellent and thoughtful. ( )
In Doppelganger, Naomi Klein explores some of the more unsettling aspects of contemporary politics and culture, taking as her jumping-off point how frequently she herself has been confused in recent years with feminist-turned-conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf. Conspiracy theories and doppelgangers/doubling have abounded in recent years, and Klein is at her strongest when she explores how we are all susceptible to manipulation and to confirmation biases. I doubt it's possible to read Klein's grappling with self-examination in the wake of her "double's" mirroring of her without a certain queasy empathy, and she writes with admirable humour. However, Klein's doppelganger theme feels a bit strained and over-extended at times—are some points of similarity alone enough to merit the title of doppelganger? Contemporaneity and causation aren't the same thing, and I'm wary of grand narratives; then, too, there is the sense that Klein is spending a lot of time grappling with understanding those whose narcissism is both banal and obvious. Still, a thought-provoking read. ( )
I like Naomi Klein and I think she has much to contribute to our community dialogue. However, as I read through this book, I started to feel that her thesis was weak and the content of the book was rambling. It became more and more of a personal rant as it went along and I didn't feel like I had learned a thing by the end. If I'm looking for a rant, I can find plenty of it on the internet. I expect a lot more from a book. ( )
They say everyone has a double somewhere in the world. Naomi Klein discovered hers just as the Covid-19 pandemic was ramping up. Klein is well-known as a smart, left-leaning social activist and writer. She was dismayed to find that people were confusing her with Naomi Wolf who is also a writer but started espousing conspiracy theories starting in 2014. In the early days of the pandemic she was vocally against lockdowns, vaccinations and masking. Frequently, Wolf's statements were attributed to Klein who had no difficulty with following pandemic restrictions and getting vaccinated. This started Klein to do a deep dive into research about the world her doppelganger inhabited. Klein calls Wolf "the Other Naomi" or sometimes just "the Other" throughout the rest of the book. Her thesis is that society has become so deeply fractured along political and ideological lines that it's like there are mirror images. I can't possibly do justice to the book in a short review but it was fascinating to follow Klein's thoughts. Subjects range from Nazis to autism to Israel and Palestine. Although the book was released before the Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, Klein was remarkably prescient in discussing the area.
Klein may have gotten a tad obsessed with Wolf. Her husband, Avi Lewis, once found her doing yoga listening to a podcast of an interview with Wolf. On the other hand, know thy enemy is usually sound advice. ( )
Sadly, my least favorite of all Klein's books. The premise of the book is very interesting. I have myself fallen into the trap of once switching the two Naomis up while I was watching a YT. But, it barely lasted for 10 mins, as the political views of the N. Wolf are so vastly different than Klein's. But, something about this book just feels like a superficial rant, and I didn't like it. Other than the brief focus on the "other Klein" that was a sort of introduction to the "mirror universe", it was mostly a letdown. The whole mirror universe thing reminded me strongly of the Star Trek Terran Empire episodes which were a much better experience than this book.
I was expecting Klein's studious approach to the relativity of truth in the age of eco chambers and both sides of the political spectrum flirting with conspiracy theory-like material. I found a hot mess of all the hot topics talked about in the public space, esp. on Twitter, and God knows that is a septic tank of the Internet. I mention Twitter cause this book has a similar vibe. Klein is quick to judge the political opposition but fails to see that she herself falls into the trap of pioneering some ideas that verge on the conspiracy territory, as long as they are politically acceptable to her. The book is still an easy and somewhat interesting read, esp. because Klein is such a good writer. But, overall it needed better editing and a more general focus. At times it felt as if Klein was a little neurotic and self-obsessed and it kind of turned me off.
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Er was een vreselijke meerderheid van duplicaten ontstaan. - Fjodor Dostojevski, De dubbelganger, 1846
Hoevelen van iedereen zullen er zijn? - Jordan Peele, Us, 2019
Dedication
First words
In my defense, it was never my intent to write this book. I did not have time. No one asked me to. And several people strongly cautioned against it. Not now - not with the literal and figurative fires roiling our planet. And certainly not about this. -Introduction: Off-Brand Me
The first time it happened I was in a stall in a public bathroom just off Wall Street in Manhattan. I was about to open the door when I heard two women talking about me. "Did you see what Naomi Klein said?" I froze, flashing back to every mean girl in high school, pre-humuliated. What had I said? "Something about how the march today is a bad idea." "What asked her? I really don't think she understands our demands." Wait. I hadn't said anything about the march - or the demands. Then it hit me: I knew who had. I casually strolled to the sink, made eye contact with one of the women in the mirror, and said words I would repeat far too many times in the months and years to come. "I think you are talking about Naomi Wolf." -Chapter 1, Occupied
Quotations
Last words
Besides, I'm not named after Ruth, the loyal one, worth seven sons. I'm named after Naomi, the one who did what it took to survive.
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | National Indie Bestseller "I've been raving about Naomi Klein's Doppelganger . . . I can't think of another text that better captures the berserk period we're living through." —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times "If I had to name a single book that makes sense of these last few dark years, it would be this one." —Katie Roiphe, The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "If ever a book was necessary, it's this one." —Bill McKibben
"Thoughtful and honest . . . Incisive . . . Klein moves her reader toward the truer grounds of solidarity in these times." —Judith Butler What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self—a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against? Not long ago, the celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein had just such an experience—she was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define: AI-generated text is blurring the line between genuine and spurious communication; New Age wellness entrepreneurs turned anti-vaxxers are scrambling familiar political allegiances of left and right; and liberal democracies are teetering on the edge of absurdist authoritarianism, even as the oceans rise. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo? Naomi Klein is one of our most trenchant and influential social critics, an essential analyst of what branding, austerity, and climate profiteering have done to our societies and souls. Here she turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical, and political crises. With the assistance of Sigmund Freud, Jordan Peele, Alfred Hitchcock, and bell hooks, among other accomplices, Klein uses wry humor and a keen sense of the ridiculous to face the strange doubles that haunt us—and that have come to feel as intimate and proximate as a warped reflection in the mirror. Combining comic memoir with chilling reportage and cobweb-clearing analysis, Klein seeks to smash that mirror and chart a path beyond despair. Doppelganger asks: What do we neglect as we polish and perfect our digital reflections? Is it possible to dispose of our doubles and overcome the pathologies of a culture of multiplication? Can we create a politics of collective care and undertake a true reckoning with historical crimes? The result is a revelatory treatment of the way many of us think and feel now—and an intellectual adventure story for our times.
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Wikipedia in English
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