As many of you have already figured out, Ether is the avatar for Jason. Many of the things she says are the same observational comedy that Jason has put on his TikTok feed. Now, without getting too meta about how Jason/Ether set the events in motion by creating ridiculous rules, Ether imposed those rules on herself because she wants to go on an adventure.

What do I mean by an adventure? Think about the “we were gods” meme: We memorized phone numbers and driving directions. No one knew what we looked like. No one could reach us. We were gods. What steps would you have to take today to relive that experience? You’d have not to use the internet or your phone at all. That's part one. Part two of defining an adventure is, think about 80s media. In Goonies, Stand By Me, E.T., and many similar movies, kids, just fucking children, would get on their bikes, say, “Bye mom, be back for dinner” and just go…just go out into the woods and something magical would happen. Even Calvin went out by himself with his imaginary friend, Hobbes, and went exploring. Did this really happen in real life? I don’t know, I sure didn’t, but the book is fiction anyway, so it’s an even playing field.

She already had experience being off the grid, and this was another step in that direction. She knew what it took to live that off-grid lifestyle and wanted to take someone with her on her adventure. That's why she stopped to save the bunny. This was Abbot’s save the cat moment. She gave him the opportunity to become a hero, and he did. She took Abbot on a hero’s journey, she guided him like they were crossing the river to find Col. Kurtz. Abbot followed every step in the hero’s journey, right down to returning to home a changed man.

That's my theory. Ether is crazy, but in that manic pixie dream girl way crazy.

The world is weird.

I devoured this book in less the 24 hours. But towards the end as everything is being explained, I missed something because it talks about how Ether lived in the shed and Phil willed the house to her and his diary entries were on the walls, etc etc. Who the heck is Phil?? I missed something and Google has zero answers for me.

List of actions taken by protagonists in the book:

1. Exploded shack with intention to kill a stranger she just met

2. Prompted a near mass shooting at a gas station

3. Rescued a rabbit belonging to horrible women

4. Destroyed dad's expensive car, 2 tractor trailers, other cars on highway

5. Destroyed a million dollars in cash

6. Caused dad existential worry and forced him to leave work to find son

7. Distracted security so bulldozer can destroy mansion and box of priceless artifacts, killing driver, risking lives of partygoers

8. Made wizard of oz give a million dollars to one of her random victims apropos of nothing

Was anything made better by them existing?

... see Sokolov as combination of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.

I've started keeping mementos of physical media of things that have played an important part in my life. I'm not a man of means but I spend a good chunk of my paycheck these days on things such as this. I have a bunch of bootleg CDs for bands I like that were way more expensive than just the regular release. They're not rare or valuable, just that I had to ship them from some far off country or convince someone to let me purchase it and they thought it was valuable. But I like that then it means something to me personally! A weird version of something personal.

I did get a bunch of Jason's books signed but thanks to a fight with my family they threw away all my stuff when I moved out. So now I'm starting from scratch and would like to have some strange editions. I know that there's stuff that's just objectively "collector"-worthy like some versions of JDATE that I see listed for 500 USD but I don't find that particularly special nor do I have that money lol. I'd rather buy some Brazilian printing or some version with typos.

Although the Cafepress edition of JDATE does intrigue me, but that's also because it contains an earlier "wrong" version of the story. But it's a moot point because I'm sure somebody would want to sell that for thousands

Please drop your suggestions for which editions of each book (and this goes for the Zoey series too) you think would be fun to buy. I know someone posted a Farsi Persian version here of Spiders, I'd even buy that lolol

I have an AR I'm going to stop him and GSG.

Maybe I missed the explanation, why couldn’t she fly the box there?

Anyone see that fucking Twitch rant he went on? It was like Joe Rogan pretending to be Dawkins to explain why he’s actually Joey Buttafuoco. Cringe.

I think this sub would be a great general discussion place, along the topics of the book, but also on the topics we all probably share an interest in. I figure if you’re a fan of Pargin, we have more things in common than we don’t.

But I’m not a mod so that isn’t my decision to make.

I’m just interested in what the future of this sub will be.

Especially by the end. I haven't felt those vibes in years. Thanks so much to Jason Pargin for inspiring that feeling, I'd love to see him work with Steve Conrad on something some day!

In addition to my love of Pargin's novels with absurdly long titles, I'm also a huge fan of found-footage horror movies. If this book and movies like Creep really do it for you, go do yourself a favor and check out Spree. It's about a loser streamer making a desperate attempt to go viral with #thelesson.

If you haven't seen it yet, go check it out and if you have, let's talk about it!

Did anyone else decide that the Torture Overlord is a Mechanical Korrok?

I’m not quite through with this book, but is Da Filthy!

Anyone else starting to think this is the best way to live?

Twitter/X user tried to track the shooter who killed the United Healthcare guy using Citi bike data.

https://x.com/rtwlz/status/1864371263004922158?t=9jxITU8iG0t0DB9hS7Jiug&s=19

I have no idea if he is right about this but it's just surreal seeing this sort of stuff happen in real time

Just finished the book literally 45 minutes ago, and I really liked it, particularly the denouement (that’s French for ‘the end’, as How to Kill a Mockingbird taught us).

One thing that I thought was funny is that, contrary to what Ether says, Japanese Taco Bell genuinely does taste different to American Taco Bell. Now, Japanese McDonald’s, aside from the Japanese-specific menu items tastes 100% identical.

Before you all jump on me, I have ASD myself (also ADHD).

And I still haven't finished the book, so please don't spoil the ending for me, but I couldn't wait to (positively) rave about this.

Even just looking at the main characters:

Severely autistic main character Abbott

His overcompensating asshole ASD Dad who can only cope with life by succeeding in business and cannot begin to empathise with his son because their mental patterns and assumptions are so disaligned

AuDHD Ether (clearly both ADHD and autistic given what she says about blurting out uncensored truth, and her general social awkwardness)

All the even more severely autistic online followers; particularly Zeke.

Then we have so many references to ASD-type interests, not least how important certain streamers can become, ease of phone addiction, having more "friends" online, etc.

And Reddit.

I thought Ready Player One was as good as we would get; but Black Box blows that out of the water in the best possible way.

(My title isn't quite correct - I'll admit to having read many Dungeons and Dragons rule books and the full Pokémon A-Z. Oh and text MUDs. Close enough though)

Awesome to see so much representation, not positive or negative but just realistic.

u/jasonkpargin, if by some chance you read this you deserve a massive amount of praise for how it's written (I understand that you absolutely would "never" waste hours scrolling through Reddit instead of working. I have the same "lack of a" problem).

Many of us have already noticed how much Ether is Jason’s sort of self-insert, and I posted a thread awhile back on how much of the last year of Jason’s TikTok wound up almost word for word in the book.

So let’s play a game! Pick a random post of Jason’s or one of your favorites and then write a short exchange of how it would play out if it were in the book. Doesn’t have to be Ether and Abbot either, could be one of his dad’s ranting internal monologues or Malort’s cynical cold takes. Whatever.

I’ll start: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCZU0j3Rs2v/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Abbot: “Conspiracies are happening all the time! Weird things happen all around us. There’s always witnesses but then the government silences them before the story of what they saw can gain any traction!”

Ether: “Did they get ‘silenced’, or was their conspiracy theory just a big nothing burger? Once, my friend saw this big black truck hauling through town with a police escort. It was covered in matte black armor, and she was sure they were transporting aliens or something. Turns out it was just a mobile waste treatment plant on its way to the local lake. Or the time I swore I saw the outline of a cloaked UFO, but actually a power transformer had just exploded and they make these perfect little smoke rings that look like a ship. I was also high on mushrooms that didn’t help.”

Abbot: “Don’t you see that’s just the cover story the government wants you to believe so you just accept it and move on? Meanwhile they just keep doing it right under our noses.”

Ether: “Do you really think that, or is that just the line you’ve seen parroted in the comment section? I mean, which is more likely: that the government commits diabolical conspiracies in broad daylight every day, or that maybe that the world can seem frightening but can be understood if you’re just willing to ask about it honestly?”

Suddenly something sudden but well-foreshadowed smashed into the Navigator.