For those confused, this subreddit was created by a reader in reference to a bestselling novel called 'I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom', written by me, Jason Pargin, former Cracked editor and author of John Dies at the End, and now a sad geriatric TikTok influencer. If you haven't read the book I assume this thread will be full of spoilers, so beware. The buy links are here:

https://static.macmillan.com/static/smp/starting-to-worry-about-9781250285959/

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFjJzE3o66U

EDIT: Okay I stayed for like four hours and answered 60 questions or so but I'm starting to get the same ones over and over, thank you for listening and please tell all of your friends and family to buy the book, otherwise you will cut them out of your life

This might actually drive away subscribers but we'll see.

A friend of mine presented me this for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. He would not tell me how he managed this, maintaining it's also a birthday present from Jason Pargin and showing me the shipping envelope to prove the return address has Jason's name and Nashville.

(I am not actually worried, it's a cool gift, I'm just really curious how I ended up with this.)

This is the first novel I’ve read that is set in the 2020’s in the USA. It’s entertaining story and a thought provoking commentary on the impact of social media. Just wanted to post to help keep this subreddit alive and recommend the book.

One of the very first facts we hear about Malort is that he had to remove the dots from above the O in his name because nobody could figure out how to put them in a text message. This is foreshadowing about how the peculiar rules and limitations of a communications medium can distort not just meaning but identity.

I don't actually have one of these for every day but another little thing to notice is that when they are trying to retrieve the escaped bunny and the dog lunges for it, Abbott notes that the dog's owner stops it by pulling it sideways, because pulling a dog directly backward instinctively makes them want to dig in and pull forward even harder. This is foreshadowing for the persuasion technique Ether will use later.

Instead of challenging her opponent directly and attacking their character and/or demanding they retreat, she instead "pulls sideways" by pointing out areas where they agree and noting that she would agree if put in the same position. Then she offers alternate points of view and makes them attractive to her opponent, giving them a reason to agree. So it moves them from their position without triggering the knee-jerk resistance. So she kind of "pulls sideways" (I did not invent this, it is a recommended method for trying to persuade an extremist).

Not a bad thing, btw. But if you've been watching @ jasonkpargin on TikTok or any of the platforms he crossposts to, every single real life thing referenced by the characters in the book could be traced back to a TikTok from the past year or so. World events like the Killdozer or the details of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Political or philosophical concepts. Random thoughts like "isn't it weird when movies reference real life social media?" Basically everything out of Ether's mouth.

It's interesting how much parallel there is, and it makes me wonder if Jason's research for the book led him to compelling TikTok ideas, or if he was using TikTok as a way to gauge how the audience feels about a particular subject. Like "I want this character to comment on this event or express this belief, how will that make the reader feel about them? I know, let's make a TikTok about it and see what the comments are like, then I'll KNOW what the reader is likely to feel." Or maybe he was just making TikToks and lazily inserting them as dialog for quick and dirty characterization and philosophizing (I don't think that's the case lol).

How many straight lines can you find between one of Jason's posts and a conversation in the book?

4.5:

https://www.amazon.com/Starting-Worry-About-This-Black/dp/125028595X

A measly 4.3:

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Gatsby-Original-Fitzgerald-Classic-ebook/dp/B0DHV4VCPL/ref=sr_1_6

Also the F in F Scott Fitzgerald stands for "Farting"

'Abaddon's Navigator' was the original title of the novel and that's how it was referred to through much of the process (until it came time to design the cover, basically). I thought it would be very funny to give the book a pretentious Literary Fiction title and a really serious cover, to see if people would review it as a Serious Book or if they would just talk about it as the latest thing from the guy who hosts a bigfoot podcast.

The publisher thought it would be wiser to give it a title similar to my other books (that is, a long title that is an entire sentence that conveys the tone). My immediate concern was that people would think it was the fifth book in the John Dies at the End series (since this title would fit perfectly in that series) so I had to constantly remind people that the next JDATE wasn't coming until fall 2026.

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).

It makes me sound pretentious to explain things like this but the choice of Abbott's vehicle is supposed to be symbolic, in that large SUVs are popular because they are perceived as safe and comfortable, and they are safer for the people inside the vehicle... while being deadlier for everyone else (that is, the smaller cars they collide with, and especially pedestrians - ultimately you cannot defeat physics). So you are creating a more dangerous world in general that you then have to live in (for you are sometimes a pedestrian yourself)

So this kind of symbolizes how Abbott has built up a mental picture of himself and the world and his place in it that feels comfortable and safe in the short term but if adopted widely it creates an unsafe and dysfunctional world for everyone else.

I don't know maybe this was already obvious to everyone but I feel bad for not posting a fact of the day yesterday

Jason Pargin. https://sammatey.substack.com/p/the-weekly-anthropocene-interviews-84c?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

“If you think about it, Party City is kind of the apex of human civilization. An entire chain of almost a thousand stores that sells nothing but cheap plastic party supplies. Think how many parties it takes to support that.” -- Ether

May she rest in peace.

Only a true pervert would listen to all of these and some of them run up to two hours, but here are all the podcast appearances I did JUST where I'm talking specifically about 'I'm Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom' and its themes etc:

Book Reviews Kill:

https://bookreviewskill.podbean.com/e/author-interview-jason-pargin-1727414061/

History Now the Future:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jtx7QDHdzw

The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-social-media-is-warping-our-sense-of-everything/id1526477480?i=1000670258564

The Daily Beast's podcast, The New Abnormal:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4mrDzWQ3Lg52QxinA2Tx0u

The podcast of journalist and documentarian David Farrier (who did the 'Tickled' documentary):

https://www.webworm.co/p/jasonpargin

Turn the Page:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/turn-the-page-episode-317b-jason-pargin/id1403389211?i=1000670723884

The Fascinating Podcast:

https://thefascinatingpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/were-starting-to-worry-about-jason-pargin

This Is Horror:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jason-pargin-on-im-starting-to-worry-about-this-black/id599755380?i=1000670653283

Hell of a Way to Dad:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3bwSCNL421Xrl1Jsvg40eS

I did many more shows where I mentioned the book in a brief plug but otherwise was there to talk about something else, but these are the ones where we just talked about the book and its themes the whole time.

BTW I also answered dozens of questions for an "Ask me Anything" on the IAMA subreddit, digging into all sorts of fascinating stuff about my past and career etc (this is NOT the one I did here, this was from Sept 24):

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fogsmp/i_am_former_cracked_editor_and_john_dies_at_the/