'CEO is my blood type': Chilling new novel nails narcissistic tech culture
6 days ago
- #digital-ethics
- #narrative-critique
- #tech-satire
- Elaine Castillo’s 'Moderation' explores the psychological toll of online content moderation through the character Girlie, who deletes violent content for a social media company.
- Pip Finkemeyer’s 'One Story' satirizes tech culture, focusing on Dot van Jensen, a narcissistic CEO who commodifies storytelling and intimacy.
- Dot’s platform, One Story, promises a unified global narrative but reduces complex realities into digestible, marketable content.
- The novel critiques how emotional labor and empathy are exploited in the tech industry, blurring lines between connection and control.
- Finkemeyer uses multiple narrative voices (Dot, Rae, Jon, and employees) to expose the unreliability of mediated storytelling in the digital age.
- The book highlights the dangers of self-mythologizing and the performative nature of modern identity, especially in tech and corporate environments.
- One Story’s satire is both humorous and unsettling, revealing how power and manipulation hide behind polished rhetoric and branding.
- The novel questions ethical living in a culture that monetizes empathy and rewards performance over sincerity.
- Finkemeyer’s work mirrors the exhaustion of digital life, where storytelling becomes both a confession and an advertisement.