#we had to remove this post

[whilereadingandwalking]

Around 25 million people around the world speak Dutch as their first language—in Netherlands, but also in countries that suffered from Dutch imperialism and exploitation, such as the Republic of Suriname and Indonesia. I found so many books hard to find—particularly from Dutch-Indonesian authors—but still found some incredible recommendations for you all in translation.

Favorites? Probably historical fiction The House of the Mosque by Kader Abdolah, translated by Susan Massotty, and the eerie, edgy queer novella We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets, translated by Emma Rault. Reviews to come, but for now, check out the full list over at Book Riot!

#books in translation #translated literature #bookworm #bookish love #books on books #we had to remove this post #the house of the mosque

[the-final-sentence]

Look, there I was, in Nona’s bedroom, by the window, her portrait, her hollow cheeks and pale teenage wrists next to my face, and I remember thinking: What the hell am I doing?

Hanna Bervoets, from We Had to Remove This Post

#lit #prose #submission #We Had to Remove This Post #Hanna Bervoets

[amartgasaurus]

Artistic interpretation of the ending scene in We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

#had to do this for class and its experimental but it was fun #we had to remove this post #fanart #eye horror #comic #art #?@?@?@

[ceaselesslyborne]

#we had to remove this post #hanna bervoets #book quote #bookworm #booklr #currently reading #cj goes to the library #quote #quotes #words

[thefiresofpompeii]

that book was genuinely harrowing and all my favourite themes recently i love talking about the normalisation of voyeurism through visual media i love phonebad i love the dissection of the impact of internet culture on the human brain and how easily even innocuous opinions are radicalised i mean i obviously don’t love it but i love the discussion of it i love the normalised queerness of the protags without shying away from mentions of bigotry i love the descriptions like a door creaked in a way that if it hadn’t been a door would have been the sound of indignation or surprise i love the minuscule details the door to the office block that the security guard locks with a key as small as those for teenagers’ secret diaries i love the final scene the way the realisation dawns on kayleigh that she just broke into someone’s home the way the photos of nona morgan lindell lined up the wall of the staircase gradually become more posed and facetious until they cease entirely and give way to empty spaces with an almost somber silence . hanna bervoets owe you my life

#we had to remove this post #lit #almost incomprehensible book reviews? get a goodreads damn #jeddie.txt

[straydog733]

Reading Resolution: “We Had to Remove This Post” by Hanna Bervoets

27. Wild Card: We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

List Progress: 11/30

On any social media site, or truly any website that accepts user submissions, there is a team of people working behind the scenes to keep some basic rules in place. The anonymity and sheer volume of the internet can bring out the worst in people, and professional content moderators spend their days wading through hate speech, pornography, spam, abuse and violence. Moderation cannot and should not be left entirely to machines and algorithms, but what about the impact on the moderators themselves? We Had to Remove This Post, the 2021 novel by Dutch author Hanna Bervoets, follows one such moderator, Kayleigh, as she reflects on what working at the moderating company Hexa did to her, her friends, and her relationships. It is a bracing, disturbing, sometimes unpleasant read, and if the book were much longer than its novella length, it would be too much. But for a story about the very concept of “too much”, this book is just the right amount.

We Had to Remove This Post is framed as Kayleigh’s tell-all, her interview with a lawyer to explain why she won’t join her former coworkers’ lawsuit against Hexa for unsafe work environments. Kayleigh knows that working at Hexa damaged her, but she also sees her own actions as shameful enough that she won’t publicly take a stand against them. Because Kayleigh started a relationship with her coworker Sigrid fairly soon into her tenure at the company, and with the combination of a toxic relationship dynamic and the trash they pumped into their brains every day, they brought out the absolute worst in each other. Sigrid starts to see the appeal of the conspiracy-theory videos they have to watch for content violations, and Kayleigh starts to crave the rush and revulsion of seeing incredibly depraved acts in a constant stream. They both think they are handling things better than the other and don’t see the rabbit holes they’ve gone down. Their whole job as moderators is to evaluate things from the outside, so of course they are better at that than the introspection to see their own actions. It’s a canny dynamic that Bervoets sets up, one that is easy to get sucked into.

This book is not for the faint of heart. Slurs, hate-speech, racism, descriptions of violence, self-harm, animal abuse and child abuse are all to be found in this short page count, and no one would be wrong to decide that it is too unpleasant of a matter to engage with in their media. But for everyone on the internet, there are people working day and night to make sure that you don’t have to engage with it, and Bervoets does powerful work highlighting that. While Remove this Post is a work of fiction, it is based explicitly on several real sources, including lawsuits that content moderators have brought against companies like Facebook. It’s a rough job, and someone does have to do it, but those people deserve all the support they can get.

Would I Recommend It: Yes, with the large caveat that the reader be comfortable with the content mentioned above.

#straydog's reading resolution #we had to remove this post #hanna bervoets

[unfocusedcuriosity]

The bond between me, iced coffee (with a straw) and books/writing is unbreakable.

#the poppy war #scythe book #the witchery #we had to remove this post #hanna bervoets #iced coffee #kindle #bookaddict #books and reading #writing

[maester-of-spreadsheets]

I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew what I was doing, and I was pretty damn good at it. I still remember all the rules from back then and I still apply them sometimes, it happens automatically, an occupational hazard—whether it’s TV shows, video clips, or just things I see in my everyday life. That woman getting knocked off her scooter—can you put that up online? Not if you can see blood. If the situation is clearly comical, then yes. If there’s sadism involved, no. If what’s being shown serves an educational purpose, yes, and ding ding ding, we have a winner, because that exit to the museum parking lot is a hot mess

We Had to Remove This Post - Hanna Bervoets

#this book is essentially about Facebook content moderators #but I’m like … Hanna Bervoets! how did you know what my internal landscape is like! #when I’m coding truly wretched data! #we had to remove this post #Hanna Bervoets

[lestatanic]

the urge to watch/read media with disturbing content even tho I know it’ll upset me…..

#first it was with antichrist by lars von trier #now it’s fucking we had to remove this post #I WANNA READ IT BUT I DONT WANNA HAVE TO WASH MY BRAIN #books #we had to remove this post #movies #book review #movie review

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Review: We Had To Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

I am always interested in books that are a little experimental or that have something unique to say on the way that we live. Translated from Dutch by Emma Rault, that’s exactly what this tiny little slip of a book promised but I’m afraid that I think my expectations were slightly too high.

Kayleigh needs money, which is why she takes the job as a content moderator at a social media giant. Her job is to review violent and disturbing content and decide whether to remove it, all while being watched and assessed by the company itself. But the job gives her a set of new friends and even a girlfriend, Sigrid and it doesn’t seem such a bad thing. However, the pressure and nature of their work eventually takes its toll on her co-workers, changing their thought patterns and behaviours to reflect the very horrors that they’re tasked with deleting. 

The book touches on the hypocrisy that is rife on the internet. The rules for what content is allowed and what isn’t appears so random at times and of course, there are far more rules for women and minorities than there are for straight, white men. It’s an issue that many people have tried to rally against for years and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to show any signs of changing.

One of the scariest things that this book reminded me of is that the awful behaviour displayed in the content that Kayleigh reviews is carried out by real people. The people in the videos are real humans and these events really happened. With that knowledge, I can see how deeply affecting watching this kind of content all day every day can severely disturb anyone, let alone someone who is already disturbed. I think this was the message that the author was trying to send -that harmful online content can have a very real, very damaging effect on anyone who views it.

We Had To Remove This Post was an interesting read but it ended far too quickly and abruptly for me. I even wondered if my copy was missing a chapter or two because I was just cut off right in the middle of an intensely dark scene. Sadly, I think my confusion at being dropped so unexpectedly took away some of the impact that I was supposed to get from the ending but I still enjoyed the drama and social commentary that the book provided.

#we had to remove this post #hanna bervoets #contemporary fiction #book review #review #books #bookworm

[incalculablepower]

#we had to remove this post #hanna bervoets

[lilbrubby]

Currently listening to “We had to Remove this Post” still not sure why so many people on BookTok were so shocked by it. It still seems pretty tame

#brubby archives #brubby reads #we had to remove this post #Hanna bervoets

[magicalgirlmutual]

calling all hot, mysterious book girls

i want to read more this summer and i need book recs. i wanna get into more surreal, psychological thriller type stuff. just recently finished “A Touch of Jen” and LOVEDD it + i really liked “We Had To Remove This Post” when i read it a while ago

so if you know of any books with similar vibes pls help me get a nice little list goin

#bookblr #book recommendations #a touch of jen #we had to remove this post #horror novels #thriller books

[thehappyscavenger]

Books Read in February 2024

The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt

I love DeWitt. A sharp novella, that is perfect for what it is.

In the Distance by Hernan Diaz

I loved Trust but this was... a miserable claustrophobic masterpiece. Unrelentingly grim, even for me.

We Had to Remove This Post by Hanna Bervoets

I read a non fiction essay on the human workers who monitor social media circa 2019 and thought it sounded like hell on Earth. Seems like Bervoets read the same one and decided to fictionalize it. IDK it has nowhere near the impact of the verge essay.

Irregulars by Kerry Trautman

A clever... novella? Linked stories? About a diner waitress getting a little too burned out by her job and the inner lives of the people she's serving.

Street Fight by Janette Sadik-Khan and Seth Solomonow

I've been getting into urbanism lately and this was a decent primer written from the POV of Sadik-Khan as a kind of overview of her major projects when she was the transportation minister of NYC. I can see how her projects and innovations tricked down to my city over the last 10 years.

The Virginity of Famous Men by Christine Sneed

I always say I love short stories but I certainly read more novels than short story collections. I picked this up at random and didn't think I would like it and ended up loving it. Sneed writes with prescision about the complicated relationships between people. Please to find she has two other short story collections (a rarity for straight lit writers nowadays). I plan to track them down and read them all.

#currently reading #The English Understand Wool #Helen DeWitt #In the Distance #Hernan Diaz #We Had to Remove This Post #Hanna Bervoets #Irregulars #Kerry Trautman #Street Fight #Janette Sadik Khan #Seth Solomonow #The Virginity of Famous Men #Christine Sneed

[ceaselesslyborne]

#we had to remove this post #hanna bervoets #cj goes to the library #book quote #bookworm #booklr #quotes #quote #words #currently reading

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

#writeblr #warm up #this is longer than i wanted i really considered removing that part about myself and what i went thru #but i think it really fucking bothers me that EVERY time i talk about being an artist #ppl assume i just like. had the skill and ability to drop everything and pay for grad school. #like sir i grew up poor. my house wasn't a safe space. i gave up a FREE RIDE TO LAW SCHOOL. for THIS. bc i chose it. #was it fucking hard? was i choosing the hard thing?? yes. #but we need to stop seeing artists as lazy layabouts that can ''afford'' to just ''sit around and create'' #when MANY - if not MOST - of us are NOT like that. we have to work our fucking ASSES off. hard work. long and hard work #part of valuing artists is recognizing the amount we sacrifice to make our art. bc it doesn't just #like HAPPEN to us. also btw it rarely has anything to do with true talent. #speaking as someone with a chronic condition i hate when ppl are like u have it easy. like actively as i'm writing this my hands r #ACTIVELY hurting me. i haven't been posting bc my left hand was curled in a claw for the last week #this isn't fucking luck. after a certain point it's not even TALENT. it's dedication & sacrifice. #''u get to flounce around and do nothing with ur life'' is a narrative that is a direct result of capitalism #imagine if we said that about literally any other profession. #''oh so u give up 10 yrs of ur life to be a doctor? u sacrifice having a social life and u get SUPER in debt? #u need to work countless hours and it will often be thankless? well i wish i was that lucky'' #we should be applying that logic to landlords ONLY #''oh ur mom and dad gave u the money to buy a house? and all u did was paint it white and rent it? huh.''