Taking a poke at online culture
In a world where success isn’t just about money or self-actualization, but how many people watch you enjoy it on Instagram, Sarah Selecky’s novel, Radiant Shimmering Light, is the literary equivalent of zooming out from the perfectly lit avocado toast sitting on a charming window sill to the dank, cramped apartment that your favourite lifestyle blogger actually lives in.
Selecky is a Picton, Ont.-based author, who has written for the Walrus, the New Quarterly and Geist, and runs a writing school. This Cake Is for the Party, her debut 2010 collection of short stories, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Her latest work is about Lillian Quick, a 40-year-old pet portraitist in Toronto, who uses her unusual ability to see animal auras to paint breathtaking watercolours. While it’s her passion, she’s flat broke and lonely. Social media is where she finds community, but it’s also a tick she can’t seem to control — when she cuts her painting hand badly, one of her first thoughts is what an edgy Insta photo her blood-stained floor would make. Aphorisms from lifestyle bloggers and inspirational gurus whose soothing tones she parrots in her own newsletter keep her motivated. So when her long-estranged cousin, Eleven Novak, a popular name on the empowerment circuit, takes Lillian under her wing and whisks her off to work at Manhattan headquarters for inspo and affiliate sales, it feels like an unreal manifestation of everything she needed. While working for her cousin, Lillian enters the Ascendancy, a three-month program that Eleven runs to awaken women’s highest selves. (and teach them a thing or two about marketing). While seemingly enveloped in love, light and crystals, Lillian is forced to learn some lessons about the business of empowerment and who to trust.
Selecky pokes fun at the culture of online empowerment that attracts women in particular — that strange mix of spirituality, philosophy and selfhelp with a healthy dash of capitalism — without mocking or dismissing it. Her main character is painfully earnest and, through her, she communicates that what might look like a pyramid scheme to some can feel deeply genuine to those looking for meaningful connection. That community and alienation live snugly beside one another in the age of online communities is often felt acutely by creatives, who feel more pressure than ever in the age of personal branding via social media, where it can seem as if the number of Twitter followers you have are tantamount to talent. And you get the feeling it comes from personal experience — Selecky runs a blog and newsletter for her writing school, and her Instagram is full of snaps of fresh flowers and steaming cups of tea beside her latest read.
Selecky’s work is smart and subtle. But there were areas I wanted more: for instance, a deeper read into how Lillian’s ideas around self-actualization were changing — the character seemed a little too uncritical to be believable. But maybe that’s the point, that it’s sometimes easier to skim the surface of your real problems while doing a deep dive in your Insta feed.