Overview

NATIONAL BESTSELLER An open-hearted interrogation of our digital selves, braiding cultural criticism, memoir, and narrative musings into an exploration of identity, girlhood, media, tech, nature and ""finding the depth and beauty in the fucked-up world we live in"" from a writer, artist, and influencer (Phoebe Bridgers). YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY is a deeply human inventory of the digital sphere, a searing analysis of the present and a prescient assessment of the future. In her highly anticipated debut, Aiden Arata brings us raw reportage from the liminal space between online and offline worlds, illuminating how we got here and where to go next. With high-res, cosmic vision and razor-sharp wit, this kaleidoscopic collection of essays artfully explores what it means to exist on the internet. Arata exposes influencer grifts from the perspective of a grifter, digs into the alluring aesthetic numbness of stay-at-home girlfriend content creators, and interrogates our online fetishization of doom to grapple with the real-world apocalypse. Arata is the wry, unexpected voice we need to navigate existing simultaneously as creators, consumers, and products in our increasingly braver and newer world.

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9781538767597

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Arata's shimmering debut not only showcases a unique breadth and depth of thought, but also serves as a roadmap for seeking out beauty in a world that always feels like it's ending.""--Priyanka Mattoo, author of Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones ""I love writers who tell the truth and can tell it to me in a way I've never heard. Aiden does this and has a way of distilling a forty-five-minute existential crisis into a single sentence. Her superpower is being a critic without judgment; somehow finding the depth and beauty in the fucked-up world we live in. She participates in that same world as each of us does, consuming what we all consume, and yet does so with love for both the actual participation and consumption. I've always thought that you need to either be smart or sincere, but Aiden keeps proving me wrong."" --Phoebe Bridgers, singer-songwriter ""I learned so much from this revealing and inquisitive collection of essays--what it means to be a human on the Internet, the art of self-excavation and authenticity in the land of influencer culture, and the ways the past informs our unknown future. Aiden Arata has offered us a brilliant invocation of intimacy with the world and ourselves. You Have a New Memory is an addictive, heart-opening, and darkly humorous work by a bold new voice."" --Chelsea Bieker, bestselling author of Madwoman and Godshot ""Such an addictive and mesmerizing book. Reading You Have a New Memory felt like being at one of those slumber parties I always wished I was invited to. The essays are dishy in the best way, from behind-the-scenes glimpses of influencer life to a cancellation unfolding in real time. But the true heart of this brave and deeply-observed book is in its tenderness. Within its pages you will find love in the apocalypse and hope in the doomscroll."" --Frankie Barnet, author of Mood Swings ""The great charm of YOU HAVE A NEW MEMORY rests in how it coordinates human affairs on galactic scale and geological time. The result feels something like beholding a full moon through a freshly sucked gummy bear, or reading a tweet from the Pope, an uncanny double exposure of registers. Aiden Arata is a high priestess in the temple of context, huffing ceremonial fumes and divining insights from the guts of modern life. And it's funny too!"" --Tony Tulathimutte, award-winning author of Rejection ""In ""You Have a New Memory"" Aiden Arata reports directly from the source, as a living, breathing participant in the creator/consumer samsara, where the stakes have never been higher. Delivered in her signature undulating prose, she knits microscopic observations with the shock of humor, violence and unexpected pathos, resulting in a vivid, hyperreal effect; the kind often reported in psychedelic use where the world is rearranged and seen anew.""--Nada Alic, author of New York Times Editors' Choice Pick Bad Thoughts ""Aiden Arata's You Have a New Memory is a kaleidoscopic portrait of growing up gripped in the fist of the internet age. These essays are tender, curious, and shamelessly smart. Arata understands the painful ache of wanting to be seen-and the price we pay for getting the very thing that we want.""--Isle McElroy, author of People Collide

Author Information

Aiden Arata is a writer and artist whose writing has appeared in publications including BOMB, NYLON, The Rumpus, The Fanzine, Hobart, and others, as well as NDA: An Autofiction Anthology (Archways Editions 2022). Arata's visual and video work has been featured on platforms including Vice, The Cut, Harper's Bazaar, Mashable, and The Washington Post. You Have a New Memory is her first essay collection. She lives in Los Angeles and on the internet as @aidenarata.

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