Frontpage Mag
A new — highly praised — novel provides tips.
I was listening to WNYC, a National Public Radio affiliate in New York City. The station is so left it’s a safe assumption that the break room includes a shrine to Joseph Stalin. A host read the opening sentences of a novel that is inspiring swoons of joy from elites. “The men were outside my building: four of them, ruddy, dressed in camouflage shorts. Hooded sweatshirts bulging over their bellies. They were hairy and amphibian-eyed, their skin Styrofoam white, banana-thick fingers waving homemade signs.” Wow, I thought. That is hate and that is stereotyping. It goes without saying that WNYC would never so breathlessly celebrate, embrace, and advance a book peddling hate against black men or Asian women or fat people. No. Woke loves its hate, as long as that hate is for the party-approved victim.
The book under discussion was The Atmospherians, by Alex McElroy, a.k.a. Isle McElroy. McElroy identifies as “nonbinary.” Online, the words “they/them” immediately follow initial mention of his name. This new convention is a totalitarian attempt to dictate participation in a denial of objective reality. In YouTube videos, (here and here), though he wears a dress, long hair, eye makeup, and lipstick, McElroy exhibits the deep voice and large hands of a movie-star-handsome literary golden boy. He also gives every sign of being just one person; thus, his insistence on “they” denies objective reality.
The Atmospherians, a May, 2021 release by Atria Books, a subdivision of Simon and Schuster, has been praised by The New York Times, the Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, Vanity Fair, Oprah, Esquire, and many bestselling authors. Raves include: “the novel of our age,” “darkly perceptive,” “breathtaking,” “rich prose and haunting images,” “edgy, addictive, gruesome, and smart,” “trenchant commentary,” “uncanny,” “a book to be devoured,” “darkly funny and glitteringly satirical,” and “every page contains a new wonder, another breathtaking surprise. This novel satisfies a hunger you might have never even realized was there.” McElroy himself has received several foundation awards to support his writing. His previous book was entitled Daddy Issues.
