A lovely, vitriolic Christmas present from my wife. :)
Right now, Charlie Brooker is probably best-known for Black Mirror, which I still haven't watched. However, he's had a long history of writing for the Guardian, reviewing the week's TV and complaining about the idiocy of the world (these two things going fairly close in hand. His writing is, unsurprisingly, angry and world-weary. There's a lot of reviewing Big Brother.
The writing in question was circa 2007, so it's interesting to see how things have changed. He was complaining about the general state of the world, and in particular regularly complaining about the Bush presidency - if only he could have seen where we are now. He'd have been horrified and not terribly surprised. Indeed, the version of Charlie Brooker who didn't time travel and took the long route from 2007 to now seems to be horrified and not terribly surprised.
Seeing all those extended similes of hatred together is a little wearing, but you also see the patterns of his personality, and occasional surprises. He's a fan of Doctor Who, but generally disappointed by sci-fi which doesn't challenge - cue Black Mirror, I guess. And he went to Glastonbury with an ex-Big Brother contestant who became his friend. Strange world.
Posted 2017-02-07.