I don't think that we are hardwired or naturally suited to dealing with the tremendous

amount of feedback that our current internet age affords us.

I don't think anybody's brain has the capacity to deal

with thousands and thousands of reviews of your own work. At some point it's just

it's so much noise. There is no way to helpfully sift through all of that and if you're already

anticipating what the shape of the review looks like before you've even written the manuscript,

then of course your work is going to be diluted and weak and uninteresting.

You will inevitably offend some people if you're writing anything of any values.

So I think there are enough young writers who have this attitude that literature isn't dead,

but of course it's a pressure and a danger to literature that I don't think existed in the Victorian era where Charles Dickens could just throw fan mail unread into the

fire. I'm John Favreau. Welcome to offline.

Hey everyone, you just offline. I shared with her about her novel Yellowface, a psychological thriller that tells the story of a white writer who steals an unfinished manuscript from her recently deceased Chinese American friend and passes it off as her own. The book tackles questions of cultural appropriation and

representation in the publishing industry, but a lot of the story takes place on social media.

With the internet fame it promises, the reputations it destroys, and the nuanced debate it flattens. It's basically a perfect

offline book and I invited her on to unpack all the questions it raises. But first

Max and I are back in studio.

John, welcome back buddy.

So great to have you back here.

Is it good to be back?

I guess the tone there was like, was I sent, was I

was I sarcastic was I was

asking asking me if it's good for you to be or are you asking me if it's good for you

...