This critique of woke culture begins with first-person narrator Pearson having to pick up her son Darwin from school after he is suspended for referring to a t-shirt worn by one of his peers as "stupid" - the worst thing you can do in this dystopian world where the so-called Mental Parity Movement has taken hold, everyone is equally clever and discrimination based on intelligence is 'the last great civil rights fight'. As smartphones are rebranded and qualifications are no longer needed to be a doctor, these developments pit Pearson against Emory, her best friend since adolescence who is on the other side of this culture war.
Although this is meant to be fiction it doesn't take the greatest leap of imagination to picture a universe where things like exams and grades are consigned to history - the former was scrapped in the real world during lockdown, for example - and the kind of snitch culture where children are encouraged to shop their parents for using the word stupid - and/or variations on it - seems all too real as well.
Although this is meant to be fiction it doesn't take the greatest leap of imagination to picture a universe where things like exams and grades are consigned to history - the former was scrapped in the real world during lockdown, for example - and the kind of snitch culture where children are encouraged to shop their parents for using the word stupid - and/or variations on it - seems all too real as well.