Y2K

Books

What was the Y2K Era and why are we still living in its shadow? THE EARLY 2000s were marked by a sense of both unbridled optimism and existential dread. It was a new millennium and the future had no limits. Technology was fun. For many it felt like the end of history; we solved all the big problems. No more wars, no more racism, no more sexism. But then history kept happening. In Y2K, one of our most brilliant young essayists Colette Shade offers a darkly funny meditation on everything from the pop culture to the political economy of the period. By zooming in on Y2K cultural artifacts like inflatable furniture, Starbucks, TRL, the rise of internet porn, and the collapse of the housing market, Shade produces an affectionate yet searing critique of an era that started with a boom and ended with a crash. In one essay Colette unpacks how hearing Ludacris's hit song "What's Your Fantasy" shaped the course of a generation's sexual awakening; in another she interrogates how her eating disorder developed as ...