TORONTO – Toronto’s literary elite flocked to the Gladstone Hotel last night to attend a reading by up-and- coming writer Joanna McKinley, author of the groundbreaking essay, “Why would he comment on my post but not like it?”.
Critics are calling McKinley the “voice of a generation” for her harrowing yet poetic rumination on injustices committed against the author on social media. The title of the essay refers to a photo of the author eating a slice of pizza and a comment from an ex-boyfriend that read “looks good”, but did not include an accompanying “like” of the photo.
“These last few days have been really trying, you know?” said McKinley. “I tend to shy away from such raw, personal subject matter when I write. But I thought, you know what? People can relate to my experience. They deserve to know they’re not alone.”
“This essay really taps into that world of unfathomable injustices one experiences on social media,” said literary critic Marsha Overling. “Like when someone tags everyone in a picture but you; or when someone ‘likes’ someone else’s birthday wish to you but doesn’t wish you a happy birthday. Why do we subject each other to these tortures?”
McKinley reflected on the audience response to the reading later that night saying, “I appreciated the comments I received, but why would they not applaud more loudly?”
With files from Emma Overton
