"OOF" by Strobe Witherspoon

If you’ve ever wondered what an “OOF” is, it’s the acronym for “online outrage fiesta.” It’s also the title of a new novel by Strobe Witherspoon, whose main character is – a writer named Strobe Witherspoon. 

Witherspoon has landed a contract for a novel by a fictional former first lady (FLOTUS) who has written a memoir. She is originally from an Eastern European country, emigrated to the United States for her modeling career, eventually brought her parents over, and married a wealthy tycoon-type of businessman who unexpectedly became President of the United States. Not that there’s any similarity to people living or dead, of course.

 

The online world, both haters and supporters of the former president, get wind of the memoir’s existence and the bidding war from publishers. Outrage ensues (you know the kind of outrage – what has dominated Facebook, Twitter, and other social media from 2016 to 2020) The story that unfolds in an exercise in understanding how cancel culture from both ends of the political spectrum operates. 

 

What OOF does, and does remarkably well, is describe that cancel culture in all its permutations, including how mainstream media play their roles is ensuring cancel culture continues and thrives. The author does this through a creative narrative device – using articles, reports, studies, tweets, blog posts, email newsletters, and other kinds of communications. And what he nails is both The New York Times and The New Yorker, among several others, with chapters that sound as if they written by the publications themselves. 

 

What this story shows is just how close society is sailing to individual and mass violence, aided and abetted by our communication-soaked culture.

 

Witherspoon’s first novel was furtl (2014), which was selected as a book of the year by Kirkus Reviews. While Strobe Witherspoon is more than highly likely a pseudonym, the author can be found on Facebook, Medium, and Instagram as @strobewitherspoon and on Twitter as @strobewither.

 

 OOF is a riot of a read, with “riot” meaning both funny and disturbing, occasionally terrifying. It holds up a mirror to our culture and our institutions, and none of them, and none of us, look good in the reflection.