Jack Edwards #2

[3calico3]

Jack on his IG stories:

Stereotypical much... and also no.

 

[Phoebe Weatherfield]

Just watched that video. It was so pretentious it hurt to watch. The suit, the staged shots of him reading in public places, the ordering in French with a smarmy look on his face and of course, he couldn't resist the terrible jokes.

And once again, the hands as he speaks.

Jacques-la-Bibliothecaire is annoying in every single country he visits. And why is he now dressing up like some sort of failed music hall act? Doesn't he have enough actual failure in his life without inventing more? There seems to be no embarrassment threshold that he won't cross.

 

[hollowcrown]

Jack confirmed to be writing for Ali Abdaals book.

 

[gossip_guy]

I just had another go at watching the video, and his reviews are quite literally 'beautiful prose style. Disturbing parts.' Fascinating insight there, Jack.

Also, in the comments he said that he was aiming the video at English speaking readers who (apparently) don't read translated fiction. How does he know this? It's not like translated books come with a warning label on the front 'Caution! Originally written in Russian.'

The pretentious act makes me cringe every single time.

The jokes are getting worse too. 'I feel like I've just eaten an eleven course meal. I need to leave in...two minutes ago for the actual meal I'm going to eat.'

And he's like "You should read translated fiction! I'm looking at you, people who I invented for an excuse to act superior! You might learn about other cultures!" ...and then proceeds to offer zero indication what he learned about other cultures from these books which he didn't read during the week in question, if ever.

With a straight face he proclaims that he's a "literary critic" when there's absolutely no attempt to think critically or use his brain to explore the idea he bases the video around. What did he learn about the culture of the author? How did the book in question differ in form, technique and content from English or American authors working in the same genre? He has none of that to share, even though that's the setup for the video. Dude's brain doesn't work.

He thinks literary criticism is reciting plots synopses and then spouting a list of random adjectives and cover quote clichés. "It's humorous, but also depressing. It's searing, but also icy cold. It's astronomical, yet subterranean." He's also so used to just heaping blind praise on books that he didn't read fully or at all just to be part of the BookTube conversation and desperately cling to relevance, that many times none of it tallies with his final score/option. His review of Heaven: "It's heartbreaking, but so, so endearing...(waffles pretentiously about how deep and thoughtful and wonderful the book is before remembering that he only gave it 3 stars months ago)...It was okay."

His sole complaint is that the book had young characters who Jack decided were too precocious and therefore not believable. There was no consideration that this might be reflective of a cultural difference, with Japanese children being taught independence much earlier and being generally more mature, and discipline being a much more predominant part of the culture.

He also never thought that dialogue might also just be something that got lost in translation, with the translator having to take liberties and fill in blanks for Japanese words and expressions that have no direct equivalent in English. He never considered that this might be intentional on the author's part to convey how quickly the characters were forced to grow up emotionally due to the trauma they've endured.

Or maybe it's just a bad book poorly written and Jack's complaint is valid, but it's impossible to tell given how vague and nebulous all his reviews are. His comments/"reviews" simply approach the books he claimed to read as any old books, without consideration of cultural context or comparison, and Jack approaches them with the mindset that his idea of what literature should be and how characters should act (i.e., like English/American people) is the default, and if they aren't written that way, the book is flawed. Kinda missed the point of your own video, Jack.

 

[Bennycs]

Well, I got about one minute into his new video and had to turn if off after he made about five Timothee based jokes.

Maybe I'm just getting a bit grumpy, but his humour makes me cringe so much. He can't get through an entire thought without making some naff joke.

 

[roy]

“and of course I read them” - nothing like being defensive.

The reference to being a librarian is very arrogant and again pretentious. I don’t know what he thinks he is trying to achieve by portraying himself like this.

I think the quirkiness is all an act, but find it quite unusual that he has listed the top 12 books, rather than say 10 or 21 for 2021.

Does he expect people to be impressed that he is an English graduate? In the workplace (or at least where I’ve been), there are few references to qualifications once people have some experience.

 

[Lola123]

So… it seems like he doesn’t even have a job here? Did he make youtube his full time job? But then why move to France?

Because he’s a dickhead

 

[gossip_guy]

I'm still confused as to the difference between his main channel and side channel -- does anyone have a clue why he has two instead of one? Their content seems roughly the same...

It's quite simple, really: His main channel is for book-related content, while his second channel is for...umm...book-related content.

I've never understood the second channel thing. It's always struck me as a "monkey see, monkey do" influencer thing - they've seen prominent YouTubers do it, so they have to do it, too, even if the content isn't different enough to need relegating to a separate channel. It's very rare that influencers have wildly different content on each of the channels.

All it does is make sure that a large portion of the core audience aren't watching videos they're releasing, because the second channel only ever retains a fraction of the core subscribers.

I also suspect part of it is because he's approaching the limits of how many subscribers he's going to get, so no more accolades unless he just scrapes 1 million subscribers. But with two channels, he gets an additional silver Youtube trophy plaque for steering 100,000 of his existing subscribers to his second channel. It's a hollow ego boost - none of those second channel subscribers are new, so nothing has been accomplished.

 

[3calico3]

I'm starting to think I'm maybe just too much of a old soul trapped in a young(ish) person's body because the way he talks makes it difficult for me to get through one of his videos.

I just watched his Adele video, and the way he says things like 'literally me...' thinking he's all chaotic and quirky, or makes one of his terrible puns really makes me cringe.

Maybe I'm just an old man before my time but I find listening to the way online personalities speak really hard to get through because they can never finish a thought without some rubbish joke or catchphrase.

Once again, the book he claimed to have read was in perfect condition with not a crease in sight.

His videos are always really jarring because of that - it's like he can't spit out one coherent sentence without interrupting himself with *insert 'joke' and zoom-in here*. He probably thinks it makes him all relatable because he knows the lingo of the youth, but it's only funny or quirky when used sparingly, not in every single sentence you say.

 

[wildforwilde]

First time poster here...

At first, Jack seemed to have his own little charm and I found his videos mildly entertaining. However, as I've watched more, I can no longer stomach his egotism, the odd giggles in the middle of sentences, and worst of all -- the relentless, non-convincing lies. He seems to base his entire personality on mimicking other people.

I've just watched his video titled "the best books i've read". The way he felt the need to brag about receiving messages from the cast members is so grotesque and transparent -- does he think this makes him endearing? God.

 

[CatsandKnitting]

How many times can he mention that Hemingway was the reason he moved to Paris?

 

[3calico3]

While I don't particularly like Jack (he's too try hard in most of his videos) I have to hand it to him that he's made a legitimate successful transition from studytube to booktube and probably done the best out of his generation of studytubers (eve, jade, ruby, iz etc) in keeping his audience. His audience and subscriber base definitely helped him get into booktube but in comparison to a lot of youtubers who start making videos about education/when they're in uni, he's adapted his content pretty well.

I agree. Jade went off the deep-end after doing Minerva content (as most of her viewers don't consider it a real university or a relatable experience), and Ruby's obsession with a variety of 'aesthetics' has left most of her original academic audience very bewildered.

 

[Lola123]

at the very least I learned abt money and productivity from ali abdaal
learned nothing from the others lol except how not to behave

Ali is full of shit, middle class man who’s skimmed money out of everything, hired people in other countries so he could paid less. These aren’t people to aspire too, Ali’s productivity is bollocks! He doesn’t properly read anything, he reads the highlights on sponsored apps.

 

[PorkyPuss]

I still love/hate him. If I still find him incredibly attractive, do I need help?

 

[secretalphabets]

He's acting like he invented booktube

 

[LydiaDeetzHat]

This might just be me, but I'm really sick of seeing posh and better off people debating working class issues. These people have no idea what it's like to truly struggle, yet here Jack is appearing on a right-wing channel for bigots like he's the hero we all need.

No, Jack. We don't need you to fight our corner. We need more voices from the people who actually have these struggles, not some posh YouTube personality who's only struggle currently is choosing terrible puns for your videos and the best angle to take a selfie with a croissant and book.

On another note, I saw one of his tiktoks earlier and it was him showing what his favourite book of 2021 was. The caption read 'my favourite book, and I've read 164 of them!' Oh piss off, Tory boy.

I read over 200 and unlike Jack, I read more than the blurb

 

[Phoebe Weatherfield]

In an act of self-harm I have just watched his latest video.

Aside from trying to fit in as many cringeworthy stereotypes as he can about Scotland, he treats us to a conversational cul-de-sac about how he once visited "The Lock Ness Museum". Presumably this is a museum that attracts a lot of footfall from locksmiths? He went to the loo when he was there. Had the story ended with the revelation that the cubicle door got stuck and he couldn't get out, it would have made for an interesting irony. As it is, the story amounts to him just going to the loo.

Perhaps his theme though, is 'sewage'? As we have to endure his baffling précis of an Irvine Welsh novel, which he is shocked contains a bunch of prejudice and profanity. What else did he expect? The prose of Barbara Cartland?

Watching him sit all alone in cafes in his Tommy Trinder suit, desperately trying to wring some romance out of his increasingly lonely and directionless life might have made me feel sorry for him. But then I remembered he's just a "Tory Ponce" (thanks Martha Bartha) and I got over it.

 

[Phoebe Weatherfield]

A couple of years ago he was trying to straddle the fence and saying "All options are good, you have to do what's right for you, but if you vote Labour without researching Tory policies or vice versa, you're an idiot and I have no respect for you."

And if Jack had done the same research as a young student who is supposedly passionate about education, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, racial equality, etc., then he'd have realised that suggesting that suggesting to his audience that voting Tory is an acceptable option in this day and age is just plain wrong. He pretty much confirmed he's a Tory then, as far as I'm concerned.

Of course he's a tory.
(1) he has a huge sense of entitlement - in his Twitter feed he's all about getting his novel published in 2023. That's right, he's going to write it, have no revisions to make, acquire an agent, and get it sold to a publisher who is going to break their neck getting out and marketed within the space of a year. Witness also his applying for his Master's - he only applied to Oxford, because he was so certain they could not refuse him.

(2) everything is all about him - when have we ever seen him taking any interest in the multiple inequalities that exist in society far less take measures to try and address these? Paris has huge social problems (like any big city) but instead, he roams about, taking tourist style photos of himself, and buying books he won't ever read. This is about as divorced from reality as it gets.

(3) he has no urgency at all about getting a job. When most of us finish our degrees, we finish with a shed load of debt, and a sense of urgency that we need to start paying off that debt/making a living. If, of course, you are vastly privileged, there is no such concept as 'money worries'. It isn't even on his radar.

 

[ECH]

Such a minor thing but he's wearing his hood wrong in his graduation picture and it's annoying me

 

[figgypud]

Meanwhile, in a different part of the forest: Jack opens a big box of books that he has acquired and no doubt will never read, in order to impress on everyone just how clever he actually is. (I'm still not buying it!)

You've pinpointed something I hate about studytubers here (and to an extent booktubers but I don't watch many of the big ones) in that they expect praise simply for owning or receiving something. They think that owning something is half the work rather than what they do with what they have. You can own all the books and study materials in the world, but that doesn't buy you a place in, ooh let's pick Oxford as a completely random example.