Telling the story onstage, he realized that the experience was common among people of his generation. The book opens by explaining what inspired the project: a fling of Ansari’s that ended in inexplicable radio silence, and bewilderment, when his text messages went unanswered. Written in collaboration with Eric Klinenberg, a professor of sociology at New York University and the author of “Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone,” “ Modern Romance” is equal parts cultural investigation, self-help treatise, and celebrity memoir, its various statistical findings illustrated by graphs and tables and leavened with jokes.
Since his first major tour, released on DVD in 2010 as “Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening,” Ansari’s material has often charted the dating struggles of youngish singles his most recent standup special, “Live at Madison Square Garden,” focussed more intently on the role of technology and social media in everything from casual hookups to long-term breakups.Īnd now “the many challenges of looking for love in the digital age,” as Ansari puts it, are the subject of his first book. That experience-the anxiety, the incredulousness, the botched messaging-felt like the setup to an Ansari bit, one whose payoff might feature him gawking bug-eyed at his iPhone while the grateful laughter of self-recognition thundered all around. But was I really so dull as not to warrant a couple of claps? (I can only imagine her terror that I might have broken into a standing ovation.) It was reassuring to know that she, too, didn’t think we were soul mates. His survey included the question “Who here has recently met someone they’re excited about?” While hands tapped around us, I waited to see if my date would join in when she didn’t, I was both relieved and hurt. But she’d been a fan of Ansari since his early days at the Upright Citizens Brigade, and I’d gotten free tickets.Īt one point during the show, Ansari began polling the audience, by show of applause, about our romantic lives. It was the third time I had gone out with this person, and while we got along pretty well, it seemed clear that things weren’t headed for love or marriage. In 2013, I went on a date to see Aziz Ansari on tour. Aziz Ansari, in his most recent special, claims that, due to social media, “we’re part of the least lonely generation.” Photograph by John Lamparski/WireImage/Getty
0 kommentar(er)
