IEET Fellow Douglas Rushkoff is releasing A.D.D.: Adolescent Demo Division, a gripping graphic novel about a group of elite gamers who are also teen idols, reality TV stars, carefully developed corporate assets… and some things they haven’t been told. Like all the best SF, ADD will tell you much more about the present than any hundred news sites would.
Cory Doctorrow’s review at BoingBoing
Douglas Rushkoff’s ADD: tight, smart graphic novel delivers a scathing critique of the commodification of youth culture
By Cory Doctorow at Tuesday, Jan 10
Douglas Rushkoff’s graphic novel debut, “A.D.D.” (Adolescent Demo Division) is a tight, action-packed comic wrapped around a serious, thought-provoking critique of the commodification of youth culture. The titular ADD is a squad of specially trained young video-game champs who are worshipped as teen idols. But while the lives of the ADD are outwardly full of glamor, and while they get all the video games they can play, they lead lives of intense misery. Hypercompetitive, locked away in a high-security compound, manipulated by the adults around them, the ADD live their lives in anticipation of “levelling up,” a mysterious graduation that takes their best and brightest away to some unknown (but presumably wonderful) next life….Smart and trenchant, ADD was a great great read.