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Welcome to Hell
"When the fantasy is all that’s left, the impulse is to get lost in it. You want to forget that you’re an arm above the water and your legs are giving out." Modernity is Hell. It's a sentiment shared by many people, even if they aren't honest enough to admit it. But what is Hell? Hell is the impermanence of identity, the death of authenticity, the absence of love. It's the unsettling nothing you feel as you amble to work and back, numbingly consuming pop culture pleasures, sleepwalking your way through dead-end sexual encounters. Hell is the void, the death of God, the blurring of reality and fantasy, your own consciousness lost in the stew. Welcome to Hell is a clear-eyed, touching examination of the world we live in. Equal parts memoir, cultural critique, meditation, and lament, "Bad" Billy Pratt's literary debut traces a poignant line through his failed relationships and other life experiences, painting a stark picture of the abyss that we've been condemned to. "Billy Pratt wanders and wonders through the ruins of what is left of our civilization and provides poolside musings on the façade of what passes for human relationships in our atomized present day. With more than a helping of melancholy and longing for things which are now past, Pratt writes in the mold of Delicious Tacos midway through an existential crisis. Enjoy these Despairing Tacos." — Mencius Moldbugman, contributor to Ending The Many Fates of Donald Trump "This collection is, as they say, a mood; an elegy for lost Americana, a memory of a place you've never been. If seduction is getting lost in the incomparable alienage of the other, and writing is teasing out the universal from the particular, then Billy tries to capture a universal sense of feeling lost. You will be able to see how much he cares." — Zero HP Lovecraft, author of The Gig Economy and God-Shaped Hole
- GenresPhilosophy
190 pages, Paperback
Published June 11, 2021
43 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 13, 2023
Someone joked that hell is being Sartre; when actually it’s being de Beauvoir. Bienvenue dans l’enfer.
Just as we seek to fill our fundamental lack through socio-sexual relationships, we often project our lack into my the literature or media we consume. My eye is twitching as I write this. Pratt is the technically-gifted, outcast Mustaine to Delicious Tacos’ bestselling, stadium-filling Hetfield. Don’t fall prey to the either assumption that either of them are bragging; they’re not. They know just as well as Hetfield that beauty, money and sex are not solely adornments of this life but rather glistening gems that cave in and turn putrid when you touch them. Pratt addresses the reader knowing - or hoping - that he will feel the same, that he will indulge and wallow in the same joy of the true misanthrope or gynophobe. The joy of hating the person who professes love for you and punishing them for the sin of care. The joy of sleeping early and 8-hour weight-vest walks. The sin of Netflix and the joy of herbal tea.
What is the point of reading an indictment against the modern world? In Pratt’s worldview, it’s not for the sake of a great return to the past, a golden age of the nuclear family and smoking in bars. Nor is it for riding the tiger of modernity and enjoying the decline. It’s about the radical acceptance that someone achieves when diagnosed with stage-four leukaemia, but on the societal plane. It’s about believing in God even when he has forsaken you to a life of spreadsheets and office parties. Pratt writes that ‘faith is having belief despite insurmountable energy urging towards disbelief. Faith is a challenge; faith is a choice.’ To have faith in an age of HBO and Hinge may just be a great act of faith then.
Just as we seek to fill our fundamental lack through socio-sexual relationships, we often project our lack into my the literature or media we consume. My eye is twitching as I write this. Pratt is the technically-gifted, outcast Mustaine to Delicious Tacos’ bestselling, stadium-filling Hetfield. Don’t fall prey to the either assumption that either of them are bragging; they’re not. They know just as well as Hetfield that beauty, money and sex are not solely adornments of this life but rather glistening gems that cave in and turn putrid when you touch them. Pratt addresses the reader knowing - or hoping - that he will feel the same, that he will indulge and wallow in the same joy of the true misanthrope or gynophobe. The joy of hating the person who professes love for you and punishing them for the sin of care. The joy of sleeping early and 8-hour weight-vest walks. The sin of Netflix and the joy of herbal tea.
What is the point of reading an indictment against the modern world? In Pratt’s worldview, it’s not for the sake of a great return to the past, a golden age of the nuclear family and smoking in bars. Nor is it for riding the tiger of modernity and enjoying the decline. It’s about the radical acceptance that someone achieves when diagnosed with stage-four leukaemia, but on the societal plane. It’s about believing in God even when he has forsaken you to a life of spreadsheets and office parties. Pratt writes that ‘faith is having belief despite insurmountable energy urging towards disbelief. Faith is a challenge; faith is a choice.’ To have faith in an age of HBO and Hinge may just be a great act of faith then.
July 1, 2024
For someone who claims to hate small talk and wants to discuss ideas, why is the book almost entirely the former and almost none of the latter? The author does make more substantive entries towards the end of the book but gets in his own way. Maybe it’s just a random assortment of blog entries but it’s not worth it to track down and verify.
August 17, 2021
Beauty means nothing in Hell
Billy is definitely NOT just like Delicious Tacos :)
I was able to build a pretty long "to-watch" list while reading this one. This book is just another red pill to keep you sane.
Billy is definitely NOT just like Delicious Tacos :)
I was able to build a pretty long "to-watch" list while reading this one. This book is just another red pill to keep you sane.
July 6, 2021
If the phrase "Delicious Tacos" sounds like a good lunch, and not a pseudonymous author - you might want to check out DT's writing before considering this book. The artwork is done by the same artist who designed DT's book "The Pussy". That book is mentioned in this book as a big influence on the author. There's a chapter/story entitled "You're Just Like Delicious Tacos!" Since I read this on the kindle app, I did a search for "Delicious Tacos", and found 20 results (none of them food-related.)
All this makes it pretty hard to avoid comparing this collection of short stories/essays to the collections of DT. However, while the influence is easy to spot, "Bad" Billy Pratt does have enough of his own style to differentiate him from his main influence. While both DT and BBP both write about the modern dating scene (especially dating/hookup apps) in a very non-PC way, BBP is nowhere near the sheer horniness/vulgarity of Taco's stuff. BBP has a bit more of a philosophical bent to him, and in this collection he seems to be exploring the concept of "authenticity". I enjoyed both of DT's short-story collections, but had to read them over a long period of time or I'd begin to find them repetitive. In contrast, I tore through this collection way too fast. Also appreciated the numerous references to videogames/music.
Both DT and BBP have plenty of stuff that you can read online (Both have websites, and their books are pretty much collections of their posts on them), so you can judge for yourself if it's something you want to read.
All this makes it pretty hard to avoid comparing this collection of short stories/essays to the collections of DT. However, while the influence is easy to spot, "Bad" Billy Pratt does have enough of his own style to differentiate him from his main influence. While both DT and BBP both write about the modern dating scene (especially dating/hookup apps) in a very non-PC way, BBP is nowhere near the sheer horniness/vulgarity of Taco's stuff. BBP has a bit more of a philosophical bent to him, and in this collection he seems to be exploring the concept of "authenticity". I enjoyed both of DT's short-story collections, but had to read them over a long period of time or I'd begin to find them repetitive. In contrast, I tore through this collection way too fast. Also appreciated the numerous references to videogames/music.
Both DT and BBP have plenty of stuff that you can read online (Both have websites, and their books are pretty much collections of their posts on them), so you can judge for yourself if it's something you want to read.
June 6, 2022
30-40 autobiographical short essays about the authors experiences, which end up mostly focusing on romantic relationships / casual sex with women. The essays are well written. He does like to jump between two or three different topics (typically something about music or the writing process) within any given essay. Despite the jumping around, the points he makes on any given topic are cogent and sometimes insightful and impactful.
About one third of the way through the book, I found myself saying "Oh look, another story about casual sex." I was pretty disappointed at that point by the lack of range. The book actually gets a bit better at the end where the focus moves away from causal sex (though still present) and more towards e-fame, writing, and getting compared to another famous Twitter author.
A better version of this is "Straight to Hell" by John LeFevre. The stories are bigger, more exotic, and more variety in the tale of sins (greed, pride, gluttony, lust).
Maybe if there had been some essays with a genuine repentance arc (whether real or fake, the author confesses to believing in God) or more variety in the main focus of essays (such as more cultural critiques like what is found in the end notes re: Star Wars), I think that would have been a better book.
About one third of the way through the book, I found myself saying "Oh look, another story about casual sex." I was pretty disappointed at that point by the lack of range. The book actually gets a bit better at the end where the focus moves away from causal sex (though still present) and more towards e-fame, writing, and getting compared to another famous Twitter author.
A better version of this is "Straight to Hell" by John LeFevre. The stories are bigger, more exotic, and more variety in the tale of sins (greed, pride, gluttony, lust).
Maybe if there had been some essays with a genuine repentance arc (whether real or fake, the author confesses to believing in God) or more variety in the main focus of essays (such as more cultural critiques like what is found in the end notes re: Star Wars), I think that would have been a better book.
July 17, 2022
Essays by an unrepentant townie getting laid. Like any other addiction, it never makes him happy.
11/10 footnotes. Some of his footnotes are pages long mini essays that eclipse the essay they're noting. Some of the footnotes have footnotes. For real, I love these footnotes.
11/10 footnotes. Some of his footnotes are pages long mini essays that eclipse the essay they're noting. Some of the footnotes have footnotes. For real, I love these footnotes.
March 28, 2025
2025-03-27: 4 chapters in
i loved somebody's review of the book. and said why not. the cover on the kindle is so much better than the cover in color. weird.
i don't know why i was expecting stories. and these are, i don't know what they are. probably vignettes would be the tech term. these are self-centered blog posts.
the women caught my attention. they are lifeless mannequins in an abandoned mall. a woman who hates women would say those things about them. and, yea, a convinced heterosexual woman would be so uninterested in those women. but, shouldn't a woman be aware women are human? shouldn't a woman be able to describe the woman? so yea, the writer is not a woman. maybe the sexless way in which women are presented comes from a gay man. but a gay man usually is more sensitive, more aestetic. nope. it sure sounds like a castrated slob who got luck a couple of times. the rest is what he heard others preach.
i have lost hope, but i will go on a few chapters. so far it looks like the ass doing the writing is what the academia thought of Charles Bukowski.
i loved somebody's review of the book. and said why not. the cover on the kindle is so much better than the cover in color. weird.
i don't know why i was expecting stories. and these are, i don't know what they are. probably vignettes would be the tech term. these are self-centered blog posts.
the women caught my attention. they are lifeless mannequins in an abandoned mall. a woman who hates women would say those things about them. and, yea, a convinced heterosexual woman would be so uninterested in those women. but, shouldn't a woman be aware women are human? shouldn't a woman be able to describe the woman? so yea, the writer is not a woman. maybe the sexless way in which women are presented comes from a gay man. but a gay man usually is more sensitive, more aestetic. nope. it sure sounds like a castrated slob who got luck a couple of times. the rest is what he heard others preach.
i have lost hope, but i will go on a few chapters. so far it looks like the ass doing the writing is what the academia thought of Charles Bukowski.
October 21, 2024
The book can be shortened to "life sucks and so do i". It's suiting for Americana as its elegy, showing its shallowness, perversity and degeneracy, you need to read just one, two, three stories in it for that. The act of writing more looks like a bragging by the author that in the spiritual syphilis, at least he can get laid. The story summarizing and explaining all is "the integrity move" where the author rejected one woman because of delusions he had and instead of calling it "mistake", "failure" he says that it's integrity move. Book by a bug man about life of a bug, belongs to the trash with Delicious Tacos and other low lifes. Brag about worm-crawling around a mountain in Tibet, smelling the blood of Tatbir or striving to be on the moon or become another Alexander.
September 14, 2021
Beware. I was given to believe this book would make me a real man. Turns out the author is trans. She hates her life because she wasn’t born a 20-year-old sorority girl. I don’t know why she decided to publish under her dead name. But I think that’s super-duper brave. Here’s a tragic case of nominative determinism. The prose is bad, you might say bilious, and the author is a prat. That’s an incompetent, stupid, or foolish person; an idiot. Buttocks. Harsh, but I have a cock and balls between my legs, so.
August 5, 2021
Welcome to hell indeed
Be normal. Get used to it. An endless stream of meaningless hookups, or maybe he’s just bragging. Consume. Reminisce, day dream. And each day get older and more decrepit as possibilities diminish. Now I too am a bit depressed. The implied question never directly asked is, ‘what else is there’. If the answer is, ‘well nothing’ Then better get a bucket, or maybe a shovel. Probably best not to read this if you are already suicidally depressed.
Be normal. Get used to it. An endless stream of meaningless hookups, or maybe he’s just bragging. Consume. Reminisce, day dream. And each day get older and more decrepit as possibilities diminish. Now I too am a bit depressed. The implied question never directly asked is, ‘what else is there’. If the answer is, ‘well nothing’ Then better get a bucket, or maybe a shovel. Probably best not to read this if you are already suicidally depressed.
January 10, 2023
Don't let the bad reviews fool you
If there is one thing this book is not is a manuel. This book is more of a memoir or collection of short essays focusing on the themes of Authenticity, modernism and hedonism.
If there is one thing this book is not is a manuel. This book is more of a memoir or collection of short essays focusing on the themes of Authenticity, modernism and hedonism.
October 1, 2024
Not as good as DT but still fun.
December 27, 2024
Fun, funny. Better than DT, the author is self aware and sharp.
February 6, 2025
Great, very great.
Fun.
Good.
Fun.
Good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 22, 2025
Great pacing, good storytelling
Billy has got good storytelling, especially for a "modern" book. Kind of found myself in this, so its hard to be objective. Welcome to Hell
Billy has got good storytelling, especially for a "modern" book. Kind of found myself in this, so its hard to be objective. Welcome to Hell
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews