Doortje Smithuijsen
Doortje Smithuijsen
DOORTJE SMITHUIJSEN (b. 1992) studied philosophy and journalism. In her journalistic work she prefers to study modern people: who they are and how they live. She made a documentary called My Daughter the Vlogger, about the parents of children with their own YouTube channels. Together with Lena Bril, Smithuijsen also hosts the Monica Geuze Fan Podcast, about life in the age of social media. She has written for NRC Handelsblad and Vrij Nederland, among other publications. Golden Mountains is her first book.
Recent title – English material available:
Gouden bergen (Golden Mountains), 2020
Excerpt From Golden Mountains:
‘Two hundred people, roughly between the ages of 20 and 35, all with their phones in hand. ‘Fuck,’ says one of the three boys next to me. ‘What was that hashtag again? Moëtform?’ ‘Moëtmoment,’ answer the other two in chorus, their gazes and mobiles not straying from the hologram on the lake. Everyone seems hypnotised by the projection, as if their devices were being drawn by some magnetic force towards the hologram (…) Some people mumble that it’s cold, others complain that it’s all taking too long. But nobody stops filming. And nobody says: how strange actually, that we’re all standing here in the cold, making videos of a hologram of a villa, while we’re all standing with our backs to the real thing.’