One of many reasons why many relationships do not work out is because people are ridiculously self-conscious about how other people view them. This is the reason why Gary Shteyngart’s protagonists Leonard Abramov and Eunice Park in his novel Super Sad True Love Story are so insecure. Lenny, Eunice, and their whole dystopian world are so self absorbed and superficial that they have no empathy towards each other resulting in unhealthy relationships.
Shteyngart believes our world will become so shallow, there will be a program called RateMe Plus where everyone with an apparat can FAC each other. Everything is based on first impressions. When Lenny’s friends Noah and Vishnu first teach Lenny how to use this application it gives him numerical readings on how interested he is in her based on his already set profile (90). At first it was hard to see this ever coming true until I thought of all those online dating services that have recently become popular and use logarithms for capability. We are already flipping through profiles and rooting out who could be a possible match for us; it will not be long until we start ranking everyone’s “hotness” in public. This limits us on developing possible relationships because no one looks deeper than what is on the surface of the people around them.
Eunice is extremely insecure about herself even in the presence of Lenny, who according to society is far below her league. She dreads meeting Lenny’s Media friends because she thinks they are too smart for her and that Lenny “thinks [she’s] and idiot behind [her] back” when Lenny loves showing her off because he thinks she’s too good for him (144). One partner always feels that they are not good enough for the other because they are so full of themselves they cannot see how the other really feels. The reason they feel alone all the time is because they are afraid of losing each other and are constantly trying to better themselves in order to stay in a relationship.
Another superficial relationship is Eunice’s friend Precious Pony and her unfaithful boyfriend Gopher. She catches him cheating on her and uses the most immature way of retaliating. She remarks that sending him videos of her also cheating on him is “the only way he’s ever going to respect me” (147). This shows that their relationship is all about sex and there is no longer any warmth between two people who supposedly love each other.
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