“LET’S KILL ANDREW TATE - PART ONE” (SHORT STORY)

In a dimly lit bookstore, two men stand amidst shelves of worn paperbacks.

Edward and Tyler are taking stock of more than just books. As they sort through self-help tomes and discard hollow promises of wealth, a dangerous idea begins to form.

“Let’s Kill Andrew Tate - Part One” is a subversive short story about the state of modern masculinity.

What if they can change the world by eliminating one toxic influencer?

How far are they willing to go? 

1,000 words / 4 minutes of provocative reading pleasure

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‘Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.’ Fyodor Dostoevsky

STEFANO BOSCUTTI

LET’S KILL ANDREW TATE - PART ONE

Copyright 2024 Stefano Boscutti
All Rights Reserved

‘Have you seen this?’

Edward holds up his phone to Tyler, head cocked to one side, lips cocked the other way. Looking either wry, bemused or utterly annoyed.

Tyler squints at the smudged screen. It’s a post on X by a shirtless, brooding, tattooed Andrew Tate. Bald with a trim beard and a grim determination. The words on his post look like they’ve been punched out.

Reading books is for losers who are afraid to learn from life.

So they try and learn from the life OTHERS have lived.

But you never REALLY learn unless you lived it.

You must feel it to believe it.

Books are a total waste of time.

Education for cowards.

It’s moments like this that makes Tyler happy that he doesn’t have a phone, doesn’t do social media.

‘Isn’t this asshole in jail?’

‘Under house arrest with his brother in Romania for human trafficking, aggravated rape and forming an organised crime group.’

‘And he can still post on social media?’

‘To his nine-point-seven million followers. Cast himself as the victim of some bizarre deep-state conspiracy to silence freedom and individual liberty.’

Tyler shakes his head. The pair are doing stocktake at the second-hand bookstore where they both work, physically counting the stock by hand. Edward is tossing every second copy of “Atomic Habits” by James Clear into a recycling bin.

‘If assholes like Andrew Tate are role models, it’s no wonder young men are so lost,’ Tyler says.

‘Have you ever heard him speak? Going on and on about emotional control, life is war, high value men?’

‘Sounds deranged.’

‘He’s got an overbite and this weird lisp, sounds like an angry fourteen year old boy.’

‘Didn’t he used to be a kickboxer?’

‘Lots of blows to the head, concussions. He wasn’t very good so there’s probably a fair bit of brain damage.’

‘Didn’t he pimp out his girlfriends?’

Edward nods and tosses another copy of “Atomic Habits” in the recycling bin.

‘While calling young men that don’t treat women like bitches losers and idiots, haranguing them for being worthless, weak and insipid, screaming at them to take what they want.’

‘And berating them for reading and coming to their own conclusions.’

‘If they read at all.’

It’s true that young men don’t read novels. Young adult fiction is the near-total domain of teenage girls — including what’s written, marketed, sold and read. 

If young men read anything, it’s capitalist realism and how to endlessly become more productive, more willfully ambitious, more financially successful. More of a real man. Best sellers for young men are non-fiction titles ghost written for ex-military sociopaths, discredited scientist and rogue psychiatrists.

What’s the practical outcome of getting lost in a novel? How does reading fiction make you rich?

Edward picks out and holds up a copy of “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill.

‘This is the guy that started it all.’

Tyler plucks out a copy of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” by Robert Kiyosaki. The author sitting forward and smiling on the cover like a presidential candidate with his too-white teeth.

‘Topped by this fucking asshole.’

‘Didn’t he have a string of financial failures? One business collapse after the other?  One bankruptcy after the other?’

Tyler nods, looks at the book cover.

‘It should be called “Deadbeat Dad Poor Dad”.’

Tyler flips the book over and scans the back cover overloaded with gushing testimonials. Edward asks a question.

‘Do you how the author recommends getting rich?’

‘Is it something along the lines of pay yourself first, buy assets, make your money make money, blah, blah, fucking blah?’

‘Not to mention avoid paying tax, buy penny stocks, pick up foreclosed houses to flip, join a multi-level marketing company to learn how to sell.’

‘What an asshole.’

Tyler tosses the book in the recycling bin.

When you’re a man, everything is a grind, everything is a hustle. In our modern hypercapitalist world where the role models for men are far-right ideologues and neo-Nazis with tight haircuts and even tighter minds, reading fiction is seen as pointless.

In the nineteenth century, reading novels developed a reputation as a frivolous and feminised activity for bourgeois women. Novels were deemed suitable for women because women were seen as creatures of the imagination, of limited intellectual capacity.

The novel is the antitheses of practical and instructive literature. It simultaneously promotes introspection an empathy, contemplation and connection.

Reading fiction is the opposite of the stale stoicism of contemporary masculinity. It’s a form of immersion therapy that demands you be present and forget yourself to a meditative end.

Tyler picks out a copy of “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson. It’s one of his favourite books by one of his favourite authors.

Reading fiction opens your eyes to uncomfortable truths and unexpected perspectives, adopting the inner lives of characters as your own – something there isn’t time for with the visual immediacy of other media or online psychopaths like Andrew Tate.

It’s only a matter of a degree or two to go from hating books to burning books. And once you start burning books, burning men is never far behind.

Reading fiction inspires your spirit and expands your sense of possibility, broadens your world.

Tyler holds up the copy of Robinson’s novel to Edward.

‘Have you read this?’

Edward nods. The novel portends a future where a clandestine group is tasked with assassinating people who knowingly fuelled the climate crisis. 

Tyler starts to smile as he leans in closer, his voice barely a whisper.

‘Let’s kill Andrew Tate.’

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Copyright 2024 Stefano Boscutti

All Rights Reserved

The moral rights of the author are asserted.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or copying and pasting, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing.

Stefano Boscutti acknowledges the trademark owners of various products referenced in this work. The publication or use of these trademarks is not authorised or sponsored by the trademark owner.

This is a work of fiction. While many of the characters portrayed here have counterparts in the life and times of Andrew Tate and others, the characterisations and incidents presented are totally the products of the author’s slippery imagination. This work is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It should not be resold or given away. Thank you for your support. (Couldn’t do it without you.)

Discover novels, screenplays, short stories and more by Stefano Boscutti at boscutti.com