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what novels capture what it's like to be online? i feel like a day spent melting your brain on your phone is such an essential part of 21st century existence, and i can't really think of any novels that capture the unique horror of this feeling.
It's not really the feeling you talk about but "Kill All Normies" by Angela Nagle perfectly captures the reality of being online. It's a non-fiction mind you, so again it's more facts then vibes
Pattern Recognition by Gibson touches on "being online" pretty well, but it's more like old forum culture/ the obsession with experiencing something "real" in an unreal world, the development of the parallel lives people live from the internet and its ties to paranoia and intelligence agencies, globalization, etc. I think it depicts a flattening of history into consumption or image really well. To me that is kind of the "online" experience I am searching for: what draws people from bumfuck nowhere to get into increasingly niche interests and/or weird depravities, alienating themselves from the people around them further in favor of strangers? Or am I putting the cart before the horse and its more the alienation of modern life causing those occurrences? I feel like there is a pretty big difference between serial killer societal hysteria and internet societal hysteria though. I think specifically phone brainrot and algorithm damage is too early to say while we societally are "living through it" and maybe it will be found in retrospect; I think the novel that you are asking for has to be coming from a place of sincerity and only somewhat self-aware to effectively capture this period and it will be some time before someone finds an insane thing on wattpad or some other forum. Also, now that I've spewed all of this nothingness Amygdalatropolis sounds a lot like what I'm looking for.
Amygdalatropolis by BR Yeager and The Sluts by Dennis Cooper!
looks interesting. never heard of it before. ty.
Oh I've been wanting to read the sluts
Patricia Lockwood's No One is Talking About This captures this to a tee (largely based on twitter brainrot/doomscroll), especially the first fifty pages or so, even though I think it gets a tad too weepy and maudlin towards the end
gonna check it out. i'm a sucker for weepy and maudlin so maybe i'll like it more than you.
Junji Ito comes to mind. Dark Mirror's writers actually did this well. I think writers born ~1990 and before, who actually witnessed life before and after the internet will write this genre the best. Instead of being called 'millenials'. we should have a name speaking to the fact that we're the set of eyes that witnessed before and after internet, and were part of its beginning as children. imo our era is more important than 0 AD because let's be real: computers > beatles > jesus
can you link this book? i looked up junji ito and he's a manga artist? (no hate). i can't find dark mirrors. i found something called "in the valley of mirrors".
Yes, Junji Ito the body horror king. I meant, he would be a great choice for illustrating the grotesque of mind turned to soup by internet in a pulpy kind of way. Also, good correction. I meant the Black Mirror TV series. Dystopic internet brain is very well portrayed. It's bit like the twilight zone, but less facetious. It evokes uncanny valley with what we are living.
Cell by Stephen King (not really I'm just being snarky)
Also hate to be that person, but Honor Levy's My First Book.
i've been meaning to check out more of these contemporary "online" writers. thanks for reviewing this book.
I hate to sound like *that* person, but Infinite Jest captures the feeling in certain parts.
i read IJ around eightish years ago, and if i remember correctly it did this fairly well. but i still think hyperactive phone brain is different from the sort of entertainment-induced catatonia that wallace describes. maybe not. it's been a while since i've read the book.
I think that varies for person to person. For me, it describes my interaction with phones almost perfectly. Perhaps not you, though
Incel by ARX-Han