"Looking at the internet doesn't lend itself easily to depiction in prose, and yet anyone writing about the 21st century has no choice but to address it. This doesn't change the fact that describing someone browsing the web or scrolling without end can be mind-numbing. Different novelists have approached this fresh challenge in multiple ways: by adopting the unique vernacular or fragmented form of a social-media feed, for instance, or by showing a protagonist falling deep into a rabbit hole."
"In her debut novel, Lost Lambs, Madeline Cash, a co-founder of the literary magazine Forever, has attempted to write an internet-mediated story that feels more grounded in the real world than what has come before-in large part by adopting the classic form of the family drama. She uses this approach to show not only what it looks like for a person to spend a lot of their time online,"
Depicting internet life in prose proves difficult because browsing and endless scrolling are inherently repetitive and can be mind-numbing. Narrative strategies have included mimicking social-media vernacular, using fragmented forms, or dramatizing a protagonist's rabbit-hole descent. One novel, Lost Lambs, grounds internet-mediated behavior within a family-drama structure to make online effects feel more tangible. The Flynn family members exhibit distinct device-driven dynamics: parents adopt nonmonogamy influenced by televised content, while their daughter is radicalized via an online chatroom and assembles a bomb learned from a screen identity. The story examines how pervasive device use reshapes individuals and strains familial relationships.
Read at The Atlantic
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