Thread 24710125

Looking for books that recreate the feel of early internet communities and their effect on reality (or vice versa). If nonfiction, preferably from an insider perspective instead of some waify academic taking a spry look from afar.

I’m surprised we haven’t seen many fiction novels with structures mirroring online spaces. To be clear, not saying I’m just looking for greentexts and forum transcripts. Thinking more on the lines of how some books have interview/interrogation sequences or phone call exchanges like in American Tabloid.

In a similar vein, I wonder if there are books out there that utilize a textual structure unique to digital spaces to some extent to enhance the story.

"the sluts" is written mostly in forum posts reviewing gay hookers. lots of unreliable narration. fun read.

>>24710125 (OP)
There's a whole field of art/literature called Electronic Literature. You might want to check it out.

openingsources.com is an example of such a work

>>24710169
This is exactly what I’m looking for, thank you!
>>24710161
This sounds gross but now I’m curious. Morbidly curious, not that other kind of curious. Thank you too I guess

>>24710125 (OP)
Pic related captured the feeling of discovery on the internet I had as an adolescent through my teens, but it's only a page and nothing else in the same comp does quite what you want. Came to mind when you mentioned interview sequences.

I'll second the Sluts, though I haven't read it; Frisk by the same author was a good book.

>>24710334
Ion get it lil brobro fr blud sybau

>>24710125 (OP)
Picrel's excellent, it's about imageboard culture. The novel's written in anonymous imageboard posts. I think you'll like it.

>>24710334
This was great, short but definitely in line with what I was thinking.
>>24711196
I’ve seen this before, I’ll definitely add it to my list now. Thanks

>>24711232
>This was great
Glad you liked it. There's more from its author in the same collection, but I won't say what. The entire book is made up of stories published on /lit/ in a magazine that used to run here, so there's an overarching significance to the internet in it, but not many stories that use it textually. Pic related kind of comes close; faux scientific article on a ficticious internet phenomenon with quotes pulled from forums.

There's a PDF of the whole thing here:
https://the-best-of-amp.github.io/assets/the_best_of_amp_digital.pdf
and a link to print copies on the main site:
https://the-best-of-amp.github.io/

bumpin

Femoid has been shilled here by its author (Aaron Barry) when he was still pretending to be a woman. I can't vouch for it or whether it does anything internet-like structurally, but it's supposed to be about an obsessive terminally online woman. Pic rel is the preview of the first chapter; there's now also a preview of the second chapter on the publisher's site.

>>24712637
Forgot to post the chapter three I pulled from the more recent preview.

>>24710125 (OP)

Penance by Eliza Clark.

Not a perfect fit for what you're asking for - The Sluts that was already mentioned really is the gold standard for it imo - but Penance is worth a look if you've any interest in a time capsule of the weird subculture niches of 2010's Tumblr.