Married to the mob: the rise of the smartphone in fiction

They interrupt narrative and disrupt plot – no wonder novelists have been slow to warm to mobile phones. But a new generation is putting technology at the heart of their workWhat do you call a phone when it rings in a fictional world? “Mobile” and “cell” are old, “smartphone” is almost a tautology and “phone” is so intrusive that the word seems to ring out shrilly from the page the instant you type it. This may be because we read fiction partly to escape our phones, or it may be that phones, even fictional ones, seem to demand too much of our attention. Telephones, of the kind we all keep handy, are so much a part of daily life we touch them as often as our faces. But phones in fiction require a sleight of hand: if characters use them as realism dictates, they will feel as interruptive on the page as they do at the dinner table. How can authors navigate this challenge?Like bathrooms and paid employment, it is amazing how often phones are dispensed with by many otherwise realist fiction writers. JM Coetzee famously wrote to Paul Auster (in Here and Now, the 2013 selection of their letters) that he was not prepared “to write novels in which people go around with personal electronic devices”. Because, if “everyone has access to more or less everyone else, what becomes of all that plotting?” He also lamented the impact of mobile technology on the “novel of adultery”, though surely Sally Rooney has proved there was nothing to fear. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-22 10:00:09 UTC ]
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Deck the Shelves with Holiday Fiction: Christmas-Themed Novels

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-12 04:00:00 UTC ]
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How Women Writers Speculated Fictional Futures Free From Patriarchal Control

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there are as many definitions of “feminism” and “science fiction” as there are people who identify as feminists and science fiction enthusiasts—in fact, that is part of what makes both of these communities attractive to many people. However, by 1981,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-10-11 08:53:20 UTC ]
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The Truth About Fiction

A longtime librarian discovers that a healthy love of fiction is actually, well, healthy. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Intimacy and Manipulation: A Reading List of Fictional Diaries

At its best, the relationship between novelist and reader is an intimate one. Can I tell you something? whispers the writer, and the reader whispers back, Please do… Of all the forms that the novel can take, the diary is surely the most confiding of all; it’s as if the intimacy level has been... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-28 08:57:35 UTC ]
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Marketing in the metaverse—what science fiction can teach brands about Web3

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[ Advertising Age | 2022-09-22 09:30:00 UTC ]
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Rising Costs Deepen First Quarter Loss at Scholastic

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Washington Post | 2022-09-17 12:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-16 14:15:50 UTC ]
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[ The Washington Post | 2022-09-14 21:41:17 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-09-09 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2022-09-01 08:52:28 UTC ]
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New Historical Fiction to Read

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[ The New York Times | 2022-08-30 09:00:08 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-26 15:48:11 UTC ]
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Despite a Bump in Fiction, Print Sales Slipped 3.7% Last Week

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-25 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-22 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-08-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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[ ABC News | 2022-08-09 20:13:11 UTC ]
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[ Electric Literature | 2022-08-08 11:00:00 UTC ]
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