Roommatefromhell.com is a blog fiction / book that’s simultaneously being published as a book version of a blog and blogged in fake real time. Got that?

It’s written by Jim Munroe, of No Media Kings, which is his non-fictional, standard issue blog. The plot – and the first post, which is up today – certainly grab my attention. The narrator has barged into her roommate’s room, without knocking, to find her apparently deep into some demonic ritual. Rather than confronting said roommate, the narrator decides to take the episode as a starting point for the blog she’s been meaning to start writing. Not a bad start at all for a blog fiction. It uses the project blog idea, which is rather like the basis of an epistolary novel: there has to be a reason why the narrator starts writing letters and a fictional audience to whom the letters are addressed. Here, the fictional audience merges with us, the real audience. An epistolary novel only ends when the letters end, and traditionally, they only end when the narrator or the fictional recipient dies, or of course, when the narrator marries the recipient, or one of the recipients. I wonder whether roommatefromhell.com will end in death or marriage? Or perhaps a blog fiction ends when the narrator’s fictional mum fictionally starts reading?

Roommate From Hell unabashedly announces itself as fiction, and suggests you might like to fast forward, actually, and, well, just buy the book. I think I’ll read it online. I like the episodic. Though I’m kind of annoyed that today’s entry – the very first – is dated September 2003. Why not date it now? Oh, right. The book. Sigh.

3 thoughts on “roommate from hell

  1. jill/txt »

    […] e=”Permanent Link: “>]

    Hm. Already the blog fiction Roommate From Hell, which I mentioned yesterday, is showing signs of being translated from book to blog. Look: I must have pissed […]

  2. Ella

    Thank you for the tip. I’ll follow the story online too.
    And btw, this Ellinor (right name?) project seems really interesting as well.

  3. ndesanjo

    I enjoy reading your blog. Keep knitting!
    peace

Leave A Comment

Recommended Posts

Triple book talk: Watch James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me discuss our 2023 books

Thanks to everyone who came to the triple book talk of three recent books on machine vision by James Dobson, Jussi Parikka and me, and thanks for excellent questions. Several people have emailed to asked if we recorded it, and yes we did! Here you go! James and Jussi’s books […]

Image on a black background of a human hand holding a graphic showing the word AI with a blue circuit board pattern inside surrounded by blurred blue and yellow dots and a concentric circular blue design.
AI and algorithmic culture Machine Vision

Four visual registers for imaginaries of machine vision

I’m thrilled to announce another publication from our European Research Council (ERC)-funded research project on Machine Vision: Gabriele de Setaand Anya Shchetvina‘s paper analysing how Chinese AI companies visually present machine vision technologies. They find that the Chinese machine vision imaginary is global, blue and competitive.  De Seta, Gabriele, and Anya Shchetvina. “Imagining Machine […]

Do people flock to talks about ChatGPT because they are scared?

Whenever I give talks about ChatGPT and LLMs, whether to ninth graders, businesses or journalists, I meet people who are hungry for information, who really want to understand this new technology. I’ve interpreted this as interest and a need to understand – but yesterday, Eirik Solheim said that every time […]