THE SEA WE SWIM IN by Frank Rose has a great cover and an interesting topic to explore: "How Stories Work in a Data-Driven World." Rose, currently Strategic Storytelling to teaching global business executives at Columbia University, offers his perspective on the way we tell and respond to stories in the digital age. He divides the book into three parts: Narrative Turn; Elements of Story (author, audience, journey, character, world, detail, voice, platform, and immersion); and The Shape of the Future. He mentions concerns like deep fakes, but primarily focuses on corporate tasks like building a brand (that word appears roughly 100 times). Rose does mention Covid a few times and states that "the pandemic could well have 'belief-scarring effects' that will last for years and be far more damaging to the economy than the short-term effects of shutting down nonessential activities." However, phrases like "public health" and vaccinations do not appear in the main body of the text. While well-researched (notes account for roughly ten percent of the text), THE SEA WE SWIM IN appears to be written for a fairly narrow audience.

An intriguing look at how we, as consumers, respond to stories. There are a lot of good insights that will resonate with readers.

I found this book so useful in explaining the power of stories and why humans have always crafted them. It was useful as both a reader and a writer and I'd highly recommend it to anyone who loves reading.

A solid entry point into understanding the omnipresence of constructed narrative; with straightforward prose and engaging case studies, Frank Rose breaks down how brand and media fabricate/enhance their persona and stories, in order to gain audience's engagement. While the foundational principles presented in The Sea We Swim In are excellent, most of its anecdotes seem to be stuck in the mid 2010s; while success stories from 'millennial brands' (Warby Parker, Harry's, and Marriott) are still valuable, I would've liked the book to touch on case studies involving Gen-Z audience (TikTok, Twitch, and influencer culture are surprisingly absent in the discussion).

The book becomes more observational and less analytical in its last section, where it touches upon QAnon and deepfake, recalling the mass media frenzy surrounding the 2019 election and COVID-19. This abrupt shift in timeline and tone is jarring—partially due to its own disregard of the storytelling components it has spent the first 75% conveying. The Sea We Swim In closes with an inconclusive sentiment: people simply have to be cautious of the content they're consuming; the author is as dumbfounded by the current situation as the rest of us.

In some way I can't fault the unevenness of The Sea We Swim In, as it is a direct reflection of the world at large; it is easy to construct rules and formulas when stories are being created in a controlled environment (whether it is within a company, an advertising agency or a media conglomerate), which is no longer the case with the rise of meme culture, #hashtag, and drama channels. While it might not be as 'current' with the time as I've anticipated, there are still relevant, timeless concepts here worth grasping.