Quite frequently I hear people talking about the future. They will argue and pontificate about when the new digital book, the new digital fiction, the new digital culture will arrive. In the world of digital publishing futurologists abound as we all try and work out what will happen next, even as we are still working out what’s just happened. The thing is that digital books and digital fiction and the like are already here. The die is, by and large, cast, and if we are still talking about the future it’s either because the new forms so little resemble the old we can’t recognise them or they are so familiar as to have slipped under the radar.
A couple of examples. A few years ago we had these things in our cars and houses called maps. They were, if you recall, like large books with lots of pictures of how to get from A to B. Often they were quite confusing and the source of many arguments but they pretty much worked. People had a nice sideline in publishing them. Likewise we had these big books known as Encyclopedias, great Enlightenment projects to capture the totality of man kinds knowledge, preferably in expensively produced multi-volume hardback editions.
Now we have Google Maps and sat nav, Wikipedia and, ahem, Google Knols. There is a reasonably obvious equivalence between the products. They resemble one another albeit with crucial evolutionary differences, but perform the same function. The content is roughly the same, the generation of that content and the interface is radically different. The point is no one is talking about what maps and encyclopedias will be like in the future. We know that already.
Yet digital fiction and the book is still surrounded by rampant speculation. However I think all the elements are already here, as with maps and encyclopedias. Firstly we have the ebook. Digital is meant to be good precisely because it breaks with print; however I believe the success of the ebook is because it resembles print. People don’t necessarily want a radical break. They want the same but easier.
People like books because they offer a very usable experience that has a USP over other forms of media: it offers the undiluted communication of one mind, one vision with another. If we mess this basic formula too much then reading will not work.
Ah but of course there is another form of digital fiction that has been around for ages, only we don’t call it digital fiction. We call it computer games.
Quite why we are still debating what digital fiction looks like when we had games like Zelda years ago, when we have games like GTA IV now, is crazy. There are usually two arguments put against this theory. Firstly that games are not about narrative they are about play. I am not going to get in the whole ludic debate, but I feel this tell only half the story (excuse me). Suffice to say that many games do have a narrative element and this element is central to the overall concept. An analogy I often think of is with songs and lyrics- the tune is like the game play, the lyrics are like the narrative.
The second argument is that the quality of narrative in computer games is so universally and consistently appalling that it can’t be compared to literature, an argument I last heard expounded with some force the other week at Bookcamp. Quite what criteria can be used to establish this objectively is not clear. In fact I would say that much of this is down to prejudice as narrative judgements are ultimately subjective statements. Equally the target audience of computer games is the same as that of all action mega hardcore action busting action films (not known for the sophistication of their narratives or dialogue).
Even if we put our hands up and acknowledge that the quality of storytelling in computer games has been lacking then by comparison to the history of the novel we are still at an early stage. Novels written in the mid to late seventeenth century, the form’s genesis, read as clumsy, simplistic and contrived in comparison to the well oiled slickness of the modern novel. No doubt games will follow a similar curve over time.
Beyond even games we have already have the outlines of digital fiction. Projects like Inanimate Alice, the story games and ARGs, narrativised blogs and twittered fiction. All the tools and standards are now roughly in place. A wave of innovation has most likely come to a close as the “social media boom” hits the skids. We have been innovation addicts, slavishly jumping on each new trend, application and concept, moving without thinking. The dust is now settling and the landscape for digital fiction and digital books is clear.
To recap, digital books/fiction looks like this:
- ebooks and ebook derivatives
- “writerly” computer games
- stories told used existing forms of social media (blogs etc)
The first and the last are already realities. Pretty much every large publisher has an ebook program; most publishers are now using social media for at least marketing. Both authors, publishers and others are increasingly using social media more creatively. The middle is the most difficult for those involved in books. The big winners maybe authors and agents who can begin to sell rights for game spin offs and/or get involved in the process of conceiving game ideas.
Lets not wait for the future anymore; it arrived in about 2006.
8 Comments
This is a thoughtful post Michael, and a useful summary of where things are at currently. And thanks for mentioning ‘Inanimate Alice’. Your list of forms for the digital book/digital fiction is useful, but I’d like to add a fourth item: a hybrid form that takes elements of all of the first three to create a new kind of literature for a born digital generation. I’ve no idea where this will live, in terms of the platform, but for me the word ‘literature’ and all it implies about quality of writing, quality of narrative, quality of experience, is important.
Perhaps part of the reason that so much speculation about e-books abounds is because the format has yet to be firmly settled? The publishing industry may have plumped for ePub, but Amazon/Mobipocket seems to have its own plans, and Apple may even wade in at a later date if the rumours about a tablet-sized iPhone/Pod/Mac come to fruition. DRM is still a complete minefield, as poor Fictionwise found out recently. I’m not saying e-books aren’t coming, that’d be like standing in front of a speeding train, but I think there are enough niggling issues to prevent people from getting wholeheartedly on board at the moment. Reminds me of the Blu-Ray/HD DVD format wars, completely killed consumer enthusiasm in the format, and we’re only now starting to see the former hit the shelves, four years later.
Yes, a thoughtful post but not particularly convincing. Perhaps you’ve been playing too many video games and not actually reading enough? Just a thought.
Video games, with or without narrative, simply do not engage the same parts of the brain as a well-written book. And it doesn’t matter much how that book is delivered to the reader — on a computer monitor, Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, or even iPhone or iPod. Video games are action-oriented and lean toward rapid response to external stimuli rather than imagination-oriented requiring mental imagery.
That does not necessarily make one medium “better” than another. However, too much exposure to video games will rewire your brain in ways that neither you nor I have any way of accurately predicting…and likely permanently.
Digital books have certainly arrived. I only hope that the ultimate medium is not video games. And recent trends show a definite uptick in time spent reading actual books, even by those in the once-thought-lost under-25 age group.
I see a future with a broad spectrum of media for book-like entertainment — formats primarily for computer monitors, others primarily for dedicated e-book readers, others primarily for smart phones/PDAs, and without a doubt printed book formats as well.
Walt Shiel
Author, Publisher
In a study that has gained some publicity (I saw it on BoingBoing and NPR, and the original article is on PhysOrg.com), scientists determined that readers simulate the actions of characters and descriptions of scenery by engaging that part of the brain associated with a given aspect of a story (“e.g., ‘pulled a light cord’”). A difference between computer games and reading, at least cognitively, is the illusion of interactivity with artificial surroundings of one’s doppelgänger in a series of plot events. (Many video games now allow the player to alter the appearance of the protagonist to suit one’s own tastes/appearance.) The brain registers the self as an active participant in the proceedings. This is a different kind of brain activity from the passive simulations created while reading, to be sure, and some can argue well that it is potentially harmful in several ways. But one certainly cannot argue with any credibility that it is harmful in every way, and regardless, describing computer games as a caustic force in this article, as if the writer has gotten stoned, constitutes a weak prop.
I do not, however, necessarily agree with the assertion that computer games ought to be be categorized as a kind of “digital fiction” any more than I believe that, in the digital age, a film recorded in entirely digital form should be called something other than a film. The perceived interactivity and fluidity of Twitter fic, etc., remains literary: the author is not projected into some visual representation of the self for all to see, as is the case with World of Warcraft or some other MMOG, or the insular single-player game, but remains separate and hidden from the reader/observer. All that has changed, really, is the method of delivering the same milk. Computer games certainly have garnered some deserved attention for the increased depth of their narratives, and the potential for the player to shape their denouements and define one’s experience therein, but they remain a different beast entirely. The potential of the ebook to integrate certain interactive elements into the reading process is as close as the two will get for some time. (And even then, the “interactive” elements will merely be surrogates for the experience of reading a print book with illustrations–the sound of paper and other forms of sense stimulation.) You put it best, Michael: “Digital is meant to be good precisely because it breaks with print; however I believe the success of the ebook is because it resembles print. People don’t necessarily want a radical break. They want the same but easier. People like books because they offer a very usable experience that has a USP over other forms of media: it offers the undiluted communication of one mind, one vision with another. If we mess this basic formula too much then reading will not work.”
It is true that “the future is here,” and new forms of writing and reading, and technologies devised to such ends, have given the processes of composition and creation a more democratic bent. That will, in terms of lasting effects, be more significant than the forms themselves.
Kate- thanks. For me that fourth space is uncertain…it is less presently concrete than the others, so I am less willing to stake myself on it.
Eoin- yes there are lots of troubles with formats, and I utterly agree that all this confusion is needlessly harming ebooks at a critical juncture in their development. However I think that ebooks, as in the ur-format, are here to stay, and already constitute digital books, regardless of the smaller format troubles. I guess the analogy is not so much Bluray/HD-DVD but rather the whole concept of having films on discs.
Walt- actually I don’t really play computer games, I don’t own a games console and haven’t for years. On the contrary an alarming amount of my free time is spent reading books. As Peter points out I never once suggest that games might be “better”, only at some level (narrative) similar and therefore important. Generally I regard computer games like a minnow might regard a whale: as vast, slightly monstrous and incomprehensible.
Peter- couldn’t agree more on the cognitive aspects of games and reading. I wrote a piece on here a few weeks back that expressed concern for our brains as there is a transition to more visual media; it’s one I still have in fairness, but I definitely agree that not everything is bad in games. Simply because computer games do not resemble traditional literature does not mean we can write them off as digital fiction. They occupy the same leisure story telling space. That they do not resemble books makes them more difficult to identify as existing in that space; and I think slowly we may see a shift, and games may come to occupy a bigger portion of the literary arena as our expectations of what can be done with games evolves. When people are tired they turn to the TV or the computer before they do a book.
I agree that digital literature is already here – have you also looked at electronic literature? Which is a growing and vibrant field – for instance the E-Poetry conference in Barcelona this May will be a great place to see what’s out there. The Electronic Literature Organization has a catalog of works and information. Kate Hayles’ book Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary is an introduction to born native electronic literature. The Electronic Literature Collection is an anthology (openly available online) of dozens of works.
I agree that the future is here, Michael, but also with Kate that you’ve missed out the most important bit: literature authored in a multimedia environment (yuck – what a horrible way of putting it, but you know what I mean. It is as simple as this: a writer sat at a laptop trying to tell stories can now incorporate multimedia and reader interaction into their work – if they wish – in ways that were previously impossible, and can distribute the end product (or first iteration of it) in appropriate ways to readers for whom this w seems an entirely natural way to convey a story.
Thanks to Michael Bhaskar for this thoughtful post…
Often, I hear the lament that digital literature is has yet to come into its own, or is under-appreciated. To some degree this is true, but very soon new technologies (e-books (advanced versions of the Kindle) that offer multimedia content directly from the web, and cell phones that can accommodate Flash and other applications) will provide new forms of literature on demand.
But, as Michael points out, in many ways, digital literature is already a mainstay of our everyday lives, at least in the form it takes through multimedia presentation in anything from news sites to Facebook to personal blogs. People are reading digital literature, probably more than we think, and more importantly, many more are getting used to the idea. In a few years, particularly among readers who are in their teens now, digital poetry and fiction will be an expected item on the reading menu.
Here’s a mention of some more examples of digital literature that go beyond traditional hypertext:
“Searching for a New(er) Digital Literature” is an exhibition of twelve multimedia works that offer readers representative examples of new digital poetry and fiction on the web. Curated by Alan Bigelow, it includes work by Jim Andrews, Marvin Bell & Ernesto Lavandera, Sommer Browning & Mark Lomond/Johanne Ste-Marie, Andy Campbell, J.R. Carpenter, Chris Joseph & Kate Pullinger, Tammy McGovern, Stuart
Moulthrop, Alexander Mouton, Jason Nelson, Victoria Welby, and Jody Zellen.
The online exhibit is available at http://www.terminalapsu.org/exhibitions/digitalliterature/index.html
The exhibit is both online and offline. The offline exhibit launched on January 15th at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee.
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