2011
New Media – that’s where literature is now
by Neville BezzinaThe changing landscapes of literature: digital media as potential and platform.
The contention that interest in literature is waning seems to be everywhere. We are being constantly bombarded with the idea that quality creative writing by inspirational and innovative writers is something only a small group of dedicated elite readers seem to be continuing to purchase, whereas the mass market paperback and the cheap thriller dominate the reading market.
Recently, Ted Genoways, editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, penned an article liking the loss of importance being suffered by University-published print journals with the wider trend of the supposed death of fiction. Budgets are being slashed, and as the essay wistfully recalls, after years of Universities founding and sponsoring literary magazines as an essential component of their existence, many are now giving up on their cultural significance and shutting down the costly operations they require. Genoways describes how the wider public perceives the existence of literature in journals, wryly commenting that they assume that it is a sort of arcane craft that is ‘kept alive only by a lost order of nuns in a remote mountain convent or by the Amish in some print shop in Pennsylvania Dutch Country.’[1]
The image evoked here is claustrophobic and the message that should be taken from it is clear: this type of literature is often seen as dying at the hands of a small group of self-absorbed literati and academicians out of touch with the wider world. Prices for copies are pushed up, literature is made even more niche – the property of those privileged few devotees- and the industry of campus-based literary journals undergoes a slow process of fading away. This gloomy image is nevertheless only part of the equation, and ignores powerful changes in the literary arena that are occurring away from this environment.
While this reality is harsh and should undoubtedly be worrying many who hold literature dear, there are multiple ways of approaching the issue. There are those who give up on the very idea of literature, those who dedicate time and effort to preserve it in its current state or return it to its former glory and those who believe that literature can evolve and pursue new purposes in a digital and constantly connected society. What is sure is that there is always a lot of discussion on how to save literature and publishing, although such talks usually revolve around how to preserve the current institutional system and its business model, while at the same time depicting a noble ideal of saving the world’s literary culture. What this accomplishes, instead, is the further propagation of literary elitism and the alienation of the ordinary reader, whose attention is easily captured by other modes of narrative on different media platforms.
Idealising the concept of literature and refusing to acknowledge its reliance on pragmatic economic factors does not help. What needs to be understood is that the potential contemporary reader of literary journals does not nurture loyalty towards one journal or publishing outlet over another. In the past, literary publications such as Granta could rely on their established name, their branding as a quality, high-end source of current literature, and the loyalty that this inspired in its readership. Today’s younger readers are not used to such a limiting of focus; they inhabit a more fractured reading environment, in which the name of the journal matters little (if at all) and in which information and entertainment can be drawn from several different publications without lingering too much on the actual source and the shape of its product, as long as the content is of good and reliable quality. What is most important to this audience is ubiquitous access to a high-quality, meaningful and most importantly, enjoyable, reading experience.
This is why the digital media and the web holds so much potential for opening up new vistas for literature. If we widen our perspective for a moment and focus less on the esoteric concept of literature or ‘literary fiction’, and more on the idea of narrative, we will realise that interest in it is stronger than ever. More importantly, technology is not what is hindering access to it but in actual fact helps in bringing about a more direct engagement between the creative forces behind the storytelling and the audience looking for it. While technology can fundamentally alter the nature of storytelling and literary criticism in unpredictable ways, it mostly challenges its methods of distribution, design, promotion and branding. When new methods of composition arise, such as the twitter novel or the networked book, they tend to remain on the fringes of the literary ecology for an extended period of time, at least until they are adopted by a wider spectrum of writers with a large enough following.
Narrative has always also been fundamentally technological by nature; the rise of the internet and digital media as a platform for literature and criticism is hardly the first thing to challenge assumptions about how literature should be used and created to explore methods which were not available with older media. The tools and techniques utilised to transmit stories shifts multiple times throughout the centuries, and each major change is precipitated by the emergence of a new technology and a significant cultural shift. In a sense, humans have always tended to gravitate towards the latest tool available and transmute it into a tool for storytelling, changing the ways narratives are composed in the process. Technologies, throughout history, have shaped our concept of literature into naturally recognisable forms. Before any technology became widely available, stories were told and transmitted orally throughout the generations: one only has to think of Beowulf, the ancient Anglo-Saxon epic. Writing and painting were both technologies that altered the techniques and opened up new paths available to storytellers up to that point, who could now incorporate the new media in their relaying of narrative. Similarly, print opened up new possibilities for narrative, as it moved from one based on a close-knit community of listeners to a widespread national scale, transforming literature into a public and open arena for discussion.
In our own age, this intimate relationship between literature and technology has not abated. Narrative takes on many forms, whether on television, comics and video games. Each of these media function as a distinct platform for writers to creatively expand their craft, and each harbours its own individual process of composition, creation, and distribution. The democratisation of fiction has also continued unabated, as people use freely available open source Wiki tools, social networks, and specific platforms such as Unblokt, Novlet, Portrayl, and Ficlets to create collaborative projects that aim to take literature to another level of composition, made possible only through the harnessing of the digital medium. All of these digital tools are also platforms for creative writers, who can make use of the real-time aspect of the technology which allows a community of creators to remain in contact and create a collective work of literature. While such works have not achieved the quality required by the literature label, they are endemic of the massive shifts which this technology has birthed in relation to the fundamental human activity of telling stories.
Web technology is now as common as television; much how that has moved to being called T.V without a thought, the word ‘Internet’ itself feels unwieldy and is rarely used to signify what it used to. The more casual denomination ‘the web’ (its worldwide, global nature no longer being considered as a special feature but rather part of the core nature of the technology) is indeed more of an accurate way to describe what it is that people actually use on a daily basis, since the internet is in fact a complicated system of network technology operating on switch packets that transfer information at high speeds, rather than what is actually seen: it is what makes the web possible. Web technology now permeates every aspect of our culture; the network of millions of pages present around the world and instantly accessible is now present in everything, from our phones and cars, to national telephony, banking, shopping and distribution systems.
As other forms of artistic creativity, notably music, make the leap and adapt to the arena of the web, literature itself is moving away from the fortresses of print institutions towards a more open and interactive nature. The rationale behind publishing literature and literary criticism online requires a completely different mode of thinking than that of print. Readers on the web can consume content in all sorts of ways and in different environments than the one which it was created in; browser extensions and RSS feed readers are two basic tools which can completely alter the design of the web page. By writing for the online reader, the creator needs to be capable of relinquishing a certain quantity of control over the appearance of the work, sometimes even on its use.
The ecology of hyperlinks upon which the web is built and which connects pages together requires that every piece of content remains freely accessible for readers to access, share, interact with and talk about. If literature is to be written for the web, it needs to understand some of its central functions and adapt them to the way narrative is told. While DailyLit understands this and makes classic works of literature available to read in serial form via regular email messages and syndication, the Five Chapters project at fivechapters.com is a more interesting attempt at pushing the boundaries and creating new forms of literary fiction by focusing on two important aspects of the way people interact with content on the web: regularly, and in short bursts of attention. The creators of the site understand that in order to be different from the rest of the online environment, which often places quantity over content, a website that publishes literature needs to be focused on the creation of a small amount of freely available quality content. It therefore uses the technology’s ability to be instantly and regularly updated to reach its readers by putting in place a simple idea: publish only one short story by a promising writer each week by splitting it into five shorter parts, delivered daily in a variety of methods to the reader and uploaded on the main website. This reduces the amount of noise and allows the reader to focus on following the narrative throughout the week.
The web has been characterised as an experience of fracture, but new literary publications for the web understand this as a strength that can be harnessed. Electric Literature Magazine is less than a year old, but it has already been making waves of influence in the literary world. Its approach is either fresh, or striking, or simple in every aspect. Electric Literature effectively fulfills its ambition to be entertaining without sacrificing depth, while its constant experimentation with new modes of storytelling displays a willingness to further push digital media away from pure potential to something that exists and functions well as a platform for literature. Its lighthearted approach towards literature does not affect the quality of the published stories at all, but necessarily contributes to the publication’s edgy image, whose initial PR and branding efforts involved banner adverts and posters featuring the slogan Reading that is Bad for You, accompanied by shocking images of hospital patients smoking cigars or policemen getting drunk on the job. This daring marketing campaign secured viral status and capitalised on the link ecology of the litblog scene mentioned earlier, as literary enthusiasts on the web actively sought out information about this courageous and controversial new publication. It not only uses its own established methods, but employs free social networking tools to bring literature to life; using visual art, music and video to depict literary sentences on its YouTube channel and sponsoring Rick Moody’s Twitter story ‘Some Contemporary Characters,’ recently published in the third edition.
In its core model, the magazine publishes what it considers to be ‘five top-notch stories’ every three months and makes them available for a low price in every medium possible, its main delivery formats being paperback, ebook, audiobook; while also offering Kindle, iPhone, iPad and Android versions for users of those specific devices. This ensures that the web’s ubiquity is taken advantage of. Its print-on-demand model also allows it to cut unnecessary costs on unsold copies, ensuring that every writer is financially rewarded for contributing a short-story to the magazine: indeed, the rate of payment is one thousand American dollars for every published piece. This is an extraordinary achievement for independent web-based publication, and indicates that Electric Literature understands the core functionality of the web. The publication understands its position as a twenty first century magazine, the needs of contemporary literary readers, and the importance of web technology, and manages to bring all three strands together in a way that seemingly revitalises the role of literature in culture, while proving that there is more than simple potential in the strengths of digital media: there is a viable economic formulation which rewards readers, writers and publishers in equal measure. The publication explains its mission as trying to understand digital ‘new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture.’ The choice of placing the word popular in front of culture is telling, as it explains Electric Literature‘s attitude towards literature as something which should be enlightening and artistically pleasing but ultimately entertaining for every reader.
Print journals of writing and criticism may be struggling to maintain subscribers, but a new generation of so-called indie publishers is rapidly evolving online in order to fill the void. By using the web, they are able to reach out to millions of people spread out across the globe, slowly build a dedicated, if niche, audience which is supportive enough of the project to keep it afloat through subscriptions and donations and by clicking on adverts spread throughout the website. A different kind of literary criticism thrives in this environment, one which focuses on the reader’s reactions and attempts to highlight an element of dialogue between the contributor and the community. The litblog form has evolved its own style and identity, and rather than feeling second best, it now feels as if it is where discussions of literature are really taking place, with publications such as The Reading Experience, The Rumpus, and A Piece of Monologue all establishing substantial audiences and regularly publishing original critical essays in an unceasing way. The seven-year old The Millions is now a fully fledged, beautifully designed website for longer essays about literature, as well as reviews and articles about older books; yet it still retains some of its roots as a blog publication, as evidenced by the highly personal style of most of the contributions.
Readers can always expect to find new content on each of these litblogs, also supplemented by reader conversations on platforms such as Twitter. An interesting function of most litblogs is how they also acts as focus points for other publications, as they aggregate the most interesting content and bring it to the attention of their readership. Although often commercialised through the use of advertising, rather than being governed by a sense of competitive struggling for each other’s readers, litblogs constantly collaborate in what they perceive to be a common mission.
This is indicative of the web’s potential as a means of generating discourse about literature and its ability to effectively convert thousands of visitors into readers. This does not necessarily change the core function of criticism, which still aims at providing an erudite commentary on works of literary value while aiming at aesthetic judgement. It is the scope of the writing itself that is altered. Digital media in its many forms is not merely a new avenue for disseminating fiction. Publications such as Five Chapters and Electric Literature are learning to create new paradigms for the role of literature and adapting narrative to the challenges of the online medium, which cannot be ignored. Whether it is in composition, distribution, marketing or inspiration, the digital technologies of today should be used to their maximum potential, ensuring that new boundaries are created for literature and criticism in new formats.
Endnotes
[1] Ted Genoways, ‘ The Death of Fiction?’ [accessed on 21-05-2010] <http://motherjones.com/media/2010/01/death-of-literary-fiction-magazines-journals>
Bibliography
Ted Genoways, ‘ The Death of Fiction?’ [accessed on 21-05-2010] <http://motherjones.com/media/2010/01/death-of-literary-fiction-magazines-journals>
