Sunday, January 20, 2008

Cell Phone Novels - the Latest in Texting

This came in from the SHARP email list today.

Readers may be interested in the article in today's NY Times about
a fascinating new form of publishing in Japan: cell phone novels.
It's a dramatically fast-moving example of the interaction between a
new technology and a literary form. Large numbers of people who
hadn't read novels before are now not only reading but writing them,
while the form is different as well -- shorter sentences, less
character development. The article does hint that the new form is not
entirely technologically determined, but also owes its character to
the popularity of manga, etc.
It's a great bookend to Leah Price's recent article in the
NY Times book review that highlighted the different kinds of reading
Americans are now and have been engaged in, in response to the
anxiety that people just aren't READING.
Here's the link:
Cell Phone Novels

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