Representations of New Media Fiction: Google, Parisians, and User as Character!

The first stories I can remember hearing were those from my grandfather. He said, “Hey kiddo, go grab me a beer, and I’ll tell you a story about Lon Koontz.” I was stunned. My name was Lon Koontz. Who could exist but me? So, I ran through their mobile home to the fridge in desert-hot Arizona and grabbed the man his beer. After a few stories about my great grandfather, he said, “Hey kiddo, go grab me a beer.” Despite the fact that the story had ended and I had already paid for his story by agreeing to grab him the first beer, I went running. I was sold on the product my grandfather was selling. That product was, of course, my grandfather. The dude kicked ass. Here’s a picture:

Before we look too deeply into my psyche and the associations I make (person as product) know that one of the reasons I loved my grandfather was because of the stories he told. I also loved him because he gave me the keys to his car when I was 13 years old and he was a cowboy!

I suspect this paradigm, stories for goods and services, has been true for some time; perhaps it goes back as far as the first words man used to barter goods. “I kill calf two hour ago. Fresh. Guarantee.” What came first the story or the pitch? What came first the story as entertainment or the story as advertisement? I’m not sure what came first advertising or fiction, but I assume they were born at the same moment or were born close enough together to earn the distinction as twins.

I bring this up only because I wish to suggest that advertising is as much a story telling driven line of work as is the labor required of traditional narrative fiction.

Making Users Out of Readers: or Taking Advantage of Web Tools for the Creation of New Literary Forms

In 1996, The Atlantic Online sent Ralph Lombreglia a “Cyber Lit Quiz.” He passed.

Wen Stephenson started the email exchange (something perhaps novel at the time) with this question: “Do you sense that there’s a crisis in our literary culture? And if so, or if there’s just the perception of a crisis, how much of it has to do with new digital, interactive media? Have the Web and other digital media become scapegoats?”

It’s easy enough to peel away the layers of history here. The term “Web 2.0” shows up in 2004, when Tim O’Reilly organized the “Web 2.0 Conference.” The new name didn’t imply a change in the structure of the Web, rather it marked the moment when the Web had grown up. Web applications were born and allowed for diverse new methods of interactivity, including information sharing, interoperability, design, and collaboration. The hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, and blogs that grew in this new space have effectively changed the way we communicate forever. Although the Web may not have changed, the uses we discovered for it had suddenly, and irrevocably changed us. The epistemological shift that occurred as a result has affected every aspect of our society and how we integrate ourselves into it because the Web became another interactive space, something closer to our “real” lives, and, therefore, infinitely richer than any other medium to come before it. This interactivity produces for us a second life, another space to explore what it means to be human, even if the circumstances of that life are conceptually and practically new.

A Defense for Image Based Media in the Novel and Short Story

The novel and the short story are made beautiful for myriad reasons. Not least of which are the self-imposed restrictions each utilizes to provide what we’ve come to expect from “traditional narrative text.” That is, because the novel is essentially letters that form words that form sentences that form even greater structures, it must depend on the wit, skill, and craftsmanship of the writer to evoke an emotional or thought provoking responses in the reader while relying only, in the case of English, on 26 letters. It’s extremely hard to do. It’s why there are so few good books. However, because of developing technologies (developing mediums) and yet another epistemological shift (thanks Internet), the novel and the short story find themselves at a crossroad of sorts, hesitant to continue their journey because neither can see the road or has, at least, forgotten its GPS endowed cell phone with Google Maps.

I joke here about technology because older forms of fiction (again, specifically the novel and short story) have ignored the power and tools new media offers to create new levels of interactivity. That is, because media has changed fiction must also change.

“Burn the Boats” Old Media

So, Erik Schonfeld of TechCrunch nailed this one.

“Legend has it that when Cortes landed in Mexico in the 1500s, he ordered his men to burn the ships that had brought them there to remove the possibility of doing anything other than going forward into the unknown. Marc Andreessen has the same advice for old media companies: ‘Burn the boats.’”

If anything truer were ever said about the New Media Convergence taking place, I don’t know what it is.

Toward a New MFA

I haven’t gathered my thoughts on this subject, but I will soon. In essence, I believe that the MFA is in need of restructuring. Currently, MFAs focus on workshops and literature courses. Very little if any energy is spent on new strategies to help writers find a place in the market. Continual focus on old publishing strategies is still warranted and needed, but alternatives are now available for new writers, whether these options include self-publishing (still a dirty word) or other means such as housing a work of fiction on the Internet. The second issue is that MFAs appear stuck in an older paradigm, works generated in class are traditional because MFAs have yet to focus on New Media as an alternative to traditional forms such as the novel, short story, and poem. These new forms require new classes that will focus on ways to turn these tools into structures for a new medium. The new MFA will create a subsection of study that incorporates the possibilities inherent in new media for fiction. Such classes may include programming for languages such as Java, Flash, and variations of C++ (iPhone OS). They would certainly include discussions about Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs as tools for fiction. More importantly, finding teachers for these new classes would create a new presence in the traditional MFA. Teachers focused on New Media and the effect of new technologies on fiction would help propel MFAs forward and begin to create new forms of fiction for readers already well versed in the behavior of new media.

Focus on the profit margins for New Media Fiction might also be considered, though traditional publishers, such as Penguin, may find a way to help writers “polish” works and legitimize them in much the same way the publishing industry does today.

Semester 1

Workshop

Literature course

An Introduction to New Media

Semester 2

Workshop

Literature Course

Languages of the Internet

Semester 3

Workshop

Literature Course

Building Applications and Websites Part 1

Semester 4

Workshop

Thesis Advisement

Building Applications and Websites Part 2

Defining New Media Fiction

Neil Postman, in his wonderful if not dated book Amusing Ourselves to Death, suggests the reading experience is far more powerful than the experience offered by visual mediums. He states, “Whenever language is the principal medium of communication – especially language controlled by the rigors of print – an idea, a fact, a claim is the inevitable result” (51).

The behavior print encourages in the reader versus the behavior encouraged on the part of a viewer is undeniably different. That is, print based mediums are “better” because they allow the reader time to ponder. A sentence can be read and then reread. Television or film, on the other hand, do not allow for such moments. Rather, film and TV are set up to function more like a ticking clock. The movie starts and it doesn’t stop until it ends or the viewer has walked out and moved on. The ability to pause, to reflect, to move backward through a text, as the story unfolds (no doubt we think about films after the credits have rolled and while we watch, but repeat viewings are required to examine finer, salient details that print encourages in the midst of the reading experience) is made simpler because the medium (print) makes such moves easy. In a movie theatre, the audience has no influence, save for angry patrons who might visit the box office to demand the picture or sound be adjusted, over the pace of the story. This creates a different, captive experience, one that discourages interactivity. For now, ignoring that viewer behavior may change in front of TV sets, computers, or mobile devices, we will assume that, for the most part, video makes the same demands as film, no more no less.

Penguin Says, “Game On.” We Say, “Be Afraid.”

Penguin is out to win it. Why? They’ve seen the light. Oddly, I’ve been working on a paper that examines the potential for new media to change the content and reading experience of fiction. This news story pushed me to establish this blog. Why? It felt like they were stealing from me! Of course they aren’t, and I feel just fine about it because the idea is simple and essentially already out there. What this announcement does provide, however, is the first step to legitimizing this new medium as a source for study in academia, not unlike any other field of study. The most interesting aspect is how well suited new media is for fiction and how well suited new media fiction will be for gender, race, socioeconomic, and other aspects of literary theory. This will usher in a new opportunity to more closely evaluate reading habits and trends. Through the use of algorithms developed by Google and other search engines, not to mention analytics and sales information, new media fiction will make statistics available as they have never been before. Such information will no doubt effect scholarship, marketing, and style.

Anyway… The article linked above, has some great stuff in it. Here’s my favorite bit:

“We will be embedding and streaming audio, video and gaming into everything we do. This will present us and the platform owners with technology challenges.

“The .epub format, which is the standard for ebooks at the present, is designed to support traditional narrative text, but not this cool stuff that we’re now talking about. So for the time being at least we’ll be creating a lot of our digital content as applications, to sell on app stores in HTML, rather than as ebooks.

“The definition of the book itself is up for grabs. We don’t know understand at the moment what the consumer is prepared to pay for […] We will only find answers to these questions by trial and error.”

Before we get drunk on the idea of a new format, let’s first see the risk involved in patents and ownership as it relates to the platform format. DRM aside, the ownership of any new format will restrict creativity and effect the revenue of creative output. Publishing costs will decrease, but production costs will increase. This new medium creates problems larger than typesets.

Apple Insider looks at the justification of ebook pricing and the power of Apple and the iPad to effect pricing. The shift in pricing, a direct result of Apple’s clever ploy to legitimize its own bookstore by leveling the playing field between it and Amazon, is note worthy for its inclusion of cost as it is associated with production both new and old.

The whole article (essentially) lifted for your pleassure:

“The report said that while the average hardcover bestseller is $26, the cost to print, store and ship the book is just $3.25. That cost also includes unsold copies returned to the publisher by booksellers.

Publishers get roughly half — $13 — of the selling price of a book. But after factoring in payments to the author and the cost of cover design and copy editing, only about $4.05 is left. And, the report noted, that doesn’t even include overhead such as office space and electricity.

Under Apple’s agreement with publishers for the iBookstore, the hardware maker will keep 30 percent of each book sale, leaving $9.09 for the publisher on a typical $12.99 e-book.

“Out of that gross revenue, the publisher pays about 50 cents to convert the text to a digital file, typeset it in digital form and copy-edit it,” the report said. “Marketing is about 78 cents.”

Author’s royalty can range from $2.27 to $3.25 on an e-book, leaving the publisher with between $4.56 and $4.54, before paying overhead costs. For comparison, under Amazon’s $9.99 e-book model, publishers would take in between $3.51 and $4.26 before overhead.

“At a glance, it appears the e-book is more profitable,” the report said. “But publishers point out that e-books still represent a small sliver of total sales, from 3 to 5 percent. If e-book sales start to replace some hardcover sales, the publishers say, they will still have many of the fixed costs associated with print editions, like warehouse space, but they will be spread among fewer print copies.”

Publishers are also wary of making e-books too cheap for fear of killing off booksellers like Barnes & Noble.

Apple will serve books for the iPad through its iBookstore, due to be a part of the iBooks application for iPad. The software features a 3D virtual bookshelf displaying a user’s personal collection, and allows the purchase of new content from major publishers. Like the Kindle, it will offer content from the New York Times Bestsellers list.

The introduction of the iPad has driven publishers to force Amazon into higher prices for new hardcover bestsellers. While books are currently priced at $9.99 on the Kindle, that is expected to rise to between $12.99 and $14.99 by the time the iPad launches later this month.

The charge was led by Macmillan, which was followed soon after by Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins in renegotiating with Amazon.

Last week it was revealed that Amazon frantically phoned publishers as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs gave his keynote introducing the iPad in July.

While publishers had their way and Amazon reluctantly agreed to higher prices, not every bestseller will carry the new, higher premium price. It has been said that while higher prices are an option for publishers, and most new titles will be between $12.99 and $14.99, publishers can also choose to lower prices on select titles.”

Now, imagine a world where Flash developers, iPhone OS developers, and other platform developers are paid to craft the application that is, for all intents and purposes, a book. A new open source format must be developed for writers hoping to avoid such costs. However, we may also be entering into a world in which publishers pair writers and software developers much like comic book writers and comic book artists.

What say you?

Thanks,

Lon Koontz

Hello world! Potential of new media for fiction

Imagine snow falling on the page. It’s an early trick, one found at the beginning of the Web, but the application of such tricks for fiction have been, up to now, ignored. How might snow change the meaning of a scene where two people discuss the chores or duties they face back in New York City while on vacation in more tropical climates? How often do we carry and impose removed physical settings on our current physical settings? Could the appearance of snowfall draw the reader’s attention to a character’s past? Was the vacation planned during cold winter months? Perhaps, the snowfall might show a connection to place that the characters have abandoned yet failed to leave behind. The reader, in his or her quest to understand text, engages in multiple problem solving activities with each turning page. Sometimes, these musings create tension, sometimes they help us to understand the character’s situation, past, and problematic future. Allowing the reader an opportunity to embolden their deconstructive tendencies through interactive content, made more meaningful than simple footnotes or (as in the case above) more interesting than simultaneous narrative descriptions of weather (how does separating text into text and image change the message and the experience) because it represents a new method of information delivery, will help usher in a new type of content not only related to fiction of the past but also representative of the ways it has already changed our media experiences.

These tricks aren’t “advanced,” nor do they have to appear so. Instead, they’re tools, like punctuation or even words, that allow the writer to explore new potentials for fiction by creating an interactive reading experience that utilizes tools already developed for other media forms like journalism, gaming, and even social frameworks like Twitter and Facebook.

Perhaps new media will enable writers to explore the subconscious of characters who are, themselves, unwilling to allow certain thoughts to surface, allowing the reader to make connections that characters can’t. How does the craft of the novel compare to the crafting of New Media Fiction? We forgive the impossibility of narrators writing in the first person present tense, knowing full well that the ability to write in the present tense while also act in the present tense is impossible. Can New Media, say Twitter or Facebook with their status updates, find a way into fiction? Can the time line of a narrative benefit from feeds? Are the tools developed for Hyperfiction ready now to find their way into mainstream fiction? Can they help to make New Media Fiction mainstream at all?

New Media has made information more accessible. Search engine algorithms combined with platforms that allow users to suggest interesting media to friends, family, and strangers, has produced an, arguably, new form of intelligence. The Internet is up for the Nobel Peace Prize. To award it would infer that we believe, somehow, that it is sentient. It is, but its brain is the collective consciousness of millions, billions of people. Like all people, we aren’t always trustworthy. The information we receive comes from a source either motivated by commerce, entertainment, or self promotion. Its flaws, these possibilities, they are what makes the Web so rich. The potential is endless. The Internet is already filled with unreliable narrators, and users recognize this even more concretely than they have in the past. We are, because we most sift through more information, much better readers, much better thinkers when it comes to recognizing the motivations and intentions of others.

Would the unreliable narrator know that the reader has access to such information? Would they use this in the same way that politicians use information to lie with the truth? The power of excluding the thought, the power to change the weather “spiritually” rather than physically might lead to any number of interesting possibilities for the reader, writer, and their characters.

This may lead to new areas of study that include “The Reader, the Writer, and Interactivity in the Novel.” What new role will the reader and the writer take at the beginning of this new medium? Will the medium continue to control the message? Will the message be lost in a “sea of irrelevance?”

The novel isn’t dead, but it is on life support. Books are cumbersome. New devices have made vast libraries ever more portable, but they have not taken advantage of the inherent possibilities of the medium. These musings are, of course, an overly simple application of what html, CSS, Java, or Flash might allow a writer to contrive. More importantly, however, it is an aspect of fiction that has been ignored in large part because writers looking to move their fiction into the future ignore the requisite skill set. That is, we are ignoring a shift in medium to the detriment of our most cherished institution, fiction. At present, publishers are beginning to see that this new form of fiction is inevitable. Penguin is already employing their coders to use the tools originated for the web in fiction. Is this the role that publishers will fill? Will they become publishers whose focus is on translating the old fiction into new fiction? If so, how will this effect the publishing industry? Do writers need a larger skill set? Is this where the MFA program is headed?

Thanks,

Lon Koontz