Writing and Community

How digital text will change the novel

I am a writer.

The best way to demonstrate the structure of the writing community is by throwing a rock into the nearest lake. The splash at the centre represents the text (a novel, for example). A series of concentric circles surrounding the splash represent different elements: the first circle represents the author of the text. The next circle represents the reader. The third circle might represent historical influences that have shaped the content of the text. It is an interesting structure for a number of reasons. Firstly, the wrting community is created by individuals who work alone (the authors) who in turn receive support from their readers. Secondly, each reader has the capacity to support many authors. Thirdly, the waves produced by the splash are infinite, for the novel is a complex creature. Throw a few more rocks into the lake and the picture will become a little more clear.

It is an ideological community, one that has always represented the feeling of the times. By reading Marcel Proust, for example, the reader can obtain an insight into the aesthetic pleasures that existed before the First World War. Similarly, after the Second World War, totalitarianism influenced the novelists of the day, as did the atomic bomb.

We are experiencing a historical shift at the moment. The paper based society is on the way out, and the digital age is embedding itself into the current social fabric. With this technological revolution it is up to the writer to make sense of the shifting zeitgeist, although this time the medium of expression is changing. In ten years there will be no publishing houses. Novels will exist in digital form and people will read them electronically. Within ten years it is likely that other mediums will be produced, although I cannot say what they are.

The writing community will not change. It will receive the same support. It will still be a collection of individuals with the similar ideals, it's just that all of them will be online. There will be greater access to books and materials. It is unlikely that newspapers will exist. The ritual of buying the Saturday paper, reading the reviews and then visiting the bookstore to see if they have a copy of the one that captured your interest will no longer exist. For example, using Twitter, I 'follow' The New York Review of Books, who upload daily book reviews which I read on my phone. I can then download these texts to an e-reader if I wish. Twitter itself supports the community by providing instant community updates, as well as inviting online feedback.

In the Weekend Australian just published, the chief literary critic, Geordie Williamson mourns the demise of the antiquarian book trade, "The thrill of the chase that made book collecting such a romantic undertaking was reduced to the banal scanning of eBay listings, uploaded by faceless digital traders with no experience and a tendency to sharp practice." (Williamson, 2011)

There will be little time for nostalgia in this urgent new world. Milan Kundera, in 'The Art of the Novel' says that "The unification of the planet's history, that humanist dream which God has spitefully allowed to come true, has been accompanied by a process of dizzying reduction." (Kundera, 2000) In his essay he blames globalization, the mass media and political economy for the death of the novel, however, he does not consider the digital media and the freedoms that it gives to the writing community. The novel will not die, it will simply take some other shape.

For a start, authors are able to self-publish. History will decide whether the text has any resonance, yet it is the freedom given to the members of this community that will enable it to thrive. Information overload is a concept that has little effect on the minds of isolated individuals, unless they are planning to write about it, or at the very least, be inspired by it. Globalization will not overload our minds, it will simply provide us with more choices.

Texts are less expensive, if not free. The public domain is expanding. Globalization will allow writers to appeal to the reasoning of other cultures. It will be like the Library of Babel, a place invented by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, a place where you can find all of the books.

Professor Robert Darnton, the director of the Harvard University Library in an article about the new digital library that is forming says:

“Perhaps Google itself could be enlisted to the cause of the digital public library. It has scanned about 15 million books; two million of that total are in the public domain and could be turned over to the library as the foundation of its collection. The company would lose nothing by this generosity, and might win admiration for its good deed.

Through technological wizardry and sheer audacity, Google has shown how we can transform the intellectual riches of our libraries, books lying inert and underused on shelves. But only a digital public library will provide readers with what they require to face the challenges of the 21^st century – a vast collection of resources that can be tapped, free of charge, by anyone, anywhere, at any time.” (Darnton, 2011)

The digital universe can only increase the richness of the writing community, in fact, it is almost made for us.

Darnton, R. (2011, March 23). A Digital Library Better Than Google's. The New York Times (online edition) , p. A31.

Dyson, F. (2011, April 7). How We Know. The New York Review of Books (online edition) .

Kundera, M. (2000). The Art of the Novel. New York: Grove Press.

Lantz, D. (2010, February 22). Publishing your book on Amazon's Kindle. Retrieved March 27, 2011, from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8BDnQNcyqI&feature=related

Williamson, G. (2011, March 26-27). Rare: A Life Among Antiquarian Books (Book Review). The Australian , p. 20.