Via Slashdot:
LukePieStalker writes “Former English professor Eric Brown has published the first work in what he claims is a new literary category called the ‘digital epistolary novel’, or DEN. ‘Intimacies’, based on an 18th century novel, requires the DEN 1.2 software. The program’s interface has windows for mock e-mail, instant messaging, Web browser and pager, through which the narrative unfolds. For those wishing to create their own works in this genre, Mr. Brown is marketing composition software called DEN WriterWare.”
Also mentioned over at scribblingwoman.
An amazing example of technology fetishism, no? The same story can be told without this software, and I don’t really think the ‘virtual reality’ of sorts that this software is going for will really be so thrilling… it’s like virtual reality light. I haven’t read it, but this really seems like gimmickry rather than gadgetry. This is what we’ve allowed publishing to become. Thanks for calling attention to this news!
“I haven’t read it, but this really seems like gimmickry rather than gadgetry.”
This is what we’ve allowed criticism to become. Thanks for calling attention to this news!
Last year I wrote a little something about technology and narrative involving Richardson’s Pamela, the 1740 novel upon which Brown based Intimacies. It’s hard to imagine that Pamela would be the same if not told in letters, and so I’m unwilling to say that Brown’s work is mere “gimmickry,” especially since I haven’t read it either.
And as far as I’m concerned, people can publish whatever they want. I’m not in the business of allowing or disallowing the practice.
Hey, guys, I appreciate your comments. All interest is flattering — even when the comments aren’t. Of course I’m most interested in those coments by people who actually read the story. The story is “slight,” and the format is new in the tech world, though not in the world of lit. The web site name is ironic, but my intentions are the best!
Thanks!
eric