The way we live now ...
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How novels came to terms with the internet. (Hat tip, Lee Lowe.)
It is what the internet lures out of us – hubris, daydreams, avarice, obsessions – that makes it so potent and so volatile. TV's power is serenely impervious; it does all the talking, and we can only listen or turn it off. But the internet is at least partly us; we write it as well as read it, perform for it as well as watch it, create it as well as consume it. Watching TV is a solitary activity that feels like a communal one, while the internet is a communal experience masquerading as solitude.
Even this article seems behind the times. There are whole forms of fiction now that are Internet-based, such as Oulipo and flash fiction, which often mine the internet for source material. Very interactive. (Usually not very good, one might add, but that's a separate issue.)
ReplyDeleteAnd I've seen at least two novels on printed paper that were inspired by the internet; one of them was all emails, the other was all chat material.
So as usual artists are quietly going ahead and leaving the critics to catch up.