The Novel as Software

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."

Comments

A first in a new genre?

[__aawavt7683]

Really, this seems very much like the concept of .Hack//Sign.

That game takes place in a massively multiplayer online RPG; the events unfold through happenings in the world, posts to the message board and e-mail. It seems like this "novel" is very much the same thing, but perhaps more in depth.

In either case, as far as literature goes, there's no need to have people clicking around to get to the next part. That, to me, says "game". This can just as easily be accomplished in a book with a bit of narration.. it seems just an attempt to shift the style of narration.

-DrkShadow

Re:A first in a new genre?

[harrisj]

What I was hoping for from the title of the story was something like Galatea 2.2 by Richard Powers. To sum up part of the story there, a professor has a smart AI which drives an interface allowing the user to engage in realistic emails to literary characters. So, the user is able to figure out the story interactively and be part of their own epistolary work (not just read someone else's letters). Obviously, we aren't anywhere near that, and I guess the disappointment leaves me underwhelmed.

It seems like the innovation here is that instead of chapters, the user has days of the week they can click on to look at the formatted messages. And the vaunted interactivity is that the user can read the story out of sequence, not really in a nonlinear fiction sense (that can be hard), but really just in the same way I can skip forwards and backwards in a book if I want. Wow. I agree that while the interface is cute I suppose, the style really is more like a "game" version of a book. You might as well try interactive fiction instead.

Re:A first in a new genre?

[cardshark2001]

In either case, as far as literature goes, there's no need to have people clicking around to get to the next part. That, to me, says "game". This can just as easily be accomplished in a book with a bit of narration.. it seems just an attempt to shift the style of narration.

Well, I think people tend to discount new ways of telling stories. I say there's a reason interactive fiction lives on: people are naturally drawn to a medium which allows them to feel they are in control of a story. This sounds like it's a new form of interactive fiction, and I for one am happy that this professor has pushed the boundaries just a little with respect to how we receive our fiction.

I love a good novel as much as the next person, but in this age of tech, the novel format is not the only way to present a storyline, and I enjoy being challenged every now and then with a new format for the art form I admire most. I think the interactive novel is the way of the future with respect to fiction.

There is a reason that interactive fiction lives on despite the lack of pretty graphics and bells and whistles and so forth. People like to be a part of the fictional worlds they enjoy, and fancy graphics can only tell so much of a story. In the end, there's no substitute for good writing.

Someday, interactive fiction may be the norm, with the old, passively read novel format becoming quaint and outdated. This work may be seen as a pioneering work, when that day comes.

When people think interactive fiction, they think games, but I think this space has not been explored in depth and I see great opportunities for the future. I for one applaud this man and wish him great success.

Epistolary form

[scottennis]

The epistolary form requires the reader to put additional effort into understanding the author's intent. It died out as a viable form more than a hundred years ago as authors realized their readers didn't want to put that much effort into reading. So they came up with the "omniscient narrator." (Hey, cool, now I don't have to think at all, the author is telling the story as if he were god, so I can trust everything he says!)
I doubt that people today are much more interested in putting effort into their reading than they were 100 years ago.
My predicition is that the DEN will not revolutionize writing.

Re:Epistolary form

[elid]

(Hey, cool, now I don't have to think at all, the author is telling the story as if he were god, so I can trust everything he says!)

Ever read The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie?

Re:Epistolary form

[jsac]

Also, Wayne Booth's The Rhetoric of Fiction is all about the extent to which omniscient narrators are not omniscient, and furthermore, how they are often are deserving only a limited degree of trust.

Question about novel piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

How do Slashdotters feel about pirating novels? Is it "free advertising" or "sampling?" Just curious.

Digital Epistolary Novel. . ?

[Fantastic Lad]

he claims is a new literary category called the 'digital epistolary novel', or DEN.

If all his works sound this appealing, then I'm sure he'll be making tens of dollars in no time.

Anyway, Griffin and Sabine has done the series of letters as a story already, and in grand style, I might add. The novelty novel. With paintings and cursive handwriting and little pasted-in envelopes.

Frankly, I can't think of anything further from the romantic ideal than ASCII. Of course, I can also think of several relationships which began on-line, so who am I to judge?

-FL

Eye-strain

[Ra5pu7in]

Don't we already spend enough time looking at our computer screens? Looking through a bunch of faux emails and webpages to "read" the story just doesn't sound appealing. Instead it sounds like a recipe to keep people in front of their computers even more than they already do.

Now, the one thing I don't see any indication of, but that several people have mentioned, is the ability to alter the story by how you respond. This DEN looks pretty cut and dried to me - i.e. the sequence of emails and webpages is preset to tell the story - it isn't something you as the reader respond to. Maybe I missed something because I didn't read the NY Times article (won't register) - but looking at his own site should have been more informative.

Isn't highly similar to LJBook ?!

[Anonymous Coward]

The LJBook thing turns your blog into a PDF archive/book suitable for printing... It's produced by LaTeX and looks quite good...

It's highly similar when people use their blog as a journal like livejournal's users...

Exegesis

[dmorin]

Everybody's mentioning Griffin and Sabine (or however you say it). If you actually like this style, look for Exegesis by Astro Teller. The story consists of a series of emails between an emergent AI and its unwitting creator. Nothing special in terms of story or character, but that particular aspect does make it stand out as different from the rest.

Re:What Is Art?

[ShieldWolf]

I have a rather useful definition that seems to cover all cases I consider art:

"Art it the indirect communication of one persons abstract idea to another through an indirect medium."

The more abstract the idea, the less the audience connects with the artist; the more direct the communication the less 'revelatory' the experience is.

Re:It's been done

[nrabinowitz]

As in the Griffin and Sabine books, the key here is not the form of the story, but the medium - the reason that G+S were interesting was not really the writing (which was was well-done but nothing special) but the artwork and the physical nature of the medium. Holding someone's letter and reading it is actually quite a different experience from reading the same text in a book - you're presented not with the story of someone's life, but with physical objects from that life.

In the same way, I can see that the on-screen email epistolary novel could give you the same immersive feeling. But it's not a new genre, it's just a slightly new medium. It's still an epistolary novel, just presented in a form meant to make it more immersive.

As a sidenote, Nick Bantock, the writer/illustrator of the G+S books, also did a ook called the Venetian's Wife, in which most of the messages are emails. IMHO, this book was significantly less successful than G+S - the paper medium, entirely appropriate for the G+S letters and postcards, just looked foolish when applied to email. I can see how the software-based medium might be a really good choice for this kind of work.

All that said, I agree with the parent post that this is primarily a one-shot gimmick. I don't foresee many (read: any) real writers adopting this medium, which bodes ill for the DEN software biz.