Chekhov's Mistress

Your Thoughts on Short Fiction in the Digital Age?

by Bud Parr

Josh Tyree writes in Here’s To the Death of the ‘Death of’ Article

The main thing is that serious fiction writing — that collective enterprise one might call RIPPING YARNS, INC., whatever the delivery method — cannot be allowed to go away. Writing has survived and adapted to film and television and it must survive and adapt to digital media, too. The problem with both the Luddites and the Technorati is that they tend to moralize technology itself, as if a screen or an iPhone or a web page or a blog could be “good” or “bad” by definition, rather than simply representing a number of blank, inert platforms for the same basic human storytelling impulse. It’s the stuff on these pages and screens that matters.

He writes in an email sent to a group of people:

“Do you think short fiction will thrive in the digital era on many “platforms” (books, web, iPhone, e-readers, etc.) or do you think, like Stephen King, that the art form is in trouble? I would love to hear your responses and/or hear from those you know and love who are serious about short fiction as writers or readers or both.”

so if you have thoughts, drop ‘em here or send Josh an email directly to ocracokepost AT gmail.com

My thoughts? I don’t think the art form is in trouble. I think we live in a wealthy age when people (who may think they are poor, but don’t know poor as it really is) have the time (option) to write and lots of outlets, so there’s more crap to sift through. An age of abundance. Keep writing, reach back to your classics for inspiration and rely on yourself to push the form. That’s the short of it.

posted October 19, 2007

comments

I’m really pleased to have found this conversation. I’m a hopeless short story addict, when it comes to what I spend the most time trying to write. The general consensus I seem to hear these days is: “Well, no one is ever going to make a living from short stories”.

You just gave me a jolt of encouragement and a thought I had never had. Perhaps the worm is about to turn; perhaps my ship now has a chance to come in; perhaps the mountain will come to me.

The world and our cultures seem to be more and more about speed, frantic activity, and attention deficits; less and less about presence and allowing the time necessary for a complete anything, be it conversation, article, or book. So....just maybe....the form I love so much will now increase in value.

I know this doesn’t speak very much as a solution to the quote you offered above, but I wanted to report the glimmer of hope it gave me on some level. I think we are all in trouble on a grander level, as we’ve gotten ourselves where we are with more than just our fiction, but perhaps our fiction can help to heal us. Isn’t that at least one function/purpose of art?

    – David Gray (10/19  at  05:55 PM)


For some reason, I think that as the world moves into e-books and such, we lose a very large and important part of writing, and that is the concrete book that can be held and passed from one person to the next and enjoyed in such a solid form. I see these electronic forms as something that is definitely the future, but I think that books will always be here.

And besides, how does one autograph and electronic book? I think also that there’s not much for writers to worry about, because people will realize with all the avenues of electronic media, the quality just doesn’t compare to traditional publishing, which sifts out most everything that won’t survive. And like the digital music industry, people will keep buying physical albums no matter how cheap and quick it is to download a song, and the same will go for good writing.

    – Kaleb Nation (10/22  at  03:05 PM)


Thanks Bud - I do think you’re right - it’s an age of abundance. Definitely in terms of quality work. Certainly in terms of opportunites for people who are misfits when it comes to the market. I do miss the days of Woolf on the cover of Time instead of Ann Coulter, though!

    –  (10/22  at  03:47 PM)


I agree. Stories will always be told and listened to. The fact that so many people have access to a form of publishing may result in a turning back from ‘literature’ towards ‘entertainment’ for workers in words. The skills of grabbing an audience quickly and holding them to the end while saying something of value are not easily learned. Storytelling as a profession will continue to be as demanding a career choice as it always has been. Because there are so many words being posted the art of reading is changing, the actual dynamic of processing the written word into images and sounds is changing. So professional storytellers will need to adapt, again.

    – Paul Squires (10/23  at  06:17 AM)


Page 1 of 1 pages of comments

Commenting is not available in this weblog entry.

This site employs rank-denial and other anti-spam measures.
Your link here will do nothing for your rankings or traffic. Off-topic comments will be deleted.




Next entry: Levi Asher on Just What Literary Fiction Is
Previous entry: Publishing Perspective from Borges

« Back to main

About this Post




Barack Obama Logo