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| Ami Isseroff Will the Web Change Anything? Responses to Ami Isseroff's Opinion
From: Kaz Madigan The web seems to be confirming developments in children's book publishing. I recently attended an exhibition of Australian children's book illustrations of this century to find a rich collection of stories and illustrations working together to produce works of 'art'.
This is similar to writing on the web which is combining not only images and text but also intertwining and collaborating skills - both between people and within people. As to the value of the material on the web, the medium is still developing a social role so perhaps writers are still finding their place. From: Margaret Penfold Ami, One of the reason for so much bad writing on the web is that often there is no filter and no time lag. Most of us writing on paper have learnt that it is worthwhile putting that masterpiece away for three months or so before sending it off to a publisher. When we do resurrect it we are horrified by the rough edges, the meanings not made clear and spend as much time, if not more, polishing as we did with the original writing. In paper quick-write mode, as in newspaper articles, when three minutes, let alone three months, is an unaffordable luxury, the article passes through the editor's filter. (Surprising how much easier it is to smooth someone else's work than one's own.) I agree with you also that there will be more pictures, more diagrams, but with digital publishing this is happening already on paper in non-fiction and , yes Kaz you are so right, also in children's fiction. What is wrong with including it in adult fiction? Is it that people fear the art of writing description will be lost? The web may not only prune text from fiction by judicial use of illustrations but it could also add extra text by way of hyper link notes. I cannot be the only person who read novels and wants to know more about side issues raised. For instance in one novel , just slipping into the fantasy genre by the skin of its teeth, I wanted extra information about the history of the herbs that were being used by one of the characters. It would have been irrelevant to the plot and halted the flow. I agree I might not have been willing at that point to slip out of the novel for the sake of that information. I wanted it all the same and I still wanted it when I had finished the novel. I was sure the author would have been able to pass on that information. Later I had a chance to speak to the author. He said that , yes, he had done a great deal of research on the subject some of which he had originally included but had cut out to sharpen the novel. The only way to include the material would have been by notes but fiction editors would not consider that desirable. The web could take a lead here and perhaps make notes in fiction fashionable. Regards,Margaret From: Andy Coote Much of the writing we currently read and enjoy has a linear drive with the shape of the piece leading eventually to climax or denouement. The first thing I noticed about the Web when I first ventured on to it (longer ago than I care to remember) was that it altered the way in which I followed a conversation or line of research. With hyperlinks scattered liberally around, it became difficult, if not impossible, sometimes to follow all of the possible routes through the material. What does that mean for the writer of fiction? Two things occur to me - to write a novel with enough research embedded within it so that the reader can understand character origins and the detail of sub plots, will take more time and more imaginative span than the already daunting task now requires. Of the books I have read, few have come close to offering that. One, indeed, comes to mind - Lord of the Rings - where much of the mythology surrounding the story appears in appendices. The second 'problem' or opportunity, is to write a multi strand piece so that the reader experiences several different stories with many different endings - a little like the old character-based adventure games, where decisions made by the player randomised the progress through the game. Again, complexity which will need to be handled. The concern I have is that I prefer the certainty of the linear story, where the author takes responsibility for my journey and I passively accept that. Is there something still to be said for the need for a traditional story with Beginning, Middle and End (although not always in that precise order)? From: Carrie McMillan This is a fascinating discussion. The point made about web novels is interesting, as modern paper novels often go the way of hypertext. i was looking at something on the web a while back that reminded me very much of Trainspotting, the idea of storytelling through a series of characters and situations with nothing really resolved, as you say,Andy, no beginning, middle or end. This style of writing is not new to the web and so it can't be said the web has changed the way we write in that way. People are also mentioning the Canterbury Tales format in connection with web writing, and it could be argued that the structure of hypertext writing is returning us to an older more traditional form of expression. Poetry publishers have been suffering a decline in sales for years, and yet many web writers agree that the short, image led writing of poetry is best suited to hypertext fiction. Even school syllabuses are moving away from the novel, which is starting to seem like a very twentieth century art form. I'm not convinced that the web itself is the engine of all of this change, but more of a new forum for a movement away from the novel, like any tool a reflection of the changing product of modern writers. Carrie From: Alan Sondheim On the other hand, the Canterubry Tales does keep things, like the loveandwar, within singular frameworks, as opposed to hypertexts. One fear I have, with the elimination of the novel might also come the elimination of other long forms - and the world's sufficiently complex, say, that it's difficult to condense too much of it into poetry/poetics.... Back to this month's Opinion...
trace@ntu.ac.uk
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