Literature in the Digital Age
I always love listening to my mother narrate stories of her childhood. She studied in one of the many mission schools established in India during the colonial era. Missionaries from the US and UK would ship crates of used books to these schools. Novels, comics, short story collections, drawing books with some empty pages, these books would always cause great excitement. We are talking about a small Indian town (Balasore) in the 1960s, before the advent of the internet and mobile phones, and even before telephones and televisions would become household essentials. They would listen intently as the classmates would take turns in reading from a book during the library hours. On rare occasions, my mother would get a book all for herself, and those would be moments of sheer joy for her. Although she studied in an Oriya medium school, my mother had read works of Charles Dickens, the Brontës, Rudyard Kipling, R K Narayan, and Ruskin Bond by the time she finished her schooling. These books, she says, helped her imagine new lands, meet new people, and travel to various places, all from the comfort of her home.
It is 2018, and today fiction has transcended beyond actual pages of books to the circuits of various mobile devices and bits of information relayed on the internet. As a member of the British Council library, I am able to browse through, read, and download several pages from thousands of books located around the world, from the comfort of my home. One does not need to purchase a physical copy of a novel or travel to distant libraries in search of it. With a few clicks, the required book can be downloaded as a digital copy. It’s not just the pirated copies. Amazon India, for instance, provides many licensed works of fiction for free downloads. While book lovers still prize the actual feel of paper books, one cannot deny the advantages of digital books. Ebooks definitely conserve nature and as such, its usage over traditional hardcopy books should be encouraged. Conversions of hardcopy novels to digital forms have ensured their survival over time. The emergence of digital media has increased the number of books and information available to an individual.
However, the boom in digital media is a double-edged sword. While it does make books more accessible, it has also refocused the interest of the masses in activities apart from reading. One can now stream hours of quality television programmes on Netflix, play addictive multiplayer games on mobiles, and thanks to cheaper data packs, remain connected to other people via social networking sites. This is precisely the reason why literature in the recent decade has had to refashion itself so as to appeal to the 4G generation. Café Zeotrope, a San Francisco restaurant has a story vending machine installed on its premises. This French-built machine is the perfect companion for solitary diners, freely dispensing tales on skinny, eco-friendly paper with the push of a button. Readers have a choice over the type of story—romantic, funny, scary—and the amount of time they’re willing to devote to it. Machines like these have been installed in several locations in the US, and other places are likely to follow. When customers ask if Café Zeotrope provides WiFi, the staff points to the machine and says, “No, but you can have a story, one you can read.”
While perhaps story vending machines might still be a distant goal for Indian cities, writers here have opted for other alternatives. In today’s world, the general population would much rather invest on smartphones and clothes rather than on books and novels. As a way to cater fiction to people wishing a quick read without a heavy investment, there’s a new way fiction is being marketed. On the Bhubaneshwar railway station, I was intrigued by the sight of little story booklets being sold. Measuring 3.5”x4.5”, these booklets each contain a single short story and are priced at a meagre `10 only. At just 30 to 35 pages, travellers don’t mind purchasing these booklets. I thoroughly appreciate the author of these booklets, Giri Dandasena. We are moving beyond expensive books sold by publishing giants towards tiny booklets containing gems of fiction. With initiatives like these, the love for fiction and the magical world that fiction creates is bound to interest the newer generations.
Facebook and Instagram have also been put to good use by writers to publish their works. The hashtag “poetry” alone has 19,415,221 posts on Instagram. Many writers publish their poetry and short stories on these social networking sites, often in groups with likeminded people who follow up with the much-needed criticism and appreciation. A culmination of writers from different nationalities through social networking sites has also enabled newer anthologies which amalgamate a plethora of voices from around the world on to a single platform. For example, a poem by Inaholi Aye of Nagaland has been included in an upcoming international poetry anthology being published by Notion Press. Channelled through Facebook, this anthology includes fiction and poetry of over 200 writers from around the globe. Another anthology titled “Vasudha: The Voice of Indian Women” used social networking sites as the main medium to gather women writers from around India to contribute poems. The verses of two up-and-coming Naga writers, Limala Longchar and Mereninla Jamir, are featured in this anthology which is one of the largest compilation of its kind so far. Raindrop Publishers India has made this venture possible.
Fiction has taken on a new form in today’s digital age. Hypertext is a genre of electronic literature, which, by the usage of hyperlinks or ‘choice’, can alter the linear flow of the text. Simply put, the reader is now at the vantage point of playing the author in the narration and deciding the outcome of the story. In printed novels, the plot remains fixed. However, in hypertext literature, the readers can choose what paths to tread, which characters to trust, which decisions to make. I see this as the birth of new literature, where the readers control the narration. Those wishing to get a quick taste of hypertext fiction can download the “Choices: Stories You Play” app available for free on both Android and iOS devices. Designed by Pixelberry Studios, it targets a young adult audience. The gamer plays as the central character, making several crucial choices which controls the flow of the narration. Of the many stories available, “The Royal Romance” and “Red Carpet Diaries” are the most popular among users. It submerses the gamer in the plot by making the events and characterization interactive.
Gao Xingjian, the Chinese novelist and playwright who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000 said, “It’s in literature that true life can be found. It’s under the mask of fiction that you can tell the truth.” Fiction holds the much-needed mirror to society so it can study, reassess, and improve itself. Literature today has taken on many contemporary forms and we can only anticipate what newer forms it shall take in the coming decades. The work of fiction in the age of digital media will continue to thrive.
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library & Information Science (NET Qualified)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
Mobile @ 9665911593
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