Wincing at Light

There was an old discussion on Slashdot on the viability of the blognovel as an artistic medium, with specific reference to the plan b blognovel experiment, which raises some interesting points for pondering.

The comment that struck me as particularly true:

It seems to me that this is similar to other ideas, both that the author recognizes and some that he may not. Dickens, for instance, first published much of his canon in a serial form. Great Expectations, e.g., was first published in pieces (which you can notice if you read it). This aspect of the “new” art form seems to me to be fairly old.

…

All in all, it’s an interesting idea that may bring together old art forms with the new medium, but I wouldn’t say it’s revolutionary or necessarily that experimental, in the sense of wondering “whether it is at all possible to use it as an artistic medium to produce interesting work.”

What concerns me about blognovels is that to some extent, it feels like trying to shoehorn content designed for one medium (print) into another (digital) without taking into account the different user experiences inherent to those two tools. A book is a tool in the same way that a computer or the internet is a tool, which is to say that they’re both mechanisms for conveying information, but the end user’s expectations for these tools is radically different.

What concerns me as a writer and (more recently) as a blognovelist is that web experience takes some of the uniquely good attributes of the old tool (portability, privacy, intimacy, ease of use) without offering significant replacement benefits…except maybe for the fact that you can read a blognovel at work without the same risk inherent to pulling a paperback out of your desk. Or at the very least, without offering replacement benefits significant enough to overcome the limitations and aggravations of applying the new tool to an old purpose.

This, of course, also puts me in mind of the old Jakob Nielsen/Alertbox column “How Users Read on the Web”. Nielsen argues out that no one really reads the web, and how we should write for the web must be a reflection of how readers use the internet to be effective. We search the web. We scan the web. We use the web for networking, information, communication or visual and/or stimulation.

The web as a tool for the dissemination of information only works as long as the tool continues to meet the desires and expectations of the tool’s user set. So the question we’re left asking is whether or not the same sort of design, presentation and conceptualization of a different tool (print) should really be expected to translate successfully.

Here’s a specific: website text is supposed to be brief, punchy, straight-to-the-point because the purpose of the website is to convey specific bits of information.

• How do I change my fan belt?
• What are the vegetarian options at the local Thai restaurant?
• What happened in the game last night?
• What is Aunt Cheryl up to?

W don’t care about how the author changed his fan belt or the moral implications of meat. Just tell us what we want to know. Even in online communities (forums, bulletin boards, etc.), the best comments are blunt, short and direct. A three paragraph posted response is more likely to be ignored because it fails the cost/benefit analysis of my time and mental energy vs. the writer’s potential brilliance/insight.

On the other hand, a novel that is constantly “brief, punchy, straight-to-the-point” is often described as episodic…and not in a good way. Novel users expect to be immersed in a novel in a way that web users do not. They want to be immersed. That’s one of the reasons we call fiction escapist entertainment.

We’ve spent some time talking about presentation and design to increase the readability of a novel on the web. But is improved navigation ultimately just putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound, when the truth is that the whole paradigm of how fiction is written, read and understood (i.e., what we expect from “good” fiction) needs to adapt to be effective within the context of the new tool?

(And it’s very likely that this isn’t even a true either/or proposition.)

Filed under: Blooks and Blognovel Analysis