Glen -
Unfortunately I fear you are correct. *I* have probably *written* at
least one Novel's worth (a Michener or King's worth?) right here on the
FRIAM list, yet you don't see me buckling down to publish my own next to
Doug's. And in fact, I think Doug will acknowledge that even *he*
wouldn't (couldn't) write his novel today... it was enough focus just to
dig it out, re-asciify it, reformat it, edit, dust, clean, etc. enough
to publish as an e-book on Amazon. Patricia (and other published
fiction authors here???) might have another perspective of course!
I don't play video games for 6 hour stints, even though I came of age
along with Pong, then Asteroids, Pac Man, Battlezone, and Missile
Command. I do occasionally fall into a hole dug by Tetris on my iPhone,
however.
But I *rarely* read a novel anymore. I was, as you were, was trained
on such... but the last 22 years (if you read my last post) have slowly
eroded that. 22 years ago I had a TV connected to a VCR in a cabinet
with doors, and I might have indulged in a movie once every week or
two... maybe two during a weekend. I rarely even turned the tube on,
and then only to maybe catch a local weather forecast.
*Even* I didn't have a *laptop* until about 1998 and while I spent at
least half my time at work in front of a computer, I spent almost no
time at home on a computer and the other half of my work time
arm-wrestling (other) idiots in meetings or crawling around fishing
cables under raised floors or dropped ceilings. Today I spend (to this
list's chagrin) 4-16 hours a day (350/365 days) in front of this (or one
or another) damned machine either reading/writing e-mail, surfing the
web (for very important stuff), writing proposals, writing code,
(occasionally) writing invoices, building 3d models for proposals or for
specifying physical parts of systems, or streaming a movie or ...
I'm lucky to pull my face out
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3j9jpBez8g>(2:14) of this machine for
any significant amount of time, it is only because I maintain something
of a "homesteader's lifestyle" that requires me to chop wood, carry
water, repair a dumptruck/tractor/trailer haul my own trash away,
etc. I still spend *several* hours a week arm wrestling (other) idiots
in meetings but half of them are on Skype!
Someone needs to design a haptic-interface (and mediation protocols?)
for a USB attached device to facilitate arm wresting over the wire
proper? Rob Shaw's (also on this list?) brother (Chris) was involved in
a startup 15 years ago (Haptek?) that was designing pneumatic haptic
"suits" for martial arts games, unfortunately it didn't make it to the
market. They got distracted with People Putty <http://www.haptek.com/>
(and more)...
I *am* working with the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) to try
to help them develop/teach *immersive* storytelling in their Digital
Dome <http://www.myiaiaonline.com/digitaldome/> but I fear, even with
full 360 surround environments and full motion tracking, storytelling is
losing something, unless it can somehow transcend and come full circle.
For those lucky enough to experience Robert Mirabal's live performance
(Po'Pay Speaks <http://indianpueblo.org/mirabal/>), you might know that
there is always hope for such!
We (most of us) are of a generation that preceded all this, I can only
imagine what it has been like for the current generation of children who
were born *after* Al Gore invented the Internet and the rest of us
invented the rest of it. I only see MiniVans and SUVs on the highway
with 2.6 (or is it 1.8) kids in the back seat with 2 video screens (one
on the back of each parent's seat/headrest with either a movie or maybe
a video game (or web browser) running. I have quoted Jerry Mander with
"Shoot your Television". Obviously that was not enough, my computer
snuck in and filled it's niche to bursting!
Off to a face-to-face meeting that will actually require walking around
outside waving our arms (Hi Jane) !
I've gotta stop this Twitch!
- Steve
Steve Smith wrote at 03/21/2013 10:24 AM:
I'll see your "King's Men" and raise you a"Stone Junction"
<http://books.google.com/books/about/Stone_Junction.html?id=woneSCNLbrYC> by
Jim Dodge
Ordered!
When Glen writes his "great american novel" (surely to be also an
alchemical potboiler, a digital noir happening, an outlaw epic?) all his
(published on paper or internet, indexed by Google) forgotten influences
and sources will be exposed. His Twitch will be a folding of the
origami paper, or perhaps a pull of the taffy.
Unfortunately, I think the novel is dead as a format for story telling.
It may return if peak oil or a zombie apocalypse obtains. But overall,
I think it's efficacy is dwindling rapidly. I still like them because
that's the way I was trained. But I find them increasingly difficult to
read ... the surrounding people, devices, and non-fiction books with
good indices draw my attention away from novels. I'll play a video game
for 6 hours. But I won't read a novel for 6 hours. Even when I do
manage to read for a long time, it sparks ideas that I have to write
down or pause to look something up in another book. I am no longer
linear ... or even first order continuous.
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