Get your news in the novel
May 1, 2010
Listened to an insightful interview on Bob Edward’s Sunday show on PRI. Richard Nash, founder of “Cursor,” talked about the future of independent book publishing in a digital age. Many memorable comments, but the one that stuck with me concerned thinking of books as interactive communities, with a lead author and a host of contributors (as well as contiguous experiences, such as book discussion communities, classes related to book content — i.e., cooking classes for cook books, etc.).
Nash emphasized the nonlinear nature of digital literature, open to wiki-like info produced by members of these book communities, or experts who find their way along networks to these communities. So, if someone reading Moby Dick came across some grafs related to rigging ships, books would be linkable to extra info online, much as (some) news articles are.
Got me thinking — why couldn’t journalists be paid by publishers or directly by adventurous novelists to dig up and prepare up-to-date info that supplemented the reading of these books, whether fiction or nonfiction? They could look up recent news on court cases for legal thrillers, political info on foreign countries for espionage stories taking place in distant places, even boil down the latest findings from physicists for science fiction writers.
Obviously there would be some cultural clashes between the fields of journalism and literary fiction, with their distinct sets of norms and values…
One more thing — I always liked Bob Edwards on NPR, but I thought he was really tone deaf in the interviews he did on his show. All his guests were fascinating, no thanks to his occasionally ham-fisted interviewing.
