Brenton
itumeleng kganyago
Shea
Always Eighteen
AhmedStories on Blogs
December 3rd 2007 12:38
We need to stop thinking of stories on the Internet as Adaptations of this kind and instead consider them as a NEW art form.
Stories have been around for many, many years. Before literacy skills were widespread, they were often spread by word of mouth. After the invention of the Gutenberg press though things changed. Stories when written would emphasise words with large text – when spoken, would have important bits spoken with emphasis. Complex places and creatures could even be drawn rather than described.
We are now in a new society. We are growing more and more reliant on technology. We can barely fathom life without the internet. We still love to read.
A number of attempts have been made to popularise E-books. However, despite the convenience of the format, it has remained unpopular.
A Question. Do you remember when Microsoft Powerpoint first came out? People could not use it properly. They’d put their speech on it and read off it. The ability to use Powerpoint as a visual aid to a speech what really developed later on.
This is where I believe the E-book situation is at, right now. We’re still treating E-books as a version of what already exists. Why aren’t we taking the medium as FAR AS IT CAN GO?
Why aren’t more physical books published with colour images inside? Too expensive. Why don’t they come with video and music? Too hard, too expensive. Why don’t they link to websites? Too hard too expensive.
So then, why don’t we include all these things in E-books, when they are entirely plausible, and cost little to no extra?
BECAUSE WE STILL HAVEN’T WORKED OUT THAT WE ARE NOT JUST PUTTING BOOKS ON THE INTERNET. We are working in a new genre – a new type of story. Like the writer trying to convert a vocal story straight to paper (the fish was THIS BIG {here extend arms to emphasise} and weighed a ton {strong upper infliction}) we do ourselves no justice by trying to approach a new art in an old way. E-books are full of potential – most importantly UNTAPPED potential. One of those elements open for great potential is that an E-Book had only two conditions – The E, Electronic, and Book, a version of a book. Why is it that our thoughts always drift towards a PDF?
One reason due to the so far unimpressive popularity of the E-book is that oft heard excuse – I don’t like reading stuff of the computer. Yet we do this – read off computer – all the time, like right now. The difference, is the format.
Personally I don’t think the ‘books on blogs’ is too far off. I hope one day to take this concept and stretch it till it snaps. Until then though – I imagine others will jump in on the action – just wait and see.
IMAGE by Emdot Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
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