At the beginning of this lesson I pointed to the idea that technological advances in communication tools have been part of the impetus to rethink the divisive and hierarchical categorizing of literature and orality and suggested that this is happening for a number of reasons. I’d like you to consider two aspects of digital literature: 1) social media tools that enable widespread publication, without publishers, and 2) Hypertext, which is the name for the text that lies beyond the text you are reading, until you click. How do you think these capabilities might be impacting literature and story?
As someone who is in technology profession and follows tech news and podcast regularly, I naturally gravitate to respond to the above question. Technology is transforming all aspects of life and literature and storytelling is no exception. In this blog I will be looking at the impact of social media and hypertext on storytelling and literature and I will initiate a discussion on the future of literature in the wake artificial intelligence in the comment section.
I believe that the internet has removed the middle person – which is the publisher- between the writers and the readers. Today, anyone with a computer and access to the internet can reach a wide audience and tell their story without third party involved. In an interview Andy Weir did with CNBC, said before “The Martian” became a bestseller, he thought he’d failed as a writer. Weir attempted to publish his novels multiple times but rejected by publisher because he did not have the “wow” factor. Has not been for a blog post he started with basic website, his book wouldn’t have become a huge bestseller and adapted into a Hollywood movie. The internet, particularly social media, has given writers equal voice, discoverability and direct connection with the audience. One of the notion J. Edward Chamberlin highlights in The Writer’s Cafe, how stories inherently contradict and how important it is for these contradicting stories to coexist. Chamberlin says sometimes you do not need to have literal common ground, but contradicting storyteller can reconcile to respect each of the people’s stories.
How can reconciliation occur if the story is told from one side? Miguel Douglas in this article explains Eurocentrism has diminished much if not all of the impact that indigenous peoples have had in shaping the historical trajectory of the continent. The only way both sides get to hear the other’s stories and respect each other is if they both can tell their story. I believe technology gives both contradicting stories tellers a platform to tell their version. In my second year at UBC, I worked on a project with Blue Dot Movement – David Suzuki Foundation where two UBC students and I made a research based digital storytelling manual for Indigenous people to tell their stories with a focus on climate change. Through this project we trained Indigenous leaders and activities how they can tell digital stories with different resources such as blogs, podcasts, social media and offline digital tools. With online tools we provided them they were able to tell their stories and be part the Blue Dot movement. I believe technology has a power to empower individuals and gives everyone a voice.
On the other side, again, with literature being not the exception, the power of technology also comes with some negative ramifications. Cassandra Clarke, Author of ‘Star’s End’ and five other novels explains the impact of technology in this Forbs article — there are so many books and stories and poems available, and it can be overwhelming sorting through them. While the internet gives equal platform for writers, their works are unvetted and it create clutter of reading resources. This is worsened by the incorporation of hypertext in the digital literature which makes it difficult to read. A research published by The Journal published on Pols One found out that hyperlinks within the text are a distraction and therefore hinder comprehension of the text. I am sure you all have found yourself in a rabbit hole of hyperlink clicks to a point where you forgot what you were reading in the first place. While I think internet is a great place for making a lot of information available that wouldn’t have been otherwise, but, to Cassandra Clarke’s point, it can be an overwhelming for readers. One common term in the internet hyperlink is “link rot”, which is when a link originally added to a content is broken. As it is explained in this article, many sites have stopped using “www,” and even if their content remains the same, the original links may no longer work. The problem with is if the link that was supposed to take to another website is broken, it might hinder some meaning to the original content.
Above, I covered the positive and negative impacts of internet in today’s literature. On that note, there is also another interesting technology that could significantly affect literature – that is artificial intelligence. There have been interesting researched emerging in recent years where machines can now learn literature and creative arts. While I believe that will be in a very long future, I would like to leave this interesting article and this video to start a discuss about it in the comment section. Can AI write a novel, a poem or even a news column? (here is another cool article from The New Yorker)
Work Cited
Briegas, Marta Torres. “Artificial Intelligence Has Made Its Way to Literature: BBVA.” NEWS BBVA, BBVA, 6 Nov. 2018, www.bbva.com/en/artificial-intelligence-made-way-literature/. Web 16 Jan. 2020
Clifford, Catherine “Before ‘The Martian’ Became a Bestseller, Its Author Thought He’d Failed as a Writer.” CNBC, CNBC, 11 Dec. 2017, www.cnbc.com/2017/12/11/before-the-martian-andy-weir-thought-hed-failed-as-a-writer.html. Web 16 Jan. 2020.
Chamberlin, Edward. “Interview with J. Edward Chamberlin”. Writer’s Café. Web. 15 Jan. 2020.
Clarke, Cassandra “How Technology Is Changing the Literary World.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 14 July 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/07/13/how-technology-is-changing-the-literary-world/#5bc1c53c4fc3. Web 15 Jan. 2020.
Fitzsimmons, Gemma, et al. “The Impact of Hyperlinks on Reading Text.” PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0210900. Web 14 Jan. 2020
Kille, Leighton Walter. “The Growing Problem of Internet ‘Link Rot’ and Best Practices for Media and Online Publishers.” Journalist’s Resource, 9 Feb. 2017, journalistsresource.org/studies/society/internet/website-linking-best-practices-media-online-publishers/. Web 14 Jan. 2020
YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGt8MkeGpNA. Web Jan 17. 2020.
Thank you for an interesting answer to my question. One thought I have is about learning how to read the world wide web; there are techniques that students can learn in order to find their way through the chaos. I used to teach a course called Digital Literature in which we study how to read the web – that was few years back. I found it a little ironic that you overwhelmed us with hyperlinks, but at the same time, it is my choice which ones to open; as the reader I have a different kind of power than the reader of a non-digital text. Something to think about. Thank you.
Thank you for your comment, Prof. Paterson! Haha I am glad you noticed that I added many links. It was my intentions to add many links and I was hoping people will notice and I get feedbacks on how it affected their reading. In some cases, I added it when I didn’t even need to. I am glad you saw the irony.
That will be an interesting course. You never realize how much hyperlinks affects your reading until you think about it. It will be helpful to learn how to navigate the web as a reader.
I would love to get your take on AI and literature if you ever get the time. It is something I have been following for the past couple years.
Thank you!