Writing the Past for our Future
I will jump on the bandwagon here and agree with the gang about enjoying this article. I also thought that the responses were really insightful. So thanks to everyone for being really smart! I spent yesterday thinking about the points brought up, and wondering about the cross-over effects of technology and literature. On this front, I would say that Baym’s social constructivism plays strongly here. Most books that discuss technology and its effects (utopic, or dystopic) are science fiction- a genre whose popularity does not generally extend to a wide population. It’s even less discussed in children’s fiction. The novel I’m reading right now is fascinating in its use of technology. The characters talk on their bluetooth devices, and drain their ipods of batteries. It’s great, because it’s so up to date right now, but as a piece of literature, I feel it will likely fall out of print faster than a book that doesn’t have technology in it; it will soon be archaic and possibly seen as clunky and boring. So then, does this mean that the “standards” or “classics” of modern literature will never be an accurate voice for society’s views of technology? This would be strange, since our understanding of ancient cultures, their norms, and values often stems from the literature of the period. I think this could be even more prevalent in children’s fiction “classics”, a genre that is often looked at to garner the values of a particular culture or time period. Also of note here- we could argue that the internet or new technologies will host these views and values, however, paper is still the only medium that we know of as permanent. Just a thought on the unintended consequences of new media on classic literature.
I think this is a really interesting point, and I feel like it might not only be the technology in these current stories that becomes so quickly dated. It seems that the internet and new media has greatly increased the speed of cultural interchange and fads seem to appear and disappear more and more rapidly as people are able to build off of and shape the evolution of existing ‘memes.’ In this sense, maybe it’s not so crazy to think that the very idea of “fixed mediums” (like books, movies, tv shows) will seem archaic someday in comparison with new mediums that are able to evolve through user participation.
schuyler
30 Jan 11 at 12:15 pm
This is really interesting, Stacey, and sort of what I meant to bring up in my post but then forgot, go figure.
I find reading about technology in fiction really awkward, in general. Not so much in a book like Feed, where the sort of technology that it’s talking about doesn’t actually exist in reality yet, but in books where Facebook, instant messaging, and Wikipedia are mentioned I feel like they’re outdated as I’m reading them. Even re-reading something like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series now, in which chat lines are mentioned a great deal, feels uncomfortable, and the first of the series was published in 2001.
Interesting, indeed.
jillian
30 Jan 11 at 2:03 pm
I hesitate to claim that a book becomes archaic simply because the technology used in the text is outdated. Look at so many classics where the “technology” is practically non-existent in terms of electronics or new media. I would say that rather than being archaic, these texts (and not immediately, but eventually) will be considered social artifacts. Though the readership may differ because the technology in the text is indicative of a certain generation or cultural perspective, many texts are able to withstand the test of time, becoming classics or at least preservers of culture and technology.
Rob
30 Jan 11 at 3:02 pm
I’ll agree with Rob here in that well-written fiction based in the present day becomes more of a social artifact than an anachronism. Referring back to Cory Doctorow’s Young Adult novels (which I highly recommend), he fills his books with ever-so-slightly ahead-of-the-curve technology, which I’m sure he is aware will be outdated in no time at all. However, it’s almost because he digs into them rather than just referring to them superficially that it doesn’t matter.
Another example would be Vernor Vinge’s _A Fire Upon the Deep_, a fantastic science fiction novel set in the far-flung future but written during the early days of the internet. In it, vast post-human intelligences communicate using something that looks suspiciously like old Usenet newsgroup posts (what people used before web forums). However, he makes it work, both because the writing is so well done, and because it fits into the world he built quite well (bandwidth limits for this kind of interstellar communication makes a text-only medium an appropriate metaphor).
Did I mention I was a geek?
kifty
30 Jan 11 at 10:50 pm