4 ms·

I agree that the possibilities are endless. The difficulty, for me, comes in bridging the linguistic legacy of the literary canon, with all of its caveats and f

I agree that the possibilities are endless. The difficulty, for me, comes in bridging the linguistic legacy of the literary canon, with all of its caveats and forms, to the world of coding. You’ve (very helpfully) identified a narrative structure that revolves around the transition to open source. The question then becomes whether or not this is a more vital narrative than any good vs. evil tale writ large. It will remain very difficult to make the character’s computer based vocation more engaging than orcs or jedis, or what have you. I realize that this quibble is secondary to my original question. Consider that Joyce’s Ulysses marvelously captures man’s transition to modernity with a highly realized literary style. Technology has super-saturated our experience, and it seems to me that the language required to describe contemporary technological experience, if it is even worth capturing, has to be a narrative, linguistic, and stylistic masterstroke. But this is what makes it so frustrating. There do seem to be endless possibilities, but there is far too little cross-platform interoperability between technology and literature.

drakonka 5y ago
I think I see what you mean, it's just that to me the language of orcs, elves, or other fantasy concepts is necessarily any more relatable or compelling than the language of code, technology, and corporations in a modern (or futuristic) world. My opinion as a programmer is obviously biased here, but I salivate at the thought of a cool story about coders. Have you seen Halt and Catch Fire? They managed to capture bits and pieces of computer history in a very compelling way. There was no lack of programming and techy language, but also no lack of conflict, drama, and difficult human choices. It was compelling in a totally different way than the setting and characters of something like LotR. Maybe I am overly optimistic, but I just don't see why that same feeling can't be captured in a written work rather than a TV show. What about the myriad of existing works of science fiction that feature tech concepts heavily in their narratives? It might be futuristic technology, but I think the overall feeling of "techy language" would be similar. Or speculative fiction like Prey by Michael Crichton, or even something like Disclosure by the same, which from what I can remember is set at a hardware company?
- blockwriter 5y ago
  My instinct is to go small. One idea I had was for a child neglected by their careerist parent to go through their parent's code, amending what they cannot understand to be a love letter of sorts that completely ruins the codebase. In that way, you could present the actual code and iterate through the child's perspective as they destroy it. I need to read Crichton. He gets a lot of praise, even among writers of literary fiction that I know, for producing quality work that is augmented significantly by the subject matter. The distinction between mass market fiction about technology and the kind of fiction that envelops technology might be better illustrated by a simile. The former is like an article about a tech company. The latter is like that company's API.

drakonka 5y ago

I think I see what you mean, it's just that to me the language of orcs, elves, or other fantasy concepts is necessarily any more relatable or compelling than the language of code, technology, and corporations in a modern (or futuristic) world. My opinion as a programmer is obviously biased here, but I salivate at the thought of a cool story about coders. Have you seen Halt and Catch Fire? They managed to capture bits and pieces of computer history in a very compelling way. There was no lack of programming and techy language, but also no lack of conflict, drama, and difficult human choices. It was compelling in a totally different way than the setting and characters of something like LotR. Maybe I am overly optimistic, but I just don't see why that same feeling can't be captured in a written work rather than a TV show. What about the myriad of existing works of science fiction that feature tech concepts heavily in their narratives? It might be futuristic technology, but I think the overall feeling of "techy language" would be similar. Or speculative fiction like Prey by Michael Crichton, or even something like Disclosure by the same, which from what I can remember is set at a hardware company?

blockwriter 5y ago
My instinct is to go small. One idea I had was for a child neglected by their careerist parent to go through their parent's code, amending what they cannot understand to be a love letter of sorts that completely ruins the codebase. In that way, you could present the actual code and iterate through the child's perspective as they destroy it. I need to read Crichton. He gets a lot of praise, even among writers of literary fiction that I know, for producing quality work that is augmented significantly by the subject matter. The distinction between mass market fiction about technology and the kind of fiction that envelops technology might be better illustrated by a simile. The former is like an article about a tech company. The latter is like that company's API.