4 ms·

The Internet is killing storytelling

14 points by slater 17y ago

JCThoughtscream 17y ago
The author's point is lacking, despite his heavy-handed rhetorical flourish. The sales of books may be down, but the number of writers are up and climbing - and the downturn of the sales of books originated far before Twitter came to light. Arguably, even before the Blackberry. And I question as to how many "viral" narratives the author even knows about - maybe my online social net's unique in this, but when a good story is found, it's usually something with an extensive archive and requires a few hours to fully absorb. Not to mention that, in the defense of Twitter and other short-burst mediums, treating them with the same standards as a long-form narrative Misses The Dang Point by a rather large margin. The rising popularity of burst mediums is because they're /dialogue enablers/, not because they offer an alternative to a good novel. Lamenting Twitter's effect on storytelling is like blaming cell phones for the decline of Broadway.
mattlanger 17y ago
I can't help but be reminded of when Merlin Mann said "little stories are the internet's native and ideal art form... little dumb stories that I never expected." Read it all--it's worth it. Plus, that this was even written (not to mention well-received) poses a fine counterpoint to any argument stating that storytelling on the internet is dead: http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/169873399/clackity-noise http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/169873399/clackity-noise
- jurjenh 17y ago
  That's an awesome counterpoint! Thanks for sharing! Also brings to mind http://paulgraham.com/essay.html http://paulgraham.com/essay.html - writing as a way to discover just exactly what's rattling around in there at the current moment... What I believe is a more appropriate angle to take is that the nature of reading itself is changing. Reading tends to be one-way, whereas human nature tends to crave communication more - hence the shorter stories / tweets / facebook popularity. But this in itself tends to build a longer narrative - I've been reading HN now for well over a year (much longer than I've spent on a novel) and though the items themselves are short snippets, due to my interest they tend to form chapters of narratives in general directions: programming, hacking the body, start-up life and culture. And one of the amazing things is that I get to contribute and write part of the story as it is unfolding - often with unexpected results! That is something that you just can't get from a book - the interaction is of an entirely different nature, yet can still very much be 'consumed' in the same way if you choose to [my two cents worth, and maybe a little rambling - but then it was kinda inspired by the parent link...]
DanielBMarkham 17y ago
good stuff. No seriously, the long narrative is dying. I just finished "Anna Karenina" and am seriously thinking about "War and Peace" for the holidays (perhaps all the holidays to come, based on it's length) and I can say it was more of a struggle for me to engage the long-form narrative now than it was 10 years ago. And being a techie, one of my key competitive advantages is being able to consume big, sometimes really boring, books. After all, what's the first reply to any technical question on the web? Have you RTFM? Or on a aggregator like here? Have you RTFA? Most of the time the answer is "no" Too bad we Ashton Kutchner can't teach us physics via tweets. We've have a freaking nation of rocket scientists. (Having said all of that, I understand we have a large contingent of people going through college. Hopefully since you're supposed to be working those reading muscles out a lot this won't apply as much to you guys as it does to the rest of us)
christopherolah 17y ago
The Internet is killing storytelling? What? http://www.fanfiction.net/ http://www.fanfiction.net/ http://www.fictionpress.com/ http://www.fictionpress.com/ http://www.scribd.com/ http://www.scribd.com/ (And lots of others...) I rest my case.
- JCThoughtscream 17y ago
  Though, to be fair, fanfiction.net is its own argument against internet literacy.
stcredzero 17y ago
It's the 21st century. Just because the mainstream isn't actively engaged in your favorite form of it doesn't meant it's dead. Heck, even if every native-born English speaker stopped writing and reading novels, there's a good chance that some community of Japanese Otaku would arise to lovingly curate it forever. The 3 minute pop tune didn't kill the symphony. Just because it's not what the mainstream is doing, doesn't mean it's dead. Note that classical music has found a new home, appreciated by the mainstream in movie soundtracks. Your community might be waning, but it won't die. Sometimes, a downturn can even be a blessing!
albertsun 17y ago
This kind of article is just as annoying as the opposite extreme, the claim that the mainstream media is dead and good riddance. There's such a culture clash right now between people raised in traditional media and publishing cultures and those who come from technology backgrounds, and neither side seems to appreciate the other.
blasdel 17y ago
TIME FOR SOME STORIES: http://www.storylog.com/time-for-some-stories-davesecretary/ http://www.storylog.com/time-for-some-stories-davesecretary/
10ren 17y ago
Parables were short. Novels are the aberration.
fhars 17y ago
The wire telegraph and the rotary printing press killed storytelling some time in the 19th century with these newfangled "papers" that everybody is still moaning about. No, wait, that moaning now is about these papers disappearing again because a new, stronger narrative medium has come along. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=572887 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=572887 In other news, culture is in a process of steady decline at least since the invention of the written word.

14 points by slater 17y ago

The author's point is lacking, despite his heavy-handed rhetorical flourish. The sales of books may be down, but the number of writers are up and climbing - and the downturn of the sales of books originated far before Twitter came to light. Arguably, even before the Blackberry. And I question as to how many "viral" narratives the author even knows about - maybe my online social net's unique in this, but when a good story is found, it's usually something with an extensive archive and requires a few hours to fully absorb. Not to mention that, in the defense of Twitter and other short-burst mediums, treating them with the same standards as a long-form narrative Misses The Dang Point by a rather large margin. The rising popularity of burst mediums is because they're /dialogue enablers/, not because they offer an alternative to a good novel. Lamenting Twitter's effect on storytelling is like blaming cell phones for the decline of Broadway.

mattlanger 17y ago

I can't help but be reminded of when Merlin Mann said "little stories are the internet's native and ideal art form... little dumb stories that I never expected." Read it all--it's worth it. Plus, that this was even written (not to mention well-received) poses a fine counterpoint to any argument stating that storytelling on the internet is dead: http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/169873399/clackity-noise http://www.kungfugrippe.com/post/169873399/clackity-noise

jurjenh 17y ago
That's an awesome counterpoint! Thanks for sharing! Also brings to mind http://paulgraham.com/essay.html http://paulgraham.com/essay.html - writing as a way to discover just exactly what's rattling around in there at the current moment... What I believe is a more appropriate angle to take is that the nature of reading itself is changing. Reading tends to be one-way, whereas human nature tends to crave communication more - hence the shorter stories / tweets / facebook popularity. But this in itself tends to build a longer narrative - I've been reading HN now for well over a year (much longer than I've spent on a novel) and though the items themselves are short snippets, due to my interest they tend to form chapters of narratives in general directions: programming, hacking the body, start-up life and culture. And one of the amazing things is that I get to contribute and write part of the story as it is unfolding - often with unexpected results! That is something that you just can't get from a book - the interaction is of an entirely different nature, yet can still very much be 'consumed' in the same way if you choose to [my two cents worth, and maybe a little rambling - but then it was kinda inspired by the parent link...]

DanielBMarkham 17y ago

good stuff. No seriously, the long narrative is dying. I just finished "Anna Karenina" and am seriously thinking about "War and Peace" for the holidays (perhaps all the holidays to come, based on it's length) and I can say it was more of a struggle for me to engage the long-form narrative now than it was 10 years ago. And being a techie, one of my key competitive advantages is being able to consume big, sometimes really boring, books. After all, what's the first reply to any technical question on the web? Have you RTFM? Or on a aggregator like here? Have you RTFA? Most of the time the answer is "no" Too bad we Ashton Kutchner can't teach us physics via tweets. We've have a freaking nation of rocket scientists. (Having said all of that, I understand we have a large contingent of people going through college. Hopefully since you're supposed to be working those reading muscles out a lot this won't apply as much to you guys as it does to the rest of us)

christopherolah 17y ago

The Internet is killing storytelling? What? http://www.fanfiction.net/ http://www.fanfiction.net/ http://www.fictionpress.com/ http://www.fictionpress.com/ http://www.scribd.com/ http://www.scribd.com/ (And lots of others...) I rest my case.

JCThoughtscream 17y ago
Though, to be fair, fanfiction.net is its own argument against internet literacy.

stcredzero 17y ago

It's the 21st century. Just because the mainstream isn't actively engaged in your favorite form of it doesn't meant it's dead. Heck, even if every native-born English speaker stopped writing and reading novels, there's a good chance that some community of Japanese Otaku would arise to lovingly curate it forever. The 3 minute pop tune didn't kill the symphony. Just because it's not what the mainstream is doing, doesn't mean it's dead. Note that classical music has found a new home, appreciated by the mainstream in movie soundtracks. Your community might be waning, but it won't die. Sometimes, a downturn can even be a blessing!

albertsun 17y ago

This kind of article is just as annoying as the opposite extreme, the claim that the mainstream media is dead and good riddance. There's such a culture clash right now between people raised in traditional media and publishing cultures and those who come from technology backgrounds, and neither side seems to appreciate the other.

blasdel 17y ago

TIME FOR SOME STORIES: http://www.storylog.com/time-for-some-stories-davesecretary/ http://www.storylog.com/time-for-some-stories-davesecretary/

10ren 17y ago

Parables were short. Novels are the aberration.

fhars 17y ago

The wire telegraph and the rotary printing press killed storytelling some time in the 19th century with these newfangled "papers" that everybody is still moaning about. No, wait, that moaning now is about these papers disappearing again because a new, stronger narrative medium has come along. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=572887 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=572887 In other news, culture is in a process of steady decline at least since the invention of the written word.