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 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.