![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Part 1 is here.
So this new invention comes out with the ability to tell stories. It's high-tech, it's flashy, it's a whole new experience, and all the old fuddy-duddies are like, "Oh no! Now nobody will want to read BOOKS anymore!"
... said the fuddy-duddies in the early days of television.
Granted, the storytelling styles of a paper book vs an eBook are much more similar than those of books vs television. But still, I think if we look at paper books and e...CONTENT as two separate kinds of media, we not only lessen our fears of one killing off the other, but we also allow ourselves the freedom to embrace the differences between them, and create new art that is perfect for its format.
First, to define my terms. I try to avoid the term "eBook." I don't BELIEVE in eBooks. There's no such thing. A book is an object, a physical entity, a stack of bound paper: it is a MEDIUM for transmitting information. That information could be a story, a novel, a collection of poetry or recipes or pictures or data. But the BOOK is the object HOLDING all that information. What people call an eBook should really be called an eNovel. If it's a novel. It's eCONTENT.
A contributor to the GeekMom blog recently reviewed something that she, too, refused to call an eBook. She called it a "Story App." Her reasoning was that, with all the unique game-like functions of the thing, this was something entirely new, DIFFERENT than a picture book. And I think this is what ought to be happening with electronic content. Sure, you can write in the familiar formats-- the novel, the short story, the verse-- but you really shouldn't look at it as the same old thing in a new container. The container itself changes the way it works. It changes the boundaries. It changes the fixed nature of the work. It changes the access. It changes the sensory options. You can't look at it as a straightforward transition-- "Here's this novel on paper-- and now it's on a screen!" We need to use the possibilities of new media to find NEW WAYS to tell stories, to develop new art forms!
Take television again. When it was new, people weren't quite sure what to do with it. There were a lot of talking heads. A lot of stage productions filmed directly with one camera, then broadcast as is. Over time, creators for television started developing with the medium in mind-- USING the unique qualities of television until they were telling wonderful stories*-- even educating people!-- in ways that could not be done in any other format. Old media did show up in television form, but they didn't become something special until they fully embraced their televised place. Puppetry, for example. A camera aimed at a show in a puppet theater? Well, it allows people who aren't at the show to see it, so that's something, but it's kind of dull-- nothing like a live show. Then along comes this guy I like named Jim, who says, "Hey, why don't we adapt puppetry to take advantage of all the things you can do with television! The SCREEN is now the puppet stage! We can use camera movements to aid the puppetry! We can use stop-motion and cuts and special effects!" and before you know it, he's revolutionized the ancient art of puppetry. Except we usually forget that, because to us, it's just something totally new. It's the Muppets.
Likewise electronic storytelling is not meeting its potential by just being text on a screen. This is time to incorporate things into our storytelling that you can't DO on paper: hyperlinks, multimedia, massively big things, microscopically tiny things, animation, color changes! Because you CAN. What new kinds of art can we create?
There are other advantages to the electronic format. The ability to easily update information and make changes if needed. The freedom to experiment with different forms of writing-- essays, short stories, poems, multimedia things, comics and illustrated stories, and you don't have to worry about it fitting into a standard-sized book. You can experiment with telling stories in serialized form. You can make stories interactive for the audience-- Choose Your Own Adventure Gone Haywire! The storytelling possibilities are endless.
The thing is, this isn't the future of storytelling, this is the NOW. I don't have an eReader, but I LOVE reading things in electronic format (and probably do too much of it as it is). It's called the Internet. I've read and seen some pretty fabulous things online.
But this hasn't suddenly made me NOT NEED the paper format anymore. Reading a paper book is relaxing. It's a tactile thing. It's got a smell to it. And it's a chance to get AWAY from the blinking, flickering, electricity-draining screens in my life.
It's also a physical entity I can keep and treasure. A book can be given as a gift. You can write a personal message to the recipient inside the cover or on the endpaper. You can get it signed by the author, even!
And a picture book is an art form in itself. Forget the crappy picture-storybooks they sell in dollar stores, I'm talking REAL, HIGH-QUALITY PICTURE BOOKS. Every detail is worked out to tell the story to effect: the right words, the right pictures, the font of the words, the placement, the size, the page turns-- everything works together. You cannot just copy that to an e-format and expect it to be the same. You don't just take a picture of a Great Painting with your cell phone and claim you've got a masterpiece on you now. Electronic stories for children are story apps, not picture books. Picture books are picture books. And maybe, because there's no way they can be replaced by electronic media and still be the same, maybe they'll actually take off as an art form for all ages. I can hope, anyway.
I think kids growing up are actually more likely to see paper and electronic storytelling as two separate things. It's us grownups trying to fit old formats into new formats and vice versa who end up coining terms like "eBook." For a toddler like Maddie, it's all just toys. The TV has songs and stories. Electronic toys do, too. You can also make music on the piano. The computer is fun if only Mommy would let me on it. And BOOKS. You always have to have books. You flip through the pages. You study the pictures. You talk about the things you see there. Maddie loves books-- "book" was one of her first words. She often insists on having one-- not hearing it read, even, just looking at it herself. She sometimes insists that Mommy just HOLD a book--- ANY book-- while she's being nursed, or even just sitting in Mommy's lap. I guess it's a comfort thing-- a Book is Just Supposed to Be There. As far as she's concerned, a book is a special toy with its own unique qualities.
For that matter, paper books are more likely to be given to toddlers, anyway. A kid can have ownership of a book of their very own-- rather than numerous possible Story Apps they might occasionally look at on their parents' iPhone.
This week a study mentioned in Publisher's Weekly indicated that I'm right about this: kids DO see books and electronic media as two separate things, with equal potential for fun and usefulness. The kids are tech-savvy, yes, but they're not giving up the OLD tech, either. It's only the adults who think otherwise.
So what's really the future of electronic media, and how should we use it? I'll discuss that in my next post.
--
*Okay, quite a lot of really crappy stories, too. But that's true in every form of media, really.
So this new invention comes out with the ability to tell stories. It's high-tech, it's flashy, it's a whole new experience, and all the old fuddy-duddies are like, "Oh no! Now nobody will want to read BOOKS anymore!"
... said the fuddy-duddies in the early days of television.
Granted, the storytelling styles of a paper book vs an eBook are much more similar than those of books vs television. But still, I think if we look at paper books and e...CONTENT as two separate kinds of media, we not only lessen our fears of one killing off the other, but we also allow ourselves the freedom to embrace the differences between them, and create new art that is perfect for its format.
First, to define my terms. I try to avoid the term "eBook." I don't BELIEVE in eBooks. There's no such thing. A book is an object, a physical entity, a stack of bound paper: it is a MEDIUM for transmitting information. That information could be a story, a novel, a collection of poetry or recipes or pictures or data. But the BOOK is the object HOLDING all that information. What people call an eBook should really be called an eNovel. If it's a novel. It's eCONTENT.
A contributor to the GeekMom blog recently reviewed something that she, too, refused to call an eBook. She called it a "Story App." Her reasoning was that, with all the unique game-like functions of the thing, this was something entirely new, DIFFERENT than a picture book. And I think this is what ought to be happening with electronic content. Sure, you can write in the familiar formats-- the novel, the short story, the verse-- but you really shouldn't look at it as the same old thing in a new container. The container itself changes the way it works. It changes the boundaries. It changes the fixed nature of the work. It changes the access. It changes the sensory options. You can't look at it as a straightforward transition-- "Here's this novel on paper-- and now it's on a screen!" We need to use the possibilities of new media to find NEW WAYS to tell stories, to develop new art forms!
Take television again. When it was new, people weren't quite sure what to do with it. There were a lot of talking heads. A lot of stage productions filmed directly with one camera, then broadcast as is. Over time, creators for television started developing with the medium in mind-- USING the unique qualities of television until they were telling wonderful stories*-- even educating people!-- in ways that could not be done in any other format. Old media did show up in television form, but they didn't become something special until they fully embraced their televised place. Puppetry, for example. A camera aimed at a show in a puppet theater? Well, it allows people who aren't at the show to see it, so that's something, but it's kind of dull-- nothing like a live show. Then along comes this guy I like named Jim, who says, "Hey, why don't we adapt puppetry to take advantage of all the things you can do with television! The SCREEN is now the puppet stage! We can use camera movements to aid the puppetry! We can use stop-motion and cuts and special effects!" and before you know it, he's revolutionized the ancient art of puppetry. Except we usually forget that, because to us, it's just something totally new. It's the Muppets.
Likewise electronic storytelling is not meeting its potential by just being text on a screen. This is time to incorporate things into our storytelling that you can't DO on paper: hyperlinks, multimedia, massively big things, microscopically tiny things, animation, color changes! Because you CAN. What new kinds of art can we create?
There are other advantages to the electronic format. The ability to easily update information and make changes if needed. The freedom to experiment with different forms of writing-- essays, short stories, poems, multimedia things, comics and illustrated stories, and you don't have to worry about it fitting into a standard-sized book. You can experiment with telling stories in serialized form. You can make stories interactive for the audience-- Choose Your Own Adventure Gone Haywire! The storytelling possibilities are endless.
The thing is, this isn't the future of storytelling, this is the NOW. I don't have an eReader, but I LOVE reading things in electronic format (and probably do too much of it as it is). It's called the Internet. I've read and seen some pretty fabulous things online.
But this hasn't suddenly made me NOT NEED the paper format anymore. Reading a paper book is relaxing. It's a tactile thing. It's got a smell to it. And it's a chance to get AWAY from the blinking, flickering, electricity-draining screens in my life.
It's also a physical entity I can keep and treasure. A book can be given as a gift. You can write a personal message to the recipient inside the cover or on the endpaper. You can get it signed by the author, even!
And a picture book is an art form in itself. Forget the crappy picture-storybooks they sell in dollar stores, I'm talking REAL, HIGH-QUALITY PICTURE BOOKS. Every detail is worked out to tell the story to effect: the right words, the right pictures, the font of the words, the placement, the size, the page turns-- everything works together. You cannot just copy that to an e-format and expect it to be the same. You don't just take a picture of a Great Painting with your cell phone and claim you've got a masterpiece on you now. Electronic stories for children are story apps, not picture books. Picture books are picture books. And maybe, because there's no way they can be replaced by electronic media and still be the same, maybe they'll actually take off as an art form for all ages. I can hope, anyway.
I think kids growing up are actually more likely to see paper and electronic storytelling as two separate things. It's us grownups trying to fit old formats into new formats and vice versa who end up coining terms like "eBook." For a toddler like Maddie, it's all just toys. The TV has songs and stories. Electronic toys do, too. You can also make music on the piano. The computer is fun if only Mommy would let me on it. And BOOKS. You always have to have books. You flip through the pages. You study the pictures. You talk about the things you see there. Maddie loves books-- "book" was one of her first words. She often insists on having one-- not hearing it read, even, just looking at it herself. She sometimes insists that Mommy just HOLD a book--- ANY book-- while she's being nursed, or even just sitting in Mommy's lap. I guess it's a comfort thing-- a Book is Just Supposed to Be There. As far as she's concerned, a book is a special toy with its own unique qualities.
For that matter, paper books are more likely to be given to toddlers, anyway. A kid can have ownership of a book of their very own-- rather than numerous possible Story Apps they might occasionally look at on their parents' iPhone.
This week a study mentioned in Publisher's Weekly indicated that I'm right about this: kids DO see books and electronic media as two separate things, with equal potential for fun and usefulness. The kids are tech-savvy, yes, but they're not giving up the OLD tech, either. It's only the adults who think otherwise.
So what's really the future of electronic media, and how should we use it? I'll discuss that in my next post.
--
*Okay, quite a lot of really crappy stories, too. But that's true in every form of media, really.
