Interactive Literature

The future of novels is apparently here. With the rise of Iphones, Ipod touches and Ipads, as well as people looking into moving publishing into the next generation, it seems the words on everyone's lips are 'how do we make reading an interactive experience?'

Ebooks are the industries first attempt at this, with the Kindle and Ipad especially highlighting just how interesting these things can be. Both can show basic functions, say for example a digital book with a touch screen so you can turn pages. Text can be resized and background colours can be changed to make it easier to read. This is fairly standard, and for most would be considered pretty satisfactory.

But then a book like this comes along and shows everyone just how a digital book should be done. With smart physical effects moving scenary and developing aspects of the story in stunning high definition, this is a must have app for the Ipad.

But that's just as far as things are going at the moment. What I'm interested in is the future.

Let's take a look at a some trends in literature, and just how these can be worked into apps, to make interactive literature an essential part of the reading experience.

Teenage fiction, and to be honest, young adult fiction is predominately dominated these days by series of books. Harry Potter, Twilight, True Blood, the Discworld and even to an extent, series such as James Pattersons detective novels. These books all have shared universes, filled with locations and characters. They have rules and mythologies. Harry Potter even has textbooks. What if there was an app for those universes. So whilst you're reading the text you can touch an image or link on the screen and be whisked away to some other information. So, for example you're reading a chapter of Harry Potter where he's in a potions class. How about the image behind the text is of the classroom, or a desk. You can click on a textbook and be taken to a replica potions book, complete with spells, or how about clicking on an image of Snape at the head of the class and be taken to a profile of his character, biographical information etc...and then, with another click on there, get taken to a family tree-esque diagram where you can see how his character fits in with the rest of the cast.

Think about how this could apply to some of your favourite books? Imagine a Discworld series where the footnotes are all links to other information, and a map of the Discworld was readily available. Especially in terms of fantasy and sci-fi - the cornerstones of world building and fanbases that eat up continuity, this could be the future of those franchises.

Augmented reality apps are another option. These can already be found on Iphones and Ipads and look a little like this. An extra layer of reality viewed through the camera, recognising distance and location. There's a definite market for this in terms of literature. I point you to the brilliant Rainy City Stories, who have on their website a map of Manchester, along with short stories and poetry about specific locations. But what if those locations could be viewed through an Iphones camera, and then when you reach them, it triggers an audio version of a poem or story, or even just brings up the story alongside the camera. Applying location specific literature to applications that deal in location specifics can only enhance the literature. There are already books out there that try to deal with this aspect, for instance Lyra's Oxford or Ian Rankin's Edinburgh. I could see the use of an app that shows locations featured in the novels, or even direct you along the path of your favourite novels.

Anyone have any other ideas for making literature more interactive?

Webcomics

Just a quick post to say that these two webcomics are very very good indeed.


Troop 142


Nathan Sorry

What I've Been Reading. Over and Over again.

I like to think I'm better than Lee Child, he who manages to write fourteen books starring Jack Reacher, without making a single painfully obvious Reacher-round joke. However, I geniunely felt a little admiration for him when I was pointed to this article in which Child quite wonderfully admits that anyone could knock up a literary classic, but he's much more doubtful that the reverse could be true. So, the question I guess is this - can genre fiction be literary fiction?

I find it quite admirable that he's saying these things, about not just story but character, example quote, "People don't want a character to change. With a series like Reacher, people want to know what they're getting - oh good, another Reacher."

I don't necessarily think this is true. I mean, I'm a massive comic book fan, and not just graphic novels or Indie books, I'm talking about real superhero comics. One of my favourite characters out there is Spiderman.

Now, I'm not about to start claming that Spiderman is any sort of literary classic. Of course, he's a classic character, a brilliant creation, but the work on him is never going to considered in a pantheon that considers Lolita and War & Peace. That's not the argument. What Spiderman does give us, is a perfect example of what editors think about the changeability of characters.

Let's set the scene.

In the beginning, a mild mannered teenager became a superhero thanks to the bite of a radioactive spider. Everyone knows this part. He learned the hard way that with great power comes great responsibility, after the death of his Uncle Ben. He learned even harder, that when you let people into your life (as a superhero) you risk their lives, after his first love, Gwen Stacy died. These events, from way back in the 60's have been affecting the character ever since.

Cut to the start of this decade. Peter Parker, now no longer a photographer, is married to Mary Jane Watson, is a college lecturer and...guess what...has grown and changed as a character. He's moved on from these hangups from the 60's. Yes they still haunt him, but it feels realistic that he's moving past it.

Cut to 2007 and Spiderman reveals his identity to the world. Everyone knows he's Peter Parker now. This is a massive change for the character, showing a logical step in the stories being told. This is Parker moving completely on from his worries and accepting that he has a strong family who can look after themselves.

This is all preamble to a few years ago. In a major storyline, Peter and Mary Jane essentially annull their marriage via a deal with the devil and as a (completely inexplicable) result, the world around them changes. Spiderman's secret identity is under wraps again, Peter Parker is single, broke and a photographer (once more). This giant reset button undid everything that had been worked on with the character, and something that comics seem to rarely do these days is build character and develop them in stories like this.

So when Lee Child says people aren't looking for character development, that they want the same thing. I think it can be misleading. I think people would like to see development, they want to see characters go somewhere, and not just be ciphers for plot and exposition. I for one, get much more enjoyment, even in genre fiction, when characters develop and learn.

Sitcom characters never learn as a rule, because once they start learning, once they start developing, the only option is drama, just look at Friends. Thrillers, horror and science fiction shouldn't be afraid to take their characters somewhere emotionally, not least because its interesting for the reader, but mostly because it makes everything that little bit more dramatic.