On Adaptation

I have had a stressed relationship with the internet over the past several years. On the one hand, I have made a sincere effort to assert my independence from the internet ever since it became a fad. On the other hand, I have become increasingly dependent upon it for academics, connecting with friends, and entertainment. And here I am blogging. How preposterous of me to think I should be condemning the world wide web. Nevertheless, I maintain my insistence that connecting with people over the internet is hollow and insubstantial.

I guess this comes back to my tendency to try to see both sides of every situation, but that is another discussion.

Both my studies and my own personal reflections have led me to think more and more about the internet and its role in society, particularly when it comes to the written word. I want to make a career out of writing after all. Nevertheless, I must admit that print is a dying art. I don't want to downplay it; I love print. I love having a good book to hold. But it is impossible to deny that the internet is the new medium for information. Newspapers and books are increasingly web based, and internet culture is changing the way that people look at these genres. We are a culture that prizes speed and efficiency. People don't want to sit down and slog through a whole mess of words (okay, some of us still love it, but I am making generalities here).

This brings me to the novel. Writing a novel has always been a dream of mine, much like it has been a dream of most of the English students I have ever met. I remain convinced that I will one day author a novel, but if, in the future, no one is going to be interested in printing or reading it, then to what point and purpose will I be writing? Perhaps products like the Amazon Kindle will keep novels as we know them alive for a bit longer, but the irrevocable fact is that the future of the written word lies on the internet.

People like me and others more talented have been dabbling in how the internet may be used artistically. There are sites featuring photography, poetry, short stories, web comics, etc. Even novels can be easily found online thanks to sites like Project Gutenberg. However, I don't believe that the internet has met its full potential yet, especially when it comes to writing. If the written word is going to find a niche in artistic expression, it is going to have to look much different. Perhaps not something completely new, but definitely different. I think that with the post-modern novel, things could be moving in the right direction. But perhaps writers need to look back as well as forward. Many Victorian writers (such as Charles Dickens) published their novels in serial formats, releasing small vignettes on a monthly basis. Blogs and web comics already function this way. Why can't the epics of our time do that?

My thoughts on this have been mostly conceptual thus far. I'm not sure how something like this would actually play out, but I am imagining lots of short vignettes around a common theme linking to one another, maybe incorporating images and even poetry. Who knows? It may not even have to look like traditional prose. The amazing thing about the internet is how limitless it is. Perhaps it is time I got over myself and accepted the internet as the medium of our time. Maybe it is time I realized adapting does not mean assimilating.