The creators of the publication Electric Literature define their mission as using “new media and innovative distribution to return the short story to a place of prominence in popular culture.” By using print on demand, Kindle, iphones and audiobooks, Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum are creating ways to make literature accessible to the technological mediums people use on a regular basis. According to a recent article in the New York Times, October 28, 2009, one associate is going to Tweet a novel over the course of three days.
One of the most innovative measures of promoting literature is the animated video bites that Electric Literature has created in partnership with their writers and other artists. Contributors choose a sentence from their published piece and then visual artists create a short illustration of that sentence. Similar to a movie preview, the video interprets the sentence, thereby promoting the short story.
Readers Participate in the Short Story
More than a revival of the presumably dead short story, these ideas are a development in what is already happening to the place of literature in popular culture. If Electric Literature is not a hero, they are least participants in what is taking place in the trends of reading and information consumption today.
This multi-media fiction venture encourages a participatory interaction with short stories. Not only does technology make literature more portable by making it pocket size, but it encourages community interaction with the story as well. The idea of Tweeting a novel hearkens back to the days when stories were published in magazines in installments, creating a subscription culture around the story and cultivating a form of solidarity between readers. Adding the ability to tweet back will encourage an interactive reading experience.
Accessible Literature: Quick or Free?
One thing that Hunter and Lindenbaum have not figured out is how to make their stories free. Electronic subscriptions cost $24 and print copies cost twice that. In this Google age it is hard to count any development as substantial unless the information provided is free. This comes down to what is meant when something is “accessible.” Does that mean it’s portable, quick or free? Electric Literature will no doubt soon discover which of those is most important to its readers.
Other companies with interest in providing accessible literature include DailyLit, where readers can subscribe to books and then set up delivery via email at a specified time of day. By coordinating with sponsors such as MacMillan and Wiley Publishing Companies, DailyLit provides books for free.
Compromised Aesthetic
But what does Electric Literature have that DailyLit does not? There is no doubt that Electric Literature provides an aesthetic that is hard to resist, especially for the McSweeny's-type crowd. Whereas reading a book by excerpts over email can damage some of the romance of reading, Electric Literature creates an artistic appeal that may compete with the smell of used books and the feel of pliable bindings.
Whether Electric Literature is saving the book or replacing it, they are implementing creative, not to mention sustainable methods of distributing and promoting fiction in new and exciting ways.
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