Suspend Your Disbelief

Posts Tagged ‘lit and tech’

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In Praise of Brevity, Part II: how the Kindle might help popularize the short story

by Anne Stameshkin

A. O. Scott, from this weekend’s NY Times: “And just as the iPod has killed the album, so the Kindle might, in time, spur a revival of the short story. If you can buy a single song for a dollar, why wouldn’t you spend that much on a handy, compact package of character, incident and linguistic invention? Why wouldn’t you collect dozens, or hundreds, into a personal anthology, a playlist of humor, pathos, mystery and surprise?”


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more (and more and more) e-reader and Kindle links

by Anne Stameshkin

In the latest The Quarterly Conversation, William Patrick Wend’s “Intro to E-Lit: How Electronic Literature Makes Printed Literature Richer” discusses N. Katherine Hayles’ book Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary and defends e-publishing. Slate‘s Farhad Manjoo loves the Kindle but fears it’s bad news for the current publishing industry. Booksquare argues that the text-to-speech verdict, supposedly a win by Authors Guild (who aggressively pursued this issue), might (ironically) benefit Amazon the most in the end. Check out her earlier post on e-book pricing. The latest Kindle news is at Kindlebuzz, and folks are talking about nothing else at KindleBoards.


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lit and tech linkage

by Anne Stameshkin

Can Twitter help publishers and stores sell books? Check out Ann Kingman’s findings on the Booksellers Blog. David Pogue hearts the new Kindle and answers concerns about the end of print publishing with three words: “Don’t be silly.” But Tim O’Reilly offers this “bold prediction”: “Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years. […] Open allows experimentation. Open encourages competition. Open wins.” Launching in March, Kachingle is a new online service that will encourage people to donate to newspapers, […]


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Kindle 2.0

by Anne Stameshkin

Amazon’s brand new Kindle 2 is here, and Brad Stone says it’s “lighter, brighter, and chattier.” I admit it…I want one, and at the same time, I feel guilty for wanting one. It’s hard not to be sucked in by hyperbolic exclamations that this e-book reader is either the savior of publishing or the harbinger of its death. What do you think — is it harmful, helpful, or totally innocuous/inconsequential to purchase one? If you have a Kindle 1.0, how do you like it, and are you considering an upgrade? Here’s Stephen King at today’s launch; King scored a free […]


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write…or die

by Anne Stameshkin

If you need extra motivation to put more words-to-screen during a writing session, Dr. Wicked‘s web app Write or Die might help. From Dr. Wicked’s site: Write or Die is a web application that encourages writing by punishing the tendency to avoid writing. Start typing in the box. As long as you keep typing, you’re fine, but once you stop typing, you have a grace period of a certain number of seconds and then there are consequences. […] The idea is to instill in the would-be writer a fear of not writing. Depending on the mode you choose, consequences are: […]


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warning: reading leads to "vivid mental simulations of narrative situations"

by Anne Stameshkin

A Wash-U study using magnetic resonance imaging suggests that reading stories is anything but passive: Rather, readers mentally simulate each new situation encountered in a narrative. Details about actions and sensation are captured from the text and integrated with personal knowledge from past experiences. These data are then run through mental simulations using brain regions that closely mirror those involved when people perform, imagine, or observe similar real-world activities.


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distractions while writ…*clicks away*

by Anne Stameshkin

Cory Doctorow defends the Internet, saying the worst piece of writing advice he ever received was to stay away from it. He offers some solid tips for avoiding distractions while writing and setting small, attainable daily goals. How distracted are you by IM, skype, blogs, email, internet research etc. while trying to write? Are you more tempted by online or off-line distractions? How (and how successfully) do you resist them?


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the wovel

by Anne Stameshkin

Editor/publisher Victoria Blake (Underland Press), along with programmer Jesse Pollack, is the force behind a new literary form: the online serial novel, or wovel; NPR describes it as “Choose your Own Adventure meets Wikipedia.” A self-confessed blog addict who loves reading frequently-updated online content, Blake thought it would be great to have opportunities to read literature online in a serial form, a la Dickens (and more recently Chabon), and to have that experience be interactive. Here is Underland’s official description of the wovel (from their website): Every week, the author posts an installment. Installment length hits the sweet-spot of online […]


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Get totally depressed! Then get your hope on.

by Anne Stameshkin

The book industry–hell, literature itself–is in jeopardy, and even some of the most avid readers are getting blamed. This has been a very traumatic season for publishing…even highly successful celebrity editors have been laid off from houses big and small, and some publishers aren’t signing any new books. It’s clear we need to think about change at every level of the industry; as publishers, booksellers, journalists, and authors raise the alarm, will we find creative ways to fight the fire or curl up on the floor of a burning house? Read how we might learn to publish without perishing, why […]




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