They interrupt narrative and disrupt plot – no wonder novelists have been slow to warm to mobile phones. But a new generation is putting technology at the heart of their workWhat do you call a phone when it rings in a fictional world? “Mobile” and “cell” are old, “smartphone” is almost a tautology and “phone” is so intrusive that the word seems to ring out shrilly from the page the instant you type it. This may be because we read fiction partly to escape our phones, or it may be that phones, even fictional ones, seem to demand too much of our attention. Telephones, of the kind we all keep handy, are so much a part of daily life we touch them as often as our faces. But phones in fiction require a sleight of hand: if characters use them as realism dictates, they will feel as interruptive on the page as they do at the dinner table. How can authors navigate this challenge?Like bathrooms and paid employment, it is amazing how often phones are dispensed with by many otherwise realist fiction writers. JM Coetzee famously wrote to Paul Auster (in Here and Now, the 2013 selection of their letters) that he was not prepared “to write novels in which people go around with personal electronic devices”. Because, if “everyone has access to more or less everyone else, what becomes of all that plotting?” He also lamented the impact of mobile technology on the “novel of adultery”, though surely Sally Rooney has proved there was nothing to fear. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2023-07-22 10:00:09 UTC ]
News tagged with:
#mobile technology
#daily life
#dinner table
#paul auster
#write novels
#novelists
Campaigners trying to create a community library in Kensal Rise are seeking £70,000 of... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#community library
#kensal rise
Apple has held talks with the organisers of the Women's Prize for Fiction with a view to... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#fiction sponsorship
#held talks
Pages of Hackney in East London will today hold what is being billed as London’s first ever... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-08-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#east london
#hackney bookshop
The rise of ebooks will "fundamentally change" the types of stories that are written and who they are written by, award-winning author Denise Mina predicts. Continue reading at BBC News
[ BBC News | 2012-07-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
US publishers' sales of ebooks more than doubled in 2011, meaning that the digital book is... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#digital book
Although quarterly revenue dropped 2.1 percent, the newspaper publisher earned 56 cents a share, beating a forecast of 52 cents. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2012-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Japan is set to fully enter the ebook age with four high-profile device launches in the next few... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-07-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Cambridge University Press has seen its digital revenues rise 70% over the past year to account... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-29 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#digital revenues
The top 10 publishers in the world had their lowest combined market share last year in the Livres... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Fiction Uncovered will be running a four-day pop-up radio station, Fiction Uncovered FM at Foyles... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#radio station
#fiction uncovered
IDG Enterprise looks to better serve their advertisers with the launch of its Premium Data Services, a portfolio of products that will integrate both first and third party data for ad clients looking to more deeply understand their target audiences. Continue reading at Folio Magazine
[ Folio Magazine | 2012-06-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#third-party data
#ad clients
#target audiences
The Friends of the Kensal Rise Library has written to All Souls College to ask it to consider... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#souls college
The May sunshine led to a 3.4% total sales increase last month, according to the British Retail... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#british retail
A title from crowd-sourcing publisher Unbound has been chosen for Fiction Uncovered’s... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Orange will not renew its title sponsorship of The Women's Prize for Fiction after this year... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#fiction prize
#title sponsorship
Library campaigners in Kensal Rise have barricaded the doors to prevent council staff from... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#library campaigners
#kensal rise
Octogenarian Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this |
Phoenix Yard Books, which launched in 2011, is to expand its fiction publishing in 2013 with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2012-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#phoenix yard
#fiction publishing
Erika Leonard laughs a lot, a deep wheezy chortle. And why wouldn't she? Leonard, a 49-year-old overnight publishing sensation, is laughing all the way to the bank. In the past few months the former TV executive has had her first novel, Fifty Shades of Grey, dominate the New York Times... Continue reading at Stuff
[ Stuff | 2012-05-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#tv executive
#fifty shades
#publishing houses
#film rights
It might not have had as many lives as your average cat, but Weinstein Books has gone through more than a few reincarnations. The publishing unit tied to Bob and Harvey Weinstein was unveiled in 2001, when the independent film-producing brothers were intent on creating a mini–media empire,... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-05-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:
#weinstein books
#harvey weinstein
#media empire
#book division
#film studio
#books division
#full-time staff
#latest iteration