The Future of the Novel

So, what can we see from this comparison? 
One significant difference is the amount of text present. Other than dialogue, the enhanced version eliminated a great deal of text, which included the musings of the main character and the narrative voice. Known for both her beautiful writing and her ability to characterize, Austen has been described by George Henry Lewes as “the greatest artist that has ever written, using the term to signify the most perfect mastery over the means to her end” (Maitzen 50). And yet, with this new format, we have erased part of her writing and included snap shots of actors’ interpretations of her writing.

However, this idea of the camera provides a benefit of its own. Walter Benjamin said:

While some have criticized the enhanced e-book for taking away the necessity of reader imagination, it is also true that presented images may take us to places that our imaginations would have never found on their own. Indeed, we can be fully submersed in exactly what the character is seeing and hearing. Historians of the novel argue that the novel was bred from modern realism. What can be more realistic in this current era than a reader engaging their senses in the exact same experience the character is having? It can be argued that not only is the digital format not destroying the novel tradition, but is following and expanding it.

Another convenient feature of the enhanced e-book is the ability to link extraneous information to the text. How many times while reading a novel have you thought "I wonder what that looks like?" or have had to go look up a historical reference or foreign word? In this new format, all of this information is literally at your fingertips. Just look at this blog: what would normally be a long, dry essay has turned into a participatory and colorful experience, with many interactive links that help incorporate the ideas of myself and others. These extras may seem like a distraction from the primary text, but contextual information also lends the reader greater understanding of the text. 

This new format does however pose problems regarding the author. 
If this new format is indeed conveying a deeper sense of experience by utilizing multiple senses, then Benjamin may be pleased to see a return of storytelling, for as he lamented with the rise of the novel, “the communicability of experience is decreasing” (McKeon "Storyteller" 79). It could be that the new e-book is a response to the isolated, private feel of the traditional novel. Benjamin also said, “The earliest symptom of a process whose end is the decline of storytelling is the rise of the novel at the beginning of modern times. What distinguishes the novel from the story (and from the epic in the narrower sense) is its essential dependence on the book” (McKeon "Storyteller" 79). Perhaps the decline of the traditional novel engenders an incline of storytelling through visual and audio components.

On the other hand, with so much emphasis taken from the written word, can the enhanced e-book novels truly be considered novels? This question leads us down the dark path of what the definition of a novel is, which answer has been attempted by many people much more intelligent than me. It has been suggested that a novel is defined by its indefinability. Rather than asking what a novel is, perhaps it is easier to ask what a novel is not? According to Roland Barthes, “We know that a text does not consist of a line of words, releasing a single ‘theological’ meaning (the ‘message’ of the Author-God), but is a space of many dimensions, in which are wedded and contested various kind of writing, no one of which is original: the text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture” (4).

From Joyce's Ulysses

In his essay, Barthes attempts to determine the source of good writing, which according to him is the result of the “death of the author.” If, as Barthes suggests, a text is a myriad of suggestive ideas that have nothing to do with the author, what happens when the written word is removed? In that case, we are being fed a stream of author-intended images with no other option but to accept what we see. It seems that with these enhanced e-books, if we regain the tradition of storytelling, we lose the potential that comes from the ambiguity and suggestiveness of words. According to Dr. Jonathan Butler, “The danger, as more and more writers move to a digital format for their work, is that this kind of novel [with evocative text] becomes less common, and even threatens to disappear altogether as the lure of visual images for both writers and readers has them spending most of their time connecting words with images through the click of the mouse...” (6-7).

In his book, Glyn White quotes Walter Ong, who said, “‘Print situates words in space more relentlessly than writing ever did. Writing moves words from the sound world to a world of visual space, but print locks words in this position in space’” (27). It appears that for the last couple centuries, print has also situated a culture in place, one that revolved around the sanctity of the novel. Perhaps the novel has lasted as long as it does because its definition is so fluid; writers have not needed to seek for a drastically different mode because their creative needs have been met in the freedom of the novel. Now, as the shape of the novel begins to change, people become uncomfortable and antagonistic. However, remembering that the novel itself was first formed under somewhat similar circumstances (technological advances, experimentation with form, available time and resources), it stands to reason that this next step in e-book publishing is a natural evolution of the novel. It is more drastic than any we have seen in recent history, but it should not be shocking.

Although you may accept that the change may be natural, the question still lingers of whether or not it is a good change. 
As Dr. Butler put it,

The truth is, nobody can know what the future of the novel holds. Enhanced e-books may flop, be chalked up as an undesirable money pit, and traditional format novels will continue to rule the markets and hearts of the people. Or, slowly but surely, this new idea will take root and continue to develop until the novel and modern publishing becomes in ten years something we would not recognize today. It is undeniable that digital media has greatly influenced the way we think and function in recent years. Whether you favor storytelling or privacy, clearly outlined narrative or complex word play, the incredible thing about the novel (whatever it is) is that, in its various forms, it can satisfy all of these demands. 

Works Cited