Quote:
Originally Posted by jgaiser
I humbly disagree. Books (printing) have been around a long time through many "technological" changes and we're still reading fiction.
And I think great novel can be and are still being written. Orwell's 1984, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (yes, I think it's a great novel).
Not that I *don't* think that ebooks are going to bring about changes that the publishing industry is not going to like.
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What 'great' novels, and by great I don't mean literary triumphs (there's plenty of them), have been published in the last 20 years? The novels that have most affected the society we live in have been children's books in both instances - The Twilight Saga and Harry Potter. How many children read as a pastime compared to how many play video games? Which number is growing and which decreasing in that equation?
Print will die out, it's inevitable. Libraries will close, also inevitable. Everything will move into the digital, there's no stopping that now. How does the novel survive in this landscape? The novel, the short-story depend upon a cultural agreement and, let's face it, the paper-bound book to contain the form. The generations that follow us will have more choice than any generation before them. Technology increases far more quickly than anybody could have ever imagined. Ten years from now when we have 3D holographic immersion, why would anybody read a book (apart from a romantic notion)? Why stare at text when you can interact with the story?
Of course, this is all opinion, but as a writer the one place I'd want to be now more than any other is within the game industry. It's where the next classic* story will be told, I believe.
*Heavy Rain looks like a contender (trailer below)