Radical Change Revisited

[Rebecca]

I am taking a masters class on Children's literature and we are reading Radical Change Revisited an article by Eliza T. Dresang. We then have to interview individuals like Librarians, teachers and authors to see if they agree with Dresang. Dresang believes that authors are influenced by current technological advances and that this affects the way their books are written and illustrated. I thought that if we are going to be talking about technology and how it affects literature using Goodreads would be the perfect way to tie the two together. If you would, please tell me your opinion and your credentials. Thank you!

[M.G.]

Great topic!

We were just discussing e-readers in the schools on the "Getting kids to read more" thread, so you might want to check out that conversation.

But this is fascinating -- does technology affect the way that writers write? My first thought is that picture book authors currently write their books assuming a 24 or 32 page volume, because the physical book is constructed with folded pages. This constraint does affect plot and pacing of the story in an organic way. What happens when that constraint is removed?

Will have to look up Dresang's article!

[Rebecca]

The below web address has the PDF
http://www.editlib.org/p/29478/

[Rebecca]

I'll take a look and comment in a day or two. I'm both a writer and a part-time library lady. Off the top of my head, I know that using the computer helps me to edit more and better, but I don't think that's quite the question you're asking.

[Rebecca]

From what I understood of the article Dresang, is saying that technology has affected the content in books as well as how they are structured and illustrated. Books are interactive now and ask the reader to be a participant. This idea made me think of choose your own adventure books, they came out in the 1980s which is at the start of the technology boom if you will but never really took off. Dresang did mention books that have online components where a reader goes online to participate further. Dresang also mentioned books that jump from one persons perspective to another but that has been around for a long time i.e. Dracula written in 1897.

[Goldie]

Yes, authors are certainly influenced by current technology. The fun is combining that with old fashioned fantasy. If anyone is interested my latest MG novel "eSide: A Journey Through Cyberspace", I combine magic, a wicked witch, a modern cafe, a good luck conch, a Monitor, and traveling to places that can only be created on a computer.
More can be picked up on my website:
www.goldiealexdaner.com

[M.G.]

Rebecca wrote: "The below web address has the PDF
http://www.editlib.org/p/29478/"

Finally had a chance to read this article, and I think it's an important one for anyone trying to understand the changes in literature over the last twenty years!

For anyone interested, this article goes far beyond the changes associated with digital capabilities (like adding bells and whistles and hyperlinked text).

It digs into the way we experience the world through media, which is more random, chaotic, and complex. For example, Dresang discusses the relationship of the increasingly popular literary technique of using multiple viewpoints and our gaming/movie watching culture. She doesn't mention the current tendency to use first person present in fiction, but I think that POV also underscores her basic thought here.

Thanks again for mentioning this, Rebecca.

[Rebecca]

M.G. wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "The below web address has the PDF
http://www.editlib.org/p/29478/"

Finally had a chance to read this article, and I think it's an important one for anyone trying to understand the..."

So about the multiple viewpoints, how is this different from books like Dracula?

[M.G.]

Rebecca wrote: "M.G. wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "The below web address has the PDF
http://www.editlib.org/p/29478/"

Finally had a chance to read this article, and I think it's an important one for anyone trying to u..."

I haven't read Dracula, but your comment makes me curious. It was written in the 19th century, wasn't it?

[Rebecca]

M.G. wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "M.G. wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "The below web address has the PDF
http://www.editlib.org/p/29478/"

Finally had a chance to read this article, and I think it's an important one for an..."

Yes, it is written as a collection of letters, diary entries etc. and it bounces around from character to character to tell the story.

[Rebecca]

M.G. wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "M.G. wrote: "Rebecca wrote: "The below web address has the PDF
http://www.editlib.org/p/29478/"

Finally had a chance to read this article, and I think it's an important one for an..."

M.G. thank you so much for continuing to respond! Do you know some other people who might be interested in this topic, the due date is fast approaching.

[Rebecca]

Rebecca wrote: "I'll take a look and comment in a day or two. I'm both a writer and a part-time library lady. Off the top of my head, I know that using the computer helps me to edit more and better, but I don't ..."

I would love to hear what you have to say!

[Rebecca]

Rebecca,
I'm sorry; I took a look at the article, but in a quick scan didn't really get a grip on anything that resonated, though I was intrigued by the explanation of the format of the "Eye witness" series. My own writing is, I have to say, very traditional. I have no desire to try to create an experience more like using the internet--frankly, I think it just encourages a short attention span, which is a problem for me and everyone else. I'd rather craft stories that will convince a kid to read for an hour at a stretch.

[Rebecca]

Rebecca wrote: "Rebecca,
I'm sorry; I took a look at the article, but in a quick scan didn't really get a grip on anything that resonated, though I was intrigued by the explanation of the format of the "Eye witne..."

With the title of your books I would have thought that you had some influence, they sound action packed worthy of any boy's imagination. (I will have to pick one up, I am a big fan of any story with a librarian in it especially ones that might be good for boys as this group is hard to reach.)
What intrigued you about the "eye witness" series?

[Rebecca]

I think that one reason for allowing technology to influence writing and illustration is because it reaches non readers, apathetic readers and exuberant readers; it appeals to everyone. Most people are mesmerized by technology and children, especially boys are i.e. video games.

[M.G.]

I agree, Rebecca. Graphic novels become hugely popular, middle grade uses a lot more artwork embedded in the story, and illustrations are even beginning to creep into YA.

But comparing the actual writing, I think that there is much more of an emphasis on sensory details, especially visual. Use of the 1st person and close 3rd person points of view now dominate the literary landscape -- it allows us to enter the experience of the story differently.

For a comparison, remember the old cartoons from the 70s, which had a very 2 dimensional feel? Then suddenly with computer animation, the visual angles changed, and the audience is thrown into the middle of a created world (which my kids found WAY too intense when they were little -- they much preferred the more flat, distant old style). But I feel like we've done the same with literature. Pick up, say, Sherlock Holmes or Treasure Island and compare the sensory detailing with Hunger Games or Percy Jackson. We're now invited to experience the story with the MC in a way that we didn't before, in most stories (I'm sure that there are notable exceptions).

[Rebecca]

ARRGGGGH! GR just ate my lengthy comment. I'll try to reconstruct, maybe in pieces.

First, about Eyewitness books: the key element there seems to me to be the range of reading levels the books accommodate, from the non-reader who can look at all the pictures (and maybe work out some of the labels) to those who can handle small blocks of text describing the pictures, to those who can read the whole thing. I think that the combination of different-sized bites and non-linear organization (each element on the page can be read alone, and there usually isn't any particular order to it) is what the writer of the article meant by comparing the structure to reading on the internet.

[Rebecca]

To MG, I'm wondering exactly what it is that makes that greater sense of being in the middle of the story. I was going to say it was the first person narrator, but that's been around for a long time, and doesn't seem adequate. Maybe first person and present tense. Maybe a greater willingness to go into gory detail.

But I also wonder if it isn't partly just because the archaic language of, say, Treasure Island, gets in the way? In other words, did a kid reading TI 100 years ago feel as connected as a modern kid reading Hunger Games? I know I can feel pretty darned connected to Sarah Crewe in A Little Princess despite a non-modern writing style, but maybe that's because I am so widely read in older classics?

[M.G.]

Compare:

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. (Opening to Hunger Games, we experience Katniss's waking in a moment by moment way because we feel the cold, the stretch, the warmth, the rough canvas. These details that puts us in Katniss's body, in that moment. Sensory detail carries emotion in a visceral way.)

Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares. She sat with her feet tucked under her, and leaned against her father, who held her in his arm, as she stared out of the window . . . .(Opening to Little Princess. It's lovely scene setting, and I love Burnett's language. We can sense that she is happy and content by these details, but we don't feel the immediate physical sensations of her experience -- I personally don't prefer one style over another, but if you look at popular trends, 21st century readers prefer closer identification with the MC.

[Rebecca]

M.G. wrote: "Compare:

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. (Opening to Hunger Games, we exp..."

Thank you, that was so helpful!

[Rebecca]

M.G. wrote: "Compare:

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. (Opening to Hunger Games, we exp..."

Jonathan Harker's Journal

3 May. Bistritz.--Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible.

The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.
(opening lines of Dracula)

so even though this first person it has a very different feel.

[Rebecca]

My professor decided to extend the deadline because she will be out of town on the due date! Please ask others to join in on the conversation!

[Rebecca]

The three main categories in the article are connectivity, interactivity, and access. Where do you see these taking us in the future?