The Novel Is Dead

Introduction

A Brief History of Print

The End of Books

Hypertext

What Is The Book?

The Novel Is Dead

This Is Not Science Fiction

Monkeys & Typewriters

In Defense of The E-Book

Conclusion

References

The end of books?

The Novel Is Dead

           As countless traditionalists went into early mourning over the book, hypertext authors began dancing on its grave. The familiarity and stability of print that warmed the hearts of writers like Gass was, in the opinion of this new generation of writers, a stagnant, restrictive form and a relic from an authoritarian past. By freeing themselves from the form of the book, moreover, hypertext fiction writers similarly threw off the shackles of the novel.

Robert Coover writes:

          Much of the novel's alleged power is embedded in the line, that
          compulsory author-directed movement from the beginning of a
          sentence to its period, from the top of the page to the bottom, from
          the first page to the last.

          But true freedom from the tyranny of the line is perceived as only
          really possible now at last with the advent of hypertext, written and
          read on the computer, where the line in fact does not exist unless one
    invents and implants it in the text.

Because hypertext fiction is not limited by physical or conceptual boundaries, hierarchies of structure and linear narratives disappear, thereby placing the reader at the helm of his or her own literary journey. In this way, hypertext fiction seems to offer a more accurate and democratic reflection of the individual’s experience of reality rather than the artificial, controlled model of the novel. With the reader able to control the narrative with the click of the mouse, independent of any guidance, the role of the author also becomes tenuous.

Having done away with print and the novel, will technology similarly make authors obsolete?

Tara Stephens
School of Library and Information Sciences