Telling New Stories
Author of this post: Johanna Lenander | About Blog Authors »
I sometimes wonder if my daughter, who is currently one years old, will read books when she grows up (and goes beyond her current favorites “Baby’s Animal Friends” and “Bear Goes To Town”). Maybe reading paper books will be a habit reserved for old people by then. Or perhaps they won’t exist at all. Whatever happens, one thing is for sure, there will be major changes in the way we perceive and consume literature. On AIGA’s web site there’s an interesting article that offers some insight to how book publishers are trying to appeal to a younger generation that is more likely to spend every waking hour on their computer than pick up Dostoyevsky. Holly Willis describes how British ARG (alternative reality game) company Six To Start produced interactive stories for Penguin UK. Their project We Tell Stories http://www.wetellstories.co.uk/ is a series of six web-based interactive fiction projects that are based on six literary classics. The novels’ story lines have been re-interpreted by contemporary authors and Six To Start create their digital storytelling by using some of the techniques from the ARG format. For example, employing the ARG method of mixing reality and fiction, Six To Start used Google Maps to unfold the intrigue of The 21 Steps (Charles Cumming’s updated version of John Buchan’s The 39 Steps).
It should be interesting to see whether this is the beginning of a new interactive storytelling era. I just hope it won’t completely replace the kind that happens between two covers.
