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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2583
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 01:14 pm: | 
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TOKYO — Until recently, cellphone novels — composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in Japan as a subgenre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, “The Tale of Genji,” a millennium ago. Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.
Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels. What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists, touching off debates in the news media and blogosphere.
“Will cellphone novels kill ‘the author’?” a famous literary journal, Bungaku-kai, asked on the cover of its January issue. Fans praised the novels as a new literary genre created and consumed by a generation whose reading habits had consisted mostly of manga, or comic books. Critics said the dominance of cellphone novels, with their poor literary quality, would hasten the decline of Japanese literature.
Whatever their literary talents, cellphone novelists are racking up the kind of sales that most more experienced, traditional novelists can only dream of...
Full NYT article: http://tinyurl.com/39wyrb
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Emanuel
Veteran Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 497
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 02:13 pm: |
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Based on what I read, the writers are only using their cell phones to type their novels and post them online. So really, they are more online novels than cell phone novels. Kinda like e-books. Can you imagine reading a whole novel on your cell phone? It's probably not that different than Amazon's Kindle product.
I'm not big on texting, especially since I type 50 words per minute and probably text 50 words per hour. So for now, I'll stick to my laptop.
Cell phones are way bigger in Japan than they are here. They find all kinds of uses for them.
If you want to read an interesting book on the future of the wireless age, including cell phones, check out "Branding Unbound" by Rick Mathieson. I reviewed it a few years ago. It's fascinating. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 11285
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 05:30 pm: |
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Here's the good news about cell phones:
Claims have been authenticated that if you lock yourself out of your car, and you have a spare key set at home, you can call and have somebody press the unlock button on your duplicate set into their mobile phone mouthpiece as you hold your cell phone about a foot away from your car keyhhold and this will open your door. 
The bad news is that: scientists think that cell phone waves interfere with the built-in radar of bees and this has caused them to mysteriously disappear, endangering the honey industry. Well, - that's the buzz, anyway.
Although Nostradamus predicted the invention of cell phones, he never foresaw books being written on them. Will wonders never cease???? |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2589
Registered: 01-2005
Rating:
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 - 01:38 pm: |
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Good point, Emanuel. So the phone in this instance is replacing the means of production (e.g., typewriter, computer and word processor) and not the means of delivery (book/e-book)... That Mathieson book looks like something I'd get into. Thanks! |
Emanuel
Veteran Poster
Username: Emanuel
Post Number: 504
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 05, 2008 - 04:56 pm: |
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If you're interested, you can have my copy. Just pay for shipping and it's yours. Shoot me an e-mail if you want it at emanuelcarpenter(at)yahoo.com |
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