“The first drafts of my novels have all been written in longhand and then I type them up on my old electric. I have resisted getting a computer because I distrust the whole PC thing. I don’t think a great book has yet been written on computer.” – J.G. Ballard as quoted in a wonderful Guardian collection of photos of writers’ working areas.
The TeleRead take: So it harms literature when you can more easily shuffle around sentences and paragraphs and chapters? I can recall writing pre-computer, and it was not nearly as much fun or efficient. How many other TeleBloggers remember composing on paper in single-space, then snipping and pasting the results together? Of course, the classic defier of Luddites was Mark Twain, who used a then-newfangled device known as a typewriter. Meanwhile, horror of horrors, J.G.’s Crash, described by one reader as “about car-crash sexual fetishism,” is available as an e-book, and at least several other works are as well.
And speaking of literature: New York literary agent Jenny Rappaport has written a nice little item asking why science fiction books are less popular than fantasy these days, at least in certain circles (many agents’ submission guidelines say, “No sci-fi”). Read the comments in response. Interestingly, sci-fi would seem to be one of the more popular genres among TeleBlog readers. But I do appreciate the sentiments voiced by the less than enthusiastic. One of the reasons given for sci-fi’s problems is that too much of the genre is written for techies and existing fans. By contrast, John Scalzi’s witty Agent to the Stars is completely accessible.
As for hard sci-fi, the kind that often reads like Ph.D. dissertations in disguise, maybe the e-book versions should include hyperlinks or at least back-of-the-book glossaries to explain the technology. Hmm. I wonder how old J.G., as a writer of avant-garde lit and sci-fi, such as The Drowned World, would feel about that. Does he appreciate pointers beyond those of the paper-card-catalog variety? I’m headed for the library—the P variety, yes—and will check out TDW if I see it there.
(Guardian collection found via Bill Janssen on the eBook Community List.)
In the work world, we went through the switch to computers in the 80s. I guess Ballard hasn’t caught on yet–oh, well.
I’ve suspected for a long time that the huge number of Star Wars/Star Trek novelizations would impact the popularity of real SF–just hope this isn’t the case because, uh, I’m getting ready to send one to my agent.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
[…] + David Rothman at TeleRead: So it harms literature when you can more easily shuffle around sentences and paragraphs and chapters? I can recall writing pre-computer, and it was not nearly as much fun or efficient. How many other TeleBloggers remember composing on paper in single-space, then snipping and pasting the results together? Of course, the classic defier of Luddites was Mark Twain, who used a then-newfangled device known as a typewriter. Meanwhile, horror of horrors, J.G.’s Crash, described by one reader as “about car-crash sexual fetishism,” is available as an e-book, and at least several other works are as well.” […]