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Crowdsourcing novels: LiveBook’s Facebook and Bebo projects let you rate new sentences Digg-style
March 29, 2008 | 9:51 am
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By David Rothman
John Updike was POed enough at the prospect of techies snippetizing his novels. Now imagine whole books written in snippets, with Digg-style ratings of newly added sentences, which can be voted up or down. Penguin Books UK and others have experimented with more primitive, wiki-style novels, but the LiveBook project takes such efforts to a new level, technically. Artistically? No threat to Updike, I’m sure.
Marshall “The Mediu is the Message” McLuhan just might like this. LiveBook’s app on FaceBook is called Helen and her Facebook, and it’s about a social net newbie. On the Bebo service, meanwhlie, LiveBook has started up the similar Brian from Bebo, featuring a male character.
You can read more details about LiveBook and other crowdsourced fiction in a terrific little round-up from ReadWrite Web. So, gang, what do you think about the broader ramifications here? I love experimentation, but in terms of self improvement, at least, as opposed to recreation, might the typical reader be better off reading a good, old-fashioned novel with carefully developed characters? Will a whole generation grow up creating books without learning from the great writers of the past? Or will young people still read the classics and other great literature and actually use the new medium to sharpen their skills? Here’s my take. Participating in a crowdsourced novels, although fun for some, is like filling in the dotted lines, as opposed to creating art or first-rate entertainment from scratch.
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David, I have to agree with you on this one. I’m sure that this type of literary hodgepodge is fun and may even produce something that it readable. However, real creativity cannot by produced by committee.
I imagine that even when two professional authors collaborate on a work, it is difficult reconciling their different styles. Assigning each author to specific sections of the book would be much easier than a total melding of text. This is frequently done with popular books on technology (computer books in particular).
The “books” that emerge will be just like this video:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/just-good-business-online-video-veoh-video-network/
David Rothman said “Participating in a crowdsourced novels, although fun for some, is like filling in the dotted lines, as opposed to creating art or first-rate entertainment from scratch.”
If this article were submitted to crowdsourcing then the crowd might identify the phrase “filling in the dotted lines” as an awkward hybrid. The common phrases are “connect the dots”, “sign on the dotted line”, and “paint by number”.
So some person in the crowd might rewrite the section to say “Participating in a crowdsourced novel is like filling in the regions of a canvas while guided by a “paint by number” toy set. Would the magnificent Michelangelo employ such a juvenile method to crowdsource his masterwork, the Sistine chapel?” Another prankster in the crowd would then link to the Wikipedia entry for “paint by number” that states “Michelangelo has been credited by some with the original idea by assigning colors to various areas of the Sistine Chapel for assistants to fill in over some 500 years ago.”
Thanks, Garson. Most everyone can stand editing, and I’m no exception. The challenge is to sort out the good from the bad suggestions, and beyond that, I’m not sure if crowdsourcing fiction is always the best way to go, except for recreational purposes. As for “filling in the dotted lines,” I have a little company. “Filling in the dotted lines” actually suggests something even more structured than “connecting the dots.” Perhaps it’ll do. Meanwhile I enjoyed your suggestions—which actually help me make my point that crowdsourcing can strip away a work’s individuality; well, assuming it had some to begin with. I love wikis for imparting facts; I just don’t see them or variants as right for even halfway-serious fiction. Thanks. David
Here’s another version of the FB novel. Search the name “Thomas Stolperer” in Facebook, read the novel as far back as you want (it’s backwards, of course), and link to his FB friends, who are also characters in the novel (most of them – a few are viewers)