It is getting harder and harder to find relatable characters in fiction these days. Sure, many of them have gone for years without eating anything or ever going to the bathroom, and hardly ever do they fumble through awkward sexual encounters; but it is their blissful immunity from technological distractions that stands out as particularly foreign.
The average fictional character is either so thoroughly disinterested in email, social media, and text messages he never thinks of it, or else hastily mentions electronic communications in the past tense. Sure, characters in fiction may own smart phones, but few have the urge to compulsively play with the device while waiting to meet a friend or catch a flight. This ever-present anachronism has made it so that almost all literary fiction is science fiction, a thought experiment as to what life might be like if we weren't so absorbed in our iPhones but instead watched and listened to the world around us at a moment's rest.
Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom could be considered, among other things, a pre-Facebook novel. Much of the action takes place in 2004, back when the site was for university students only. Franzen seems to wink at us when a character reaches for his (lowercase, physical object) "facebook." But what about the present? It's hard to imagine the female protagonist Patty isn't on Facebook today. Is she a friend or fan of Richard, the aging indie rocker she loves, who is not her husband? What kind of emotions does she experience when she scrolls down his page?
Even novels that acknowledge the way that technology saturates contemporary culture still never quite depict a sense of distraction in the narrative. Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story is an ambitious satire of internet addiction set in the near future of livestreaming everything. But the parts of the book involving email and instant-message exchanges are presented no differently than the epistolary passages in nineteenth-century literature, (granted Jane Austen characters never said
The ADHD, multitasking, always-distracted world of today runs counter to the linear, leisurely-paced storytelling that makes a literary novel. To present email and text messages as they often feel would create an experimental novel, as if descending from Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs cut-ups. Communicating with technology might be just a little too difficult for even the most skilled novelists among us to describe yet. In the meantime, the distraction-free world of contemporary fiction is an idyllic respite for the rest of us overwhelmed with it.
Joe Robinson: Spectator Nation: Are You a Screen Junkie?
Besides, have you often come across fictional characters you go to the bathroom? Not unless it brings something to the story, right?
Same for email, Facebutt etc ....
The reason you don't see much computer/phone fiddling in today's novels is the same reason that you rarely saw characters watch TV in 1950s novels: it's in essence a passive activity. The character is not active; he or she is going nowhere. How many readers want to read paragraph after paragraph of Facebook interaction? Not me.
Life, as it always has been, is out there, not inside a screen.
And what about people at home. Just where to people actually take their time if they're living an average suburban or even urban life. You can't sit at a coffee house or shop at the market 16 hours a day right?
Just what exactly do people do. I know what I do...I spend a lot of time reading web pages. But what would a "me" do...if I were me, 30 years ago. In fact, there could have been no me.
http://www.ebookbotics.com
I don't think fiction writers are alone. As we go through our lives, it seems to most of us, that everybody else in our lives is out of touch. Lawyers are too specialized to understand business management. Politicians are too specialized to understand public administration. Doctors, Engineers, Small business owners -- most of the rest of us are stuck with an eighth-grade level understanding of pretty much everything going on around us that isn't part of our specialty. It's why Dr. Ron Paul is a Libertarian; why Tim Geithner doesn't see why he should care about unemployment; why Fox News can sell spin as truth to their audience; and why Newt Gingrich thinks that just sounding clever is good enough to get him elected President.
I have been looking HARD for a good novel about working in the High Tech industry, for 20 years now. Let me know if you run across anything that captures the experience.
tt77
I, for one, am not interested in knowing what a fictional character, in a perfectly enjoyable novel, thinks about his girlfriend's facebook page, or who his favorite Jersey Shore character is, or what brand of smartphone he uses.
The one exception would be in the case of satire, such as in the new Windows Phone 7 commercial. George Saunders, for example, is great at it.
Why would the reader care?
I'm sure this technology would eventually make it into literature - it's sure going to be interesting.
http://www.ManOfLaBook.com