Pulitzer Prize-Winner Writes Short Story for Twitter: Brilliant or Bad Idea?
SodaHead Tech
2012/05/27 02:00:39
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Remember how back in the day magazines used to release stories in installments? Well, with the help of today’s technology, serial fiction may be making a comeback.
In 2011, Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel A Visit From the Goon Squad. Now, she is making headlines again for her short story “Black Box”—a spy thriller that is being tweeted through The New Yorker Fiction Department’s Twitter handle @NyerFiction.
Egan’s 8,500-word story is being released over 10 days, beginning last Thursday. Each night, a portion of the story is being tweeted minute-by-minute from 8 pm to 9 pm. On Monday, the story will appear in print, in its entirety, in the Science Fiction Issue of the New Yorker.
When Egan was asked about her inspiration for the unusual format, she told the New Yorker, “I’d . . . been wondering about how to write fiction whose structure would lend itself to serialization on Twitter. This is not a new idea, of course, but it’s a rich one—because of the intimacy of reaching people through their phones, and because of the odd poetry that can happen in a hundred and forty characters. I found myself imagining a series of terse mental dispatches from a female spy of the future, working undercover by the Mediterranean Sea.”
Though the story will first be published on Twitter, Egan originally wrote the story by hand. And unlike the majority of tweets, which are composed in seconds, Egan spent a year working on these 140-character chunks.
So what do you think SodaHeads? Was Egan’s decision to write a short story for Twitter brilliant or a bad idea?
In 2011, Jennifer Egan won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel A Visit From the Goon Squad. Now, she is making headlines again for her short story “Black Box”—a spy thriller that is being tweeted through The New Yorker Fiction Department’s Twitter handle @NyerFiction.
Egan’s 8,500-word story is being released over 10 days, beginning last Thursday. Each night, a portion of the story is being tweeted minute-by-minute from 8 pm to 9 pm. On Monday, the story will appear in print, in its entirety, in the Science Fiction Issue of the New Yorker.
When Egan was asked about her inspiration for the unusual format, she told the New Yorker, “I’d . . . been wondering about how to write fiction whose structure would lend itself to serialization on Twitter. This is not a new idea, of course, but it’s a rich one—because of the intimacy of reaching people through their phones, and because of the odd poetry that can happen in a hundred and forty characters. I found myself imagining a series of terse mental dispatches from a female spy of the future, working undercover by the Mediterranean Sea.”
Though the story will first be published on Twitter, Egan originally wrote the story by hand. And unlike the majority of tweets, which are composed in seconds, Egan spent a year working on these 140-character chunks.
So what do you think SodaHeads? Was Egan’s decision to write a short story for Twitter brilliant or a bad idea?
Read More: http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/05/24/jennifer-egan-...
Top Opinion
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Trish 2012/05/27 04:24:13
I would never have the patience to sit and read an 8,500 word story 140 characters at a time. Especially since the entire thing will be available as one piece, which will be much easier to read.
There is nothing intimate about reaching people through Twitter, as Twitter is the far opposite. This is just going to get buzz attention, which makes me wonder why a Pulitzer Price winner is doing it. She doesn't need buzz attention from a website like Twitter.
Now if it were a story that uses Twitter-style postings within itself, that might be different.
The focus should be on the book itself, not because it's on twitter. If this is considered literature for my generation, I believe I may go crazy.
Get off Twitter and read REAL books...
Actually I wrote a couple of pieces in 140 character chunks on twitter in the past.
Guess they werent Pulitzer Prize material, but I cant see why others wouldnt do the same.
Im still trying to figure out the whole twitter thing. Guess I dont have enough friends interested in my tweets. Got a couple of followers though and for the life of me cant see why.
Not a fan of Twitter, but it's a clever "stunt".
I wonder if it was her idea, or Twitter's, or some publicist's?
Maybe it won't work, maybe it will only work as a gimmick. But it's a noble experiment.
Twitter? No thanks. Lame.