Apr 14, 2009

Technology the Enemy of Narrative Tension?

That's the question raised in this NYT piece by Matt Richtel. I've thought about it some on my own, and I wonder if the narrative problems posed by info-saturation (problems which are only going to get worse) is going to make more people go for historical settings. I know for sure that I've wrestled with this problem in fiction set in the here-and-now. Maybe we're headed for a renaissance in the historical novel...oh. Wait. Aren't we there already?

My next two book ideas are both set in the past. Well, one of them starts in the future but then flees to the past so I can take the characters' cell phones away.

2 comments:

Lindsay said...

do they have iphones? because they'll probably just crumple up and die if you take their phones away and then you won't have to worry about narrative tension.

Unknown said...

If they had iPhones, I would never be able to bring myself to be that cruel to them.