Something Else to Do with Your Cellphones

Here's another piece from the New York Times. This one deals with best selling novels in Japan that were written on cellphones, yet another signal of the end of civilization. Well, maybe it's just a sign that I'm getting old. In any case, it's good to see people interested in telling stories, but it's troublesome to think that the only device they can use to transmit their ideas is a cellphone. Of course, unless you're scrawling letters in dirt with your fingers, technology and written expression go hand in hand. Nevertheless, writing can be such a physical, visceral act that I've always felt the less stuff gets in the way, the better. Using your hands to hold pen and paper, or typing away with all ten fingers, makes a certain amount of physical and mental sense. Using your thumbs to write a novel? Sure, we all write differently, but it shouldn't come as a surprise that these cellphone novels don't pay attention to the development of character, plot, or themes; that is, that such writing ignores the strategies that make good writing worth reading. To many, however, that's exactly why they are popular and worth reading, because they ignore what your teachers tell you is supposed to make a good book. (Just a reminder: we don't tell you what makes a good book; we try to teach you how to reach such conclusions independently.) In any case, this kind of writing strikes me as one more sign that newer technology increasingly facilitates little more than narcissism.