Ja (mi, Feministicka 94) radimo to vec godinama jer freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose...
Last week it was reported by Associated Press reporter Veronika
Oleksyn that Austrian writer and 2004 Nobel prize winner Elfriede
Jelinek is currently posting on her website chapters (as she writes
them) of a new book entitled “Envy.” On the surface, this doesn’t
seem so amazing; lots of new writers, not to mention some established
ones, are using the Web to debut or develop new work. But what makes
Jelinek’s situation so amazing is that she’s a recluse who
“cloisters
herself inside her homes in Vienna and Munich, Germany, and rarely
ventures out in public.” However, online, Jelinek — according to
Oleksyn’s story — “connects with ease to people around the world.
Little wonder, then, that she chose to debut her latest novel on the
Web rather than in bookstores.”
The new novel will be available for free, and will not be protected
by any DRM. As Jelinek says, “Anyone who wants to can download it or
print it out.” She describes the process of “publishing a text on
the
Internet” as being “wonderfully democratic.” About the Internet
itself, Jelinek says, “I find the Internet to be the most wonderful
thing there is. It connects people. Everyone can have input.”
I think this is a really great development, and it shows just how
easily important literature can be efficiently and effectively spread
by using the Web. It proves that the Internet is not the enemy of
literature, but may ultimately be its savior. So while large chunks
of the literary establishment mourn and bemoan the loss book review
sections, or the lessening impact of books themselves, Jelinek’s
online experiment shows that the Internet — in the hands of talented
writers — will actually encourage new works (and reader
participation) instead of killing them.
And while this looks at first like a danger to publishers (after all,
if writers can publish their novels on the Web — where the entire
world can have access to them — why will publishers have to be part
of the picture?), I don’t think this will end up being the case. In
the future writers will use the Web to promote or shape new works,
but there is not yet a workable business model for them selling their
own texts online. Stephen King tried this years ago with his novel
“The Plant,” and in the end he gave up because it was too much of a
headache (he was the only one who received nightmares from “The
Plant”). What has made Jelinek’s experiment possible is the money
she
received from the Nobel. Instead, Jelinek’s experiment shows how the
Web can be used to generate interest and create an audience; what the
experiment doesn’t show is that publishers will no longer be needed
in a digital future.
So even though there’s a line in the Busy Signals song “The New
You”
that says “When the loners get together, it makes no sense,” what I
think is happening with Jelinek is really great. It shows that even
the most unlikely candidate for attention on the Web (not to mention
Web stardom) can generate interest and garner an audience. Next thing
you know we’ll have J.D. Salinger blogging, with Thomas Pynchon
reading it and leaving comments.