In an age of digital domination, where the future of the book is uncertain, a panel entitled "Blogs, Twitter, the Kindle: The Future of Reading" and PEN World Voices Festival confronted the impact of new technology on our current understanding of, as well as engagement with, both writer and their writing. For a panel of writers, such technology has the potential to intimidate. Yet, the panel of five was surprisingly mixed. When confronted with the question whether technology is good or bad for writing as we know it, there were two responses of “maybe,” one of “yes,” and one resounding “no.” In the basement auditorium of Instituto Cervantes on a gorgeous Friday afternoon, the panelists discussed a variety of uses of technology and their subsequent impact on both their writing and their relationship with the reader.
Thomas Pletzinger is one of the maybe’s. As one of the youngest writers on the panel, he seemed intrigued by the potential of technology. The one problem with the discussion, however, is that the focus never remained on one specific aspect of technology. When presented with an example of new ways for the reader to interact with the novel, moderator Ben Schrank 
offered Pletzinger a demonstration of a new children’s book program for the iPad—one that allows the child to record their own voice to the words of the book and, in turn, watch the action unfold on the screen. While Pletzinger found this to be an endearing new innovation toward greater reader engagement, it also disturbed him.
What are the implications of allowing greater access to the means of production? In today’s new blogosphere, everyone can be a writer, a journalist, a pundit. What happens to expertise? I can understand how this could be very disturbing to the professional writer, however, I do see the value in removing barriers to creation. As a child of the 90s, and as someone who participated in the consumption and production of the DIY zine culture, I also recognize that these boundaries have always been crossed. The difference is that these days, the Internet allows for greater readership. Instead of selling your zine (to recuperate production cost) at the local punk rock show, you have the potential to share content on a larger, maybe even international, scale.
Ben Okri is the other maybe, one whose heart remains attached to the tactility of the book. He described his reading experience as one that, though potentially counterintuitive, takes him closer to nature—to wood, and tree, and leaf; to the full sensory experience of reading. And yet he also sees the digital screen as a way of appreciating the history of the book. As he scrolls down the screen of his e-reader, his actions dredge up the image of ancient scrolls. Nevertheless, having tried his hand at Twitter poetry, he finds that Tweeting ultimately strips the layers of meaning from his work.
Alberto Ruy-Sánchez offered Okri a new way through which to incorporate Twitter into his writing process. Instead of simply leaving the poem amongst the clutter of tweets, why not use Twitter as a way of peaking interest in the poem itself? Why not tweet a link to a more layered and, in turn, meaningful blog post of the original poem? As you might have guessed, Ruy-Sánchez is the one yes. Although one of the oldest panelists, he seemed actively engaged in new modes of technology. Not only has he read many books on his e-reader, but he also uses blogging as a way through which to connect to his fan base—the latter of which would not have been possible without the Internet. He appreciates the direct feedback of blog comments from his audience, and is always surprised by the number and diversity of his fans, who reside in all corners of the world. Moreover, by forming these relationships, he also has set up a community through which to research new subject material for future writing.
Yet, when a member of the audience asked whether the panelists saw the Internet as encouraging access to less mainstream authors, both Ruy-Sánchez and Okri were torn. While they both saw potential in the Internet, Okri expressed concern over a new era of corporate domination. Ruy-Sánchez, though otherwise convinced of the Internet’s usefulness to his writing, saw its current state as not offering the works of lesser-known authors, nor those of non-Anglo writers.
The comic relief of the event came from the most unsuspecting of the bunch, young Russian author, Sergei Sokolovskiy. Although he spoke in Russian, through a translator, his manner of speaking appeared monotone an impassive—at least to someone who does not speak Russian. Hence, the contrast of his manner to already funny comments delivered through a translator seemed to heighten our hilarity. One question posed by moderator Ben Schrank confronted the addition of new forms of media—such as images, audio, or video—to writing. In an era of Internet sensory stimulation, how does this affect writing? Perhaps the strongest argument came from Sokolovskiy, who adamantly asserted that images have no place in literature. He made a compelling case. When he refused to send an online literary journal images to accompany a piece of his writing, they placed pictures of Sokolovskiy and his ex-wife next to the piece. The ex-wife responded that “she took no pleasure in having her photograph next to this low-life.” She apparently had tried to gain sole custody of his child. His final response was: “Now tell me, how can I love the synthesis between these various genres?”
The rest of the panel agreed that their text already contains rich imagery, that the words themselves are already musical, and that, in turn, the addition of such new technologies distracts from their work. Pletzinger added that while he enjoys working in various mediums, he rarely blurs the boundaries between different forms of writing. For example, when he’s writing a screenplay, it is a screenplay; when he is blogging, he follows certain parameters of the blog; and when he’s writing a novel, it is a novel. Hence, there seemed to be a consensus that while new technology and forms of social media are significant to their work, they will never substitute the work itself.
Overall, it was an interesting panel. Unfortunately, the topic is too broad to be able to fully cover it in depth within an hour and a half. It would have been nice to focus on one aspect of technology, so as to more deeply evaluate its impact on literature as we know it. For the writer, it is both an exciting and intimidating time for writing. There are many distractions from the Internet, and yet, it simultaneously creates and engages with readership, both new and old. There is potential for greater accessibility, yet there still exists a fear of the Internet continuing old patterns of corporate control. The discussion, while confronting some interesting issues, will certainly persist into the next generation. Only as new technologies, like e-readers and iPads, become increasingly more popular, will we fully realize their impact on society and, in turn, only then will we understand the fate of the book as we know it.
Panelists’ Bios
Ben Schank (moderator): is president and publisher of Razorbill, an imprint at Penguin (USA). He is the author of the novels Miracle Man and Consent.
Ben Okri: has published nine novels, including the Booker Prize–winning The Famished Road, two volumes of stories, as well as collections of poetry and essays. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and, in 2000, he was awarded the OBE. Translated into more than 20 languages, he has been awarded numerous international prizes including the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa and the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction. He is a Vice President of the English Centre of International PEN and was presented with a Crystal Award by the World Economic Forum.
Thomas Pletzinger: was born in 1975 and grew up in Germany’s industrial area Ruhrgebiet. He holds an M.A from Hamburg University and an MFA from the German Literature Institute Leipzig. He worked for publishers and a literary scouting agency in New York and also participated in the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. Pletzinger now lives in Berlin where he works as a translator and editor. The translation of his critically acclaimed novel, Bestattung eines Hundes (Funeral for a Dog), will be published in the U.S. in spring of 2010.
Alberto Ruy-Sánchez: was born in 1951. He is a fiction and nonfiction writer, poet, and essayist from Mexico City. He received his Ph.D. in 1980 from the University of Paris. His novels include: Los Nombres del Aire, Los Demonios de La Lengua, and Los Jardines Secretos de Mogador: Voces de Tierra. He has published widely in scholarly journals and is the author of several books of literary criticism, including Una introducción a Octavio Paz, which was a recipient of the Premio José Fuentes Mares. Since 1988, he has served as the editor-in-chief of Artes de México. In 2000, he was proclaimed Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2005, he received the honor of Gran Orden de Honor Nacional al Mérito Autoral in Mexico City.
Sergei Sokolovskiy: born in 1972, is a prose writer and editor. Sokolovskiy’s short fiction has been published in the anthologies Babylon (winning first prize for prose in the Ulov online literary competition in 2000), Okrestnosti, Avtornik, and others. Together with Danila Davydov, he published and edited the journal Shestaya Kolonna (Sixth Column) in 1998; he was also the editor of the Okrestnosti (The Environs) anthology in 2000–2001. His publishing house Autochton has published a series of books by young authors. Sokolovksiy has served as the secretary of the Debut Literary Prize and curates the web site Vernitskii Literature: Young Russian Writers. He lives in Moscow.
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