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  "canonicalUrl": "https://www.jacky.wtf//essays/2024/future-of-writing",
  "description": "Is it possible for multimedia adaptions of literature to take people away from the act of\nliterary engagement itself? I wrestle with this idea from some experiences I have and other\nbooks I've read.\n",
  "path": "/essays/2024/future-of-writing",
  "publishedAt": "2024-09-28T04:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:e2ctbutx6kya6si4if5ngjmm/site.standard.publication/3mniussyp2d2g",
  "tags": "essay",
  "textContent": "I read quite a bit. It's how I like to spend time. If it's [via my feeds][8], a magazine\nsubscription I've stacked up, an academic journal or a good ol' fashioned book; my face will show\nyou my current state of mind as to what I'm reading. I've once been labeled \"binge reader\" for\nspending so much time reading books by bell hooks in succession, something I try to do once every\ntwo years; as I read the books she's referenced and make connections to my life - though challenging\nbecause it focuses on a more traditional Black American family structure. I enjoy reading as it's\nbeen a way to not relinquish my ability to imagine over to television: something I've begun to\nunderstand as its primary form, an imposition of _its_ perspective of a story. It's not a novel\nconcept; folks like Guy Debord and Jonathan Cracy have contested this as the \"natural\" evolution of\nthings like radio and early film. We had a brief counterrevolution with this in the 80s and 90s with\nthe rise of things like VHS and to a lesser extent, DVD-RWs in the 2000s, but folks began to want\nthe more \"premier experience\" that you found in more commercial places, like theatres. It's harder\nto perceive this in the short term (over a decade-long window, for example) but when it's zoomed out\nto just double that, the perspectives on it get a bit frustrating to find ways _not_ to acknowledge.\nI do find it hard to nudge folks to read books, even those aligned to their interests. It could be\nmy approach! There's [a documentary][1] I watched some time ago that made mention of the nature of\nliterature in early Europe and how the government and church worked _hard_ to prevent people from\ndoing so. It was tied to how it was encouraging people to revolt (which, when not spoken from the\nlips of a bureaucrat, means the laborers are organizing too quickly). People had to take measures to\nhave printing press move _on water_ to avoid being seized by authorities.\n\nIt's fair, then, to say at a point in time, people were _hungry_ to read! Perhaps not everyone, but\nthere was a large enough group of folks who were eager to learn, share or just laugh at the captured\nmoments of others. I think that's falling off _hard_. It's difficult to see that within the spheres\nI'm in immediately within the tech sphere, at least online. However, stepping a _bit outside_ of\nthat, thinking of people I know who spend a lot of time (or effectively work) on places like TikTok,\nYouTube, Instagram and Twitch, this is less of the case. Unlike groups like Pew or Gallup, I'm not going to\nmake a claim that this is representative of the _entirety_ of a group of people. I can say that I'm\nnot necessarily a recluse and that even then, the amount of people I find that read, even not solely\nfor pleasure, makes up a very small demographic of the people I know and have experienced.\nThere's also Terrance's post about [the skill required for both reading and writing][12] that made\nme wonder if I should try to make video forms of my blog — but I immediately dashed that\naside.\n\nThere was a post on Instagram that [Dexter][2] made that truly sparked this. More people in my\ngeneration and younger (so those who are at most 31 and younger - the youngest end of the\n\"millennials\" and the \"elder Gen Z\" community) _do not_ use long form reading as a primary vector of\ninformation discovery. In fact, his prediction was that it'd turn into a \"luxury\" for those who have\ntime _to read_. This makes sense given the increasing course work students have, the amount of work\n_outside of school_ that they have take on (thinking of my own family in this case) and how very\nlittle institutional efforts have been made to encourage reading as a means of discovery. It's not\nto say that reading is more important than anything else. It's also not to demean other forms of\nstorytelling - it's not the oldest by far. It makes things like Reading Rainbow seem like a form of\nnostalgia for folks. There's a moment before James Baldwin visited the Nation of Islam for the first\ntime that I think about a lot about those who acquire books for entertainment and not for growth:\n\n> Here was the South Side [of Chicago] — a million in captivity — stretching from this\n> doorstep as far as the eye could see. And they didn't even read; depressed populations don't have\n> the time or energy to spare. The affluent populations, which should have been their help, didn't\n> as far as could be discovered, read, either — they merely bought books and devoured them,\n> but not in order to learn; in order to learn new attitudes.\n\nThis isn't meant to be all doom and gloom. In fact, we see books being adapted for film all of the\ntime; meaning that there's an interest in the form still, ranging from the legendary Octavia\nBulter's Kindred to the infamous Game of Thrones. Netflix, for one, has been adapting quite a\nfew into limited series with amazing casts, in recent day. Two that I enjoyed first as a TV show and\nthen got very interested by the books are examples of a way of it being a form of \"lead generation\".\nBut by that time, there's a chance that the book has caught on and accrued a lot of attention. This\nalso requires acknowledging how with the growing \"content\" industry, there's _going to be_ a lot of\ncross-pollination to create more and more things for people to consume their time with, especially\nin ways that Cracy describes as \"anti-social\". Netflix is perhaps easy to single out, but in\nretrospect to the generational gap mentioned above, people can watch these intense and dense worlds\non a small device, all to themselves — alone.\n\nMy concern is that this might shift the focus of newer writers and authors to make content that can\nbe made \"infinite\", produced and reproduced on loop such that distributors now capture a lot of the\nvalue. I imagine that authors are consenting to this business transaction (it's all business) but\nwhat does that say of the _craft_ of writing; of writing stories — if that stories are not\nmeant (or designed) to be read but watched? Again, this is not to ignore the craft of show writing\n— I am very happy for those working on shows like [Abbot Elementary][5], [Mr. Corman][6],\n[Dark Matter][7] and other shows I'd liked. This makes me question _how_ I choose what I read (and\nwatch, listen, etc) since the explicit nature of society is to model and suggest human behavior\naround consumption. I think of those of us living in the West, _especially_ in the privileged West\nwhere we can \"nestle up\" to a nice read under a stormy read with no immediate worry. What is it that\nwe read that helps deify (or reify) _this social order_? Is the escape a way of ignoring the\npotentiality of action that could make this action more commonplace? Why is it that it's now almost\na _luxury_ to read but almost _no one_ does it?\n\nI'm hoping to write more about what I read; not just in a passive review way — although it's\nvery difficult to provide in-depth reviews on everything but in a way that allows me to be more\nself-referential in a constructive way. Perhaps things and behaviors like that, with use of the\nInternet but also contemporaries in the offline spaces like libraries and book stores, can help\nsquelch this fear I have.\n\n[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TPB_AFK\n[2]: https://whatupdex.com/\n[3]: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/17/arts/octavia-butler-vision-kindred.html\n[4]: https://www.versobooks.com/products/2315-24-7\n[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbott_Elementary\n[6]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Corman\n[7]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Matter_(2015_TV_series)\n[8]: /essays/2024/reading-feeds/\n[9]: https://thecookinggene.com/\n[10]: https://www.zoesamudzi.com/\n[11]: https://africasacountry.com/2019/02/and-yet-we-pray\n[12]: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/09/not-everyone-is-as-good-at-reading-and-writing-as-you-are/\n[13]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fire_Next_Time",
  "title": "My Mumblings on Reading, Writing and the Field of Literature with Media"
}