We Tell Stories: Digital Fiction by Penguin
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Penguin Books in the UK has embarked upon a foray into digital fiction. Unlike the highly unsatisfactory wikinovel project - We Tell Stories is not only highly entertaining but also pretty high quality. Six authors of repute have put together six stories that utilize digital media in a way that print cannot.
The sixth story, by Mohsin Hamid, is entitled The (Former) General and reads much like the Choose Your Own Adventure Tales of which i was so fond as a child.
The first installment was The 21 Steps by Charles Cumming, an innovative tale that maps out the settings of the story on Google Maps. Apparently, you need quite a good internet connection for this short story to be functional - i didn’t have any problems myself.
All of the tales, written by Toby Litt, Kevin Brooks, Nicci French, Matt Mason and the aforementioned, are inspired by Penguin Classics: 39 Steps by John Buchan, Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, Hard Times by Charles Dickens, The Haunted Dolls House by M R James, Therese Raquin by Emile Zola and The 1001 Nights.
I haven’t yet had a chance to sit and play with all the stories and all the features. Unfortunately, the only one of the inspiring classics i have any real exposure to is The 1001 Nights on which i wrote a paper very long ago about ideal feminine beauty.
Much thanks to Ilyusha for passing on this fascinating website to me earlier this month.
