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.
Written by Featherina
June 1st, 2008 at 11:23 am
Posted in Web Publication
Tagged with art, Canon, fiction, Literature, short stories
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