Cellphone novels hit Japan

TOKYO — Until recently, cellphone novels — composed on phone keypads by young women wielding dexterous thumbs and read by fans on their tiny screens — had been dismissed in Japan as a subgenre unworthy of the country that gave the world its first novel, “The Tale of Genji,” a millennium ago. Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it.

Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels. What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists, touching off debates in the news media and blogosphere.

“Will cellphone novels kill ‘the author’?” a famous literary journal, Bungaku-kai, asked on the cover of its January issue. Fans praised the novels as a new literary genre created and consumed by a generation whose reading habits had consisted mostly of manga, or comic books. Critics said the dominance of cellphone novels, with their poor literary quality, would hasten the decline of Japanese literature.

Continue reading Thumbs Race as Japan’s Best Sellers Go Cellular, by Norimitsu Onishi.

My roommate, who is involved in Japanese Studies, sent me this article. Is this a glimpse into how the world of literature may change as technology changes? I don't know. I'm so old-fashioned I tend to turn up my nose at the fact my nephew is listening to audio books on his iPod RATHER THAN reading actual books. (Shocking! I know!) Oh, I suspect, his parents want him to be a lazy reader or maybe children's books no longer appear in book form... So, being as old-fashioned as I am about reading my mind can't really comprehend cellphone novels. Yesterday I was having a conversation with a friend, who is also my age, and during our conversation he juggled between text messaging his friends and discussing the woes of his love life and I, during that same conversation, did not even glance at my cellphone. So perhaps I am the last person one should ask regarding opinions involving new technology... but my friend, on the other hand, might be the person to ask.