Epistolary novels vs modern text culture: for better or for worse?

[allmywires]

Not exactly SFF-specfic writing discussion but just a general thing I've been thinking about.

I've been struggling through the new Bridget Jones book for a few days now, and one of my many quibbles with it - bearing in mind the original Bridget Jones is one of my favourite books of all time - is how, no doubt meaning to pass some sort of critique on modern society - much of the text is, well, texts. Twitter conversations and texting interludes can sometimes go on for pages and I'm just bored of it. I know it's moving with the modern world and nobody writes letters any more, but I can't help thinking a book like Dracula's time has long since passed, and not necessarily for the better.

Could anyone here imagine being able to write an epistolary style novel these days? Is that a good or bad thing? Is its equivalent in diary-style writing (as Bridget Jones actually is) or email correspondence or something? How do you deal with social media elements in your writing if you're basing it on the real world/in the future (because surely, the role of social media is only going to get better in the next 10-20 yrs, never mind 100s...)

Anyway just a thought. discuss if you wish!

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I met a gentleman on the internet who writes the most wonderful nonsense stories using emails between a young boy and a lady in Africa. If ever I want to see something published.... he just writes them for his grandchildren.

I think it is possible if you pick your character carefully.

 

[Mouse]

Could anyone here imagine being able to write an epistolary style novel these days?

I know I mention this book a lot, but more people should read it... The Possessions of Doctor Forest is an 'epistolary' style novel. And yes, I had to Google 'epistolary.'

So yes, I could definitely imagine writing one.

I use text messages and emails in my WiPs (as you know from the one you've just read). I don't go overboard because it's not needed and it'd get on people's tits.

 

[The Judge]

Dracula isn't just letters, though, is it, so I think that it's still possible to write something of the kind with reports/diaries/newspaper clippings and the like.

But even before Jane Austen was writing, the pure epistolary form was seen as a tad unconvincing -- some people think P&P was written in the form of letters in the original draft, and she changed it realising its limitations -- and I think there's a spoof of Pamela which has the heroine writing letters as she's going over a waterfall or some such nonsense!

Reading pages of texts would certainly made me cringe, especially if they're written in text speak, but text and twitter conversations are surely no different from phone and face-to-face conversations -- if the stuff is inane, it's boring; if it's interesting, it will carry you through, but you do need something else to lighten it (eg actions, movement, thoughts).

 

[Ogma]

It is an interesting topic. I suspect the key difference between a diary and text conversation is the level of honesty and detail. A diary that you are writing for your eyes only can afford to be a more honest document. Texts are more edited and tend to be snippets. So in real life, you are not going to send an analysis of your feelings by text. You are only going to send the headlines as you wish the other person to see it. It is harder to convey subtlety by text.

I think while it is easy to write a novel consisting mostly of texts and so on, it is very hard to write it well.

 

[Abernovo]

But even before Jane Austen was writing, the pure epistolary form was seen as a tad unconvincing -- some people think P&P was written in the form of letters in the original draft, and she changed it realising its limitations -- and I think there's a spoof of Pamela which has the heroine writing letters as she's going over a waterfall or some such nonsense!

Isn't that Shamela, by Henry Fielding? Under a nom de plume.

If the narration is strong enough, you could still get away with it, but it would have to be very strong for a whole novel, rather than just making up part of the story. I couldn't imagine doing it myself.

As for social media changing, I've imagined it myself as all media (social and mainstream) being linked together and available over a single communications network. So, instead of just writing, video, holographic images (cliche alert) and voice could be sent. Perhaps a possible futuristic version of the epistolary novel could be written as the record of a voice log. It could have the power of first person but, again, it would need a strong voice. Not least because, otherwise, it might end up reading like an overlong Star Trek captain's log. Zzz!


Unrelated, but there is a brilliant Gordon R Dickson short story, Computers Don't Argue (1965), which starts with letters and continues to computer records.

 

[BetaWolf]

Isabel Allende wrote Inés of My Soul (which has some magical realism content) as a memoir directed to her protagonist's young niece. At critical moments in the plot, the narrator does address the niece who is too young to remember when this or that happened but this is what happened.

 

[The Judge]

Isn't that Shamela, by Henry Fielding? Under a nom de plume.

I thought it probably was (since it's the only one I knew about!) but not having read it, I didn't like to say for sure.