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Monday, October 21, 1996
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NEXT STORY Internet Caught by the Tale
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[Image] [Image] Art of Storytelling Gets a New Life
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Online
BUSINESS
By MARY PURPURA, PAOLO PONTONIERE, Special to The
INTERNET Times
ACADEMY
ΚΚΚΚΚIn the beginning, stories traveled by foot.
TIMES PICK Storytellers would make the rounds of nearby
villages, recounting fables, tales and reports of
SPECIAL actual events.
REPORTS ΚΚΚΚΚ Later, the printing press and the postal
service dramatically expanded the ways in which
FRONT PAGE stories and news could be shared, and newspapers,
radio and television each rendered the traditional
NATION & storyteller more and more peripheral.
WORLD ΚΚΚΚΚ But that latest revolution in
communications--the Internet--is breathing new life
STATE & into the ancient art. New venues for storytelling,
LOCAL and novel forms of it, are sprouting all over the
global computer network.
SPORTS ΚΚΚΚΚ
ΚΚΚΚΚ E. Robert Arellano, a visiting lecturer in
BUSINESS & modern culture and media at Brown University, first
TECHNOLOGY become interested in storytelling in 1989 when
researching Swahili oral literature in Kenya. In
LIFE & 1992, he recognized how the power of the computer
STYLE could bring a new dimension to telling stories.
ΚΚΚΚΚ That fall, "I learned of the approaching 50th
CALENDAR anniversary of the accidental discovery of LSD 25
by Swiss scientist Albert Hofmann," Arellano
COMMENTARY recalls. "I could think of no better subject around
which to assemble collective legends into an
WEEKLY interactive document, so I journeyed cyberspace via
SECTIONS bulletin boards and newsgroups, and cried out for
people to testify to their first, or otherwise
ORANGE exceptional, experience with acid."
COUNTY ΚΚΚΚΚ The result, "Albert Hofmann's Strange
Mistake"--which Arellano calls "the Internet's
SAN first hypertext 'zine"--compiles hundreds of
FERNANDO stories e-mailed by contributors from "San
VALLEY Francisco to Sydney [Australia] and many places in
between." A new version of "Strange Mistake"
VENTURA (ftp://ftp.brown.edu/pub/bobby_rabyd/LSD-53.hqx) is
COUNTY published each April on the drug's birthday.
ΚΚΚΚΚ Robert F. Baldwin's Internet storytelling is
also rooted in an interest in the oral tradition.
ΚΚΚΚΚ "I always told stories, but decided that I
wanted to get good at it in the late '70s, when I
started telling bedtime stories to my kids," says
Baldwin, a writer by trade. "I began telling
stories on the Internet when I discovered the train
hopper's list and Bill Mellman's train-hopping
page. On Bill's page, there's a link to the stories
that train hoppers have told about their rail
journeys, and newcomers are invited to add theirs.
I told about a ride I took in 1957 through the
Hudson Valley on the New York Central."
ΚΚΚΚΚ At least one of Baldwin's online tales has
provided cross-fertilization between print and
electronic media: " 'Doc' Holliday in Drag" began
life online at Nerdnosh, a story-swapping Web site.
Later, it was picked up by the Des Moines Register
as a humorous op-ed piece, then was bought and
published by an online magazine.
ΚΚΚΚΚ "Telling stories for profit has never been a
major source of income for me," says Baldwin. But
"it's easier to tell stories than to write them. On
the Net, it feels like I'm telling them even though
I'm producing a written record of the story as I
tell it." Baldwin's stories can be found in the
archives of Nerdnosh, the "virtual campfire"
(http://www.netins.net/showcase/nerdnosh/).
ΚΚΚΚΚ Other types of Internet storytelling are far
more contemporary than the traveling bard model.
Serialization, pioneered over a century ago in the
print medium, has proven particularly popular and
effective on the Internet.
ΚΚΚΚΚ A serialized interactive novel called "The
Last Best Thing"
(http://www.sjmercury.com/lastbest/), for example,
the final installment of which just appeared,
developed through the collaboration of readers,
with each new chapter in the serial incorporating
their suggestions and input. The numerous
interactive soap operas that have sprung up in the
wake of the success of a soap called "The Spot"
follow a similar model.
ΚΚΚΚΚ Jennifer Hayward, a professor of English at
the College of Wooster in Ohio and author of a
forthcoming book about serial fiction, says the
form has traditionally been a pioneer of new
technologies.
ΚΚΚΚΚ "Serialization has historically been used as
a kind of lure to help defuse the anxiety
surrounding a new medium," Hayward says. "The power
of the serial to attract and hold an audience works
to acclimatize potential consumers to the medium,
helping to ensure the popularity--and thus the
profitability--of new technologies,"
ΚΚΚΚΚ Online serials, she points out, serve a range
of purposes: "They can be fan-created, or intended
to increase traffic on a particular site, or serve
as vehicles for advertising, or even be impelled by
the pure pleasure of the genre."
ΚΚΚΚΚ Hayward points to ALT.DAYS
(http://www.io.com/~jlc/alt days/), a fan-created
alternative to NBC's "Days of Our Lives," as one of
the most interesting examples. It was started in
April 1993 by fans dissatisfied with the direction
taken by the show's writing team. Here, the Net
provides people with a venue for telling the
stories of others--in this case, TV characters on a
daytime soap opera.
ΚΚΚΚΚ A lot of Web storytelling may be motivated by
a search for profit or glory, but sometimes it's
mainly a way to enable people to participate in the
creative process. In 1994, Justin Hall, then a
student at Brown University, launched a Web page
(http://www.justin.org/) offering reviews of his
preferred sites, interspersed with personal stories
and anecdotes.
ΚΚΚΚΚ Hall often wrote about the Web being a new
paradigm that empowered people to publish their own
stories. Then a friend started goading him for not
revealing to his readers that he was just another
rich white kid in college who was simply well
positioned to take advantage of the publishing
opportunities afforded by the Net.
ΚΚΚΚΚ The criticism was not lost on Hall, and he
later began traveling around the country to teach
others how to put up their own Web pages.
ΚΚΚΚΚ "I posted this message in which I offered to
travel, for a bus ticket and a floor space to sleep
on, to communities that were interested in learning
how to use the Net and how to publish Web pages,"
Hall recounted.
ΚΚΚΚΚ "I got a lot of responses, but the most
inspiring experience was being at the Breakthrough
Club, a place in Wichita [Kan.] where mentally ill
people go to get vocational training and drug
rehab. I went in there for six hours and taught all
these people that would have otherwise never been
on the Internet how to put up their personal page.
At the end, we had six or seven people telling
their personal stories (http://www.feist.com/).
ΚΚΚΚΚ "And those who could not write, like this guy
who had suffered a stroke, would tell their life
stories to those who could type them in for them."
ΚΚΚΚΚ Hall's experience with members of the
Breakthrough Club was so compelling that another
author was inspired to write a story about it--for
the Wichita Eagle.
ΚΚΚΚΚ Freelance writers Mary Purpura and Paolo
Pontoniere can be reached at PMPurPont@aol.com
ΚΚΚΚΚ
Copyright Los Angeles Times
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