Recently, an app was launched this year by the name of Yarn. Yarn allows readers to submit stories written entirely as a text conversation. Readers on Yarn are able to look into two people's conversation as if they were a part of it as well. Each story includes a small description just before you start reading it, similar to the back of a novel. However, these stories only include dialogue between two characters. Throughout the story, pictures will pop up relating to the story, but other than that it is difficult to find evidence of imagery in the story. Yes, at times may describe where they are at, but they tend to be indistinct. The authors of these stories seem to avoid all types of literary devices, and instead, replace them with text acronyms and emoticons. This makes their writing seem like not enough effort was put into it. In The Shallows, Carr discusses digital text and how it can't compare to physical books. When discussing people uploading their books online, Carr states that
"It seems likely that removing the sense of closure from book writing will, in time, alter writer's attitudes toward their work," (107).What Carr is saying here is that online authors are able to edit their books at any time without worrying about permanent mistakes. This gives online authors the feeling to put less effort into their work, knowing that they have time to edit it in the future. Literature is a form of art, and many people put lots of effort when it comes to perfecting it. How do emojis and text slang fit into the English language? These stories are just a one-on-one discussion between two people who are in a tough situation. There seems to be no signs imagery or narration; just dialogue. So, would these "text stories" count as literature, or are they just plain conversations? If they are, what makes it a literary piece?
-Genesis Alvarez
Is it just me, or this excruciatingly dumb? Geez.
ReplyDeleteA story has to have a point, doesn't it? You know, the basics: character, setting, plot, conflict and resolution?? Why would I want to read someone else's inane text exchange? I have plenty of those on my own phone.
But I believe you CAN tell a pretty good story through text messages. Whether or not it will rise to the status of "enduring literature" is another matter altogether...but in the right hands, I believe it could.
I do not think this Yarn app can be considered as literature. As Ms. Fletcher stated, a story HAS to have a point with character, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution. Yes, this app may include characters, a setting (yet vague), and some type of conflict, but it does not give the full ride of an actual book. This Yarn app is only for entertainment purposes, and I'm not saying books aren't, but looking at the reviews, there are many people complaining about waiting 30 minutes for the next scenes or that these stories are written poorly. Books give a different type of entertainment like lessons and meaning to the real world, but with Yarn, it only fulfills the desires of one to experience snooping around people's messages or reading their different types of genre through text messaging. Literature can be shown in many different ways, and I agree that people and authors put a lot of effort to perfect their work, but with these types of reviews the Yarn app has been receiving, I strongly believe Yarn shouldn't be considered as literature. They may be worth of wasting time, but you might as well be reading an actual book that provides real thrillers and suspense and an actual story.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the Yarn app can be considered literature. When I think of literature, I think of a piece of writing that can be analyzed. I find it very difficult to analyze writing that doesn't have a set sentence structure. The stories published in the Yarn app are written using incomplete sentences and texting abbreviations. Also, these short stories don't have any character development like most stories do. Since the Yarn app's purpose is to entertain their consumers, authors don't pay much attention to illustrating a theme in their work through characters and sentence patterns. On the other hand, literature works try to put forward a theme whether the story is entertaining or not. Because there aren't any underlying messages in the Yarn stories, they cannot be considered literature.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of literature, what have you been reading (outside of summer homework)? What was the last good book you've read??
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