Harry Potter and serialized novels
Author Michael Lund (Route 66 to Vietnam) let me know about an article in the Baltimore Sun of interest to Podiobooks.com fans. The article discusses the final book in the Harry Potter series, with an emphasis on the “serialized” story telling which the fans are such… fans of, really. There are some obvious parallels to enjoying a podiobook one chapter at a time.
But don’t think that J.K. is doing something unique:
Serial fiction enjoyed a heyday during the Victorian era a century and a half ago, when the world’s best authors, including Charles Dickens, George Eliot and Tolstoy, released their novels a section at a time in regular periodicals. Dickens in particular was “the Rowling of his day,” according to Michael Lund, a professor of English at Longwood University in Virginia, who specializes in the form. “He did everything the Potter series is doing now, developing characters over time, building readership. … Everyone wanted to read the next [installment of a] Dickens novel.”
All those old guys were doing it, and about 120 or so new guys and gals are putting their own twists on the idea of serialized story telling, right here at Podiobooks.com.
July 28th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Who decides which books get press (Harry Potter) and which get censored? After all, censorship is becoming America’s favorite past-time. The US gov’t (and their corporate friends), already detain protesters, ban books like “America Deceived” from Amazon and Wikipedia, shut down Imus and fire 21-year tenured, BYU physics professor Steven Jones because he proved explosives, thermite in particular, took down the WTC buildings. Free Speech forever (especially for books).
Last link (before Google Books caves to pressure and drops the title):
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?&isbn=0-595-38523-0