"I (heart) Novels" was pretty interesting to read. While many of the terms went right over my head, I was most interested in the debate about whether these cell phone novels are considered literature or not. One of the comments in the article was "the novels aren’t literature at all but the offspring of an oral tradition originating with mawkish Edo-period marionette shows and extending to vapid J-pop love ballads' (pg. 3). While I can't really say if the second half is true, I would definitely agree with the thought that these aren't literature, at least not in the way we think of literature. One of my main components for what is considered literary is if it has endured. How long has it been around? Is it a recent novel? Has it been attacked and criticized? Has it been studied? These cell phone novels, while interesting sounding, have not yet become literature, at least in my opinion. I also liked the quote from Banana Yoshimoto, who is an author of physical books, not these cell phone novels. She said, “Youth have their own kind of suffering, and I think that the cell-phone novels became an outlet for their suffering. If the cell-phone novels act as some consolation, that is fine.” She went on, “I personally am not interested in them as novels. I feel that it’s a waste of time to read them' (pg. 3) I just found this funny.
On the other hand, while it might not be something I teach in my class, if students are interested in it, I would do my best to incorporate these cellphone novels in my teaching somehow. Maybe they become choice reads or I just have copies in my classroom library that they can borrow. I also think it would be interesting to do a writing activity where the students mimic the type of writing in cellphone novels. We teach them how to write creatively, in different forms, so this could just be another lesson.
I like the idea of e-books, although I'm still mostly for physical books. If I could afford it, I would like to get an iPad or Kindle or something of the like for my textbooks for school. It would be a lot easier to carry one little piece of technology than a bunch of textbooks. Also, a bit cheaper than having the actual books. But if I'm going to be reading for pleasure, even if it's reading novels for school, I would rather have a physical book. I don't think I could get into the story as much without turning real pages, feeling the texture of the paper, or smelling the book, whether it's the musty smell of old books or the cleanness of new books. I like to randomly look at the cover while I'm reading, especially if a character is pictured. I can do this easily with a physical book: simply mark my spot in some way and shut the book as much as I need to. But with an e-reader, I would have to scroll all the way back to the cover. While this might not be really hard, it would be a pain if I was pretty far into the book. Having e-books would be easier to pack on vacation, but I would miss having the actual book. If I'm floating in the pool, the worse that could happen with a physical book would be that I drop it and I may need to buy a new one. If I drop an e-reader...well, I wouldn't even have it near the pool anyway, so I guess that doesn't really matter. There are upsides to e-books and e-readers and there are downsides. I just think I would really miss having actual books if I didn't have it.
I'm 100% on board with hand held books! I don't think I would even want to think about the Kindle because books are what makes stories come alive. It's the flipping the pages, and the smells, and actually holding the books that make it enjoyable for me. Kindles and iPads are more for web-surfing rather than straight reading. It is really hard for me to stare constantly at the screen for long periods of time. Even with the articles we need to read for this class, I print them out so I can mark them up and turn pages over.
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