The Nectarine Project

A Disagreement

WWWalter, the Internet guru, has been giving me grief about my approach to this website. He claims I am too influenced by my work as a novelist.

'The Net is a all about choice and involvement,' he said, his eyes bulging behind the lenses of his glasses. 'It's a dynamic environment. People wwwant to contribute.'

'So?'

'You're trying to maintain too much control. It wwwon't wwwork if you try to pretend its a piece of fiction. WWWhere is your comments function? WWWhere are your wwwikis?'

'Well,' I said, struggling to limit myself to a single w. 'In the first place, the software for those things is a bit tricky. Plus I might need to change my ISP so I could install them...'

'Get yourself a bog standard blog,' he interrupted. 'Comments are easy to install there.'

'I don't want a bog standard blog or even a blog standard bog. I want something with a lot more flexibility.'

'You wwwon't get the hits,' he shook his head, wwworriedly.

'That doesn't bother me. Let come who may. And I will install a comments function. When I get around to it.'

'Hmm.' He blinked at me. He was reluctant to let the matter go. There were more points to be made. 'Fiction's dead, you know. Static reception of content.... Tut, tut, tut. Who wwwants an old fashioned story wwwhen you can be a participant and change the ending? Or the beginning, if they wwwant to.'

'I think you're wrong,' I answered. 'The whole point about an old fashioned story is that you can't change the ending. The experience of fiction is all about submitting to destiny. For good or ill you are not in control. I think people will want what you call static content even though they are not in control.'

'Hmmph.' He looked scornful. 'WWWell, wwwe'll see, wwwon't wwwe?'

18 October 2008

© Chris Else 2008