beautiful on the emerging digital dialogism-if i may so coin it- as the more vital development of new writing and reading-
'Nigerian literature is a colorful proxy for contemporary global trends. The book is dying a slow death, the new medium is the Internet and what constitutes dialogue today is difficult to replicate in a book. On social media, readers are mostly reading the wrong things in the right places, while writers are elsewhere buried in books that few read, writing all the right things. It is a failure of leadership. The readers and the writers must meet again in the same space, tell each other stories and perhaps make money in the process. That would require a paradigm shift, a change in mindset and a new business model that is not centered on the book. In the meantime, this is a great time to be alive if you love Nigerian writing. There is a lot of it free – on the Internet. What are you doing, reading this? Go type LOL on some writer's wall!'
im sceptical, though, about the idea that the book is dying.
the dialogical form of social media interaction enables an understanding of knowledge as developed in an interactive rather than a fixed context, as open ended rather than static, enabling a greater democratization of learning processes.
Part of the greatness of Plato's Dialogues is the use of this strategy although his descendants resented by the Western academy from Aristotle have moved away from that model to one that privileges the formulation of ideas organised in terms of a relatively closed loops, with the understanding that such thoroughness of formulation creates ideational and logical solidity others might more readily build upon or challenge.
i think both styles of discourse are vital- the dialogical and the relatively fixed bcs they bring different but complementary values to the table.
the dialogical form and the fixed form can be combined by making the writings that inspire dialogue and the dialogues themselves into one book, even as the dialogue may continue in cyber space- digital books linked to the dialogue source and print books with links to the various aspects of the digital content.
why is the creation of books in the traditional format as the collection of information within a limited space vital, even in relation to dialogical digital content?
digital con tent as it currently exists is not always fully stable, particularly within the informality represented by soc ial networks where the dialogues Ikhide references are taking place.
this instability is caused by human action and other factors- such as people deleting or modifying content or the accidental loss of content through hardware damage or software corruption etc
secondly, the human being is an embodied, three dimensional creature while digital content as it exists today is basically two dimensional, even with the 3d film-making.
can virtual reality technology enable the creation of an immersive three dimensional reality with the portability and flexibility increasingly demonstrated by digital technologies?
holographic projection in news reporting in which a fully three dimensional image of the scene being reported on is beamed to the studio- suggests a movement in that direction.
would it be possible to enjoy full or partial immersion so that one may immerse oneself fully in the virtual space or partially in it so that one is simultaneously aware of both the virtual space and one's physical surroundings?
i expect all these possibilities will emerge with time since the basic technologies are already being developed, thereby satisfying the human orientation towards three dimensionality even within virtual space, thereby perhaps challenging even further the need for physical books.
the visceral experience of a physical library as a space of interaction with books and of discovery of new texts, however, might remain unique and after some time of enjoying the expansiveness of the digital, it could be liberating to simply inhabit the concrete three dimensional world, unenhanced by any technological enablement, enjoying its unique beauties which humanity might not be able to surpass, based as it is on the fundamental laws of space and perception.
On 20 November 2015 at 10:31, 'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
--This essay is really about my view on the state of Nigerian literature. However, in the 21st century, it is difficult to discuss Nigerian literature in isolation of African literature. In the world of literature, Nigeria is a classic example of what is going on in pretty much the rest of Africa. Decades after independence, Nigeria still suffers from a shortage of funded, robust publishing houses dedicated to processing the renaissance that Nigerian literature is currently undergoing. Just the other day, I read a petition against Pearson organized by Professor Jane Plastow, a scholar based in the UK. She petitioned the publishing company, because of its refusal to re-issue some classics of African literature in the Heinemann African Writers Series. The petition saddened me. Over five decades after colonialism, African literature is still defined by its glorious past. In the classrooms, at least judging from anecdotal evidence, there seems to be some innovation on the parts of those who teach literature. Professors of African literature are stuck in a 20th century paradigm; teaching ancient scrolls, and beholden to the West and her Eurocentric standards.
- Ikhide
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