… or mobile phone novels are topping sales charts in Japan. Not only are they read, many of them have also been written on a mobile phone. During the first half of 2007, half of Japan’s top-10 selling works of fiction were written on a cellphone. Some even turn to bestsellers in hardcover versions after making their way from ‘the small screen’ onto the old luxury called paper (e.g. Koizora by Mika sold 1.2 million copies).

Some speak of a mere fad, while others see the birth of a major cultural change. Note that in any case, mobile phone novels are not merely a change of medium, but a change of language and a wide range of cognitive, socio-cultural and artistic processes involved.

Think about the graphical nature and cultural context of Japanese language however – likely being more apt for this kind of reading & writing experience – before you try to hype the concept in our Western world.

Via The Sydney Morning Herald

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 15:55 and is filed under arts, future, society, trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.