[Authors Note: I have left off the lists of references for this shortened version of this paper.

I
have also left the original figure numbers and note numbers as they appear in the expanded
paperso they will not be consecutive. This is a complicated subject and I wrote this paper
before realizing all that was necessary was an expanded outline, so it is as short as I could
quickly recreate and should be a quick read due to the multiple images.]

e-Volving Off the Page

How PublishedNarratives for Young Readers are being Influenced by
Emerging, Non-linear e-Media

Presented by
Stella Reinhard, M.A., Childrens Literature,Hollins U
Ph.D. A.B.D., Media, Art & Text, VCU

Presented at
Cambridge University, Conference on the Emerging Adult

September 3-5, 2010

2
INTRODUCTION: Emerging from a Linear Culture

. . . the place of writing is again in turmoil, roiled now not by the invention of print books
but the emergence of electronic literature. Just as the history of print literature is deeply
bound up with the evolution of book technology as it built on wave after wave of technical
innovations, so the history of electronic literature is entwined with the evolution of digital
computers . . .
Hayles EL 2
In this discussion we will examine whether changes in technology could be affecting the
form and content of published narratives for the child and emerging adult; followed by an

examination of some of the emerging and often non -linear forms of published narratives for the
young that are evolving off the page of the codex book.
The codex book form, with its front and back covers enclosing a set of pages that are read

in linear and orderly fashion from a beginning through a middle to an end, has been identified by
scholars such as Marshall McLuhan as a major catalyst for the linear writing and sequential
processes pervading all aspects of life in most Western societies for centuries, to the extent that
Western humans began to see this as the natural order of all aspects of existence. However,
McLuhan, in his book, Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man , goes back even further in
time to identify another perhaps even more important culprit:
Only alphabetic cultures have ever mastered connected lineal sequences as pervasive
forms of psychic and social organization. The breaking up of every kind of experience
into uniform units in order to produce faster action and change of form (applied
know ledge) has been the secret of Western power over man and nature alike . . . . This

procedure . . . became more intense with the uniformity and repeatability of the
Gutenberg development (121-122).
The linear system of sharing information created in alphabetic societies survived until

very recently, but, as the centuries passed and information accrued, such systems were taxed to
their capacity. Motivated by a society plagued by information overload, Vannevar Bush, in his
1945 essay, As We May Think, as quoted by Martin Lister in New Media: A Critical Introduction ,

3
first considered new ways of storing information. He suggested the creation of a new machine he
called the Memex, that stored data in ways he considered closer to the way humans think. The
human mind, he observed, operates by association. With one item in its grasp, it snaps
instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in association with some

intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain (Lister 10). It was Bushs view that the
Memex could be coded to work in much the same use of associative indexing, the basic idea of
which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and

automatically another . . . . The process of typing two items together is the important thing.
(Lister 25). Hin dsight being the 20/20 vision that it tends to be, these observations of Bushs
sound remarkably like the way in which todays World Wide Web works. Ted Nelson expanded
on Bushs idea in his 1982 paper, A New Home for the Mind : This simple facilitycall it the
jump -link capabilityleads immediately to all sorts of new text forms: for scholarship, for
teaching, for fiction, for poetry . . . [italics, my emphasis]. The link facility . . . permits fully non

sequential writing. Writings have been sequential because pages have been sequential. What is
the alternative? Why hypertext non sequential writing (Lister 26).
The timing was finally right for such jump -link technology to take off, the World Wide
Web was born, and society is currently witnessing an ever -widening explosion of emerging

technologies taking advantages of formats that vary, often dramatically, from the traditional linear
formats of the past. As more and more members of our society are taking advantage of

technologies such as cell-phone text-messaging, web-cameras, computer gaming, on-line

shopping, surfing the net, and blogging, exposure to these new technologies has helped develop

a new public familiar with non-linear models in other areas of life. Such models are beginning to
emerge in the workplace, in math, science, in news organizations, and, yes, in the world of
literature, art and publishing.
In the field of literature, todays readers, and particularly young readers, are no longer

confused by non-linear plot experimentation in hypertextual narratives because it now mirrors

4
behaviors they recognize and have experienced themselves in their use of these emerging

varieties of e-media. And, as a new range of e-media distracts readers from traditional codex
books, new sorts of narratives are emerging and capturing the attention of young readers.

If P ublished Narratives for Children and Emerging Adults are Changing in F orm and
Co ntent, can Catalysts for Such Change be Identified?

In modern thought, (if not in fact)

Nothing is that doesnt act,
So that is reckoned wisdom which
Describes the scratch but not the itch.
-Anonymous (McLuhan22)-

Marshall McLuhan interprets the anonymous stanza displayed here in his Understanding
Media: The Extensions of Man, interpreting the verses lines as referring to, the increasing
awareness of the action of media , quite independently of their content or programming (22)

[italics, my emphasis]. This section of the discussion is an attempt to propose a few itches or
actions of new media or technology that may have helped create some scratches or changes in
the form and content of published narratives for young readers.

Figure 4.

This section briefly attempts to identify a few possible technological itches that might
have created some evidence of change, or scratches, in the field of the published narrative for

5
the young reader. The year 1957 saw the publishing of Cosmic View: The Universe in 40 Jumps,
a groundbreaking book by Kees Boeke that explored the un iverse both on a macro and a micro
scale, by viewing a single spot on earth in increasing and decreasing powers of ten. Some of its

illustrations, graphite sketches, are extraordinarily realistic precursors to later satellite

photographic images of the earth, although conceived and drawn in a pre-satellite era [Figure 4.]
(Illustrations from this book can be viewed at http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/cosmicview/).
Just over a decade later, in 1968, Ray and her husband Charles Eames, created a short
documentary film titled Powers of Ten, based on and inspired by Boekes book and distributed by

IBM. In their film, they began their visual journey with a couple having a picnic in Soldiers
Field in Chicago [Figure 5, left], and zooming out in consecutive powers of ten, and then back
into the mans hand in decreasing powers of ten as demonstrated in some stills from that movie
shown here [Figure 5, right]. Powers of Ten was chosen, in 1998, to be preserved by the Library
of Congress as a part of the National Film Registry due to its cultural and aesthetic signif icance.

Figure 5.

As 1968 rolled to a close, the Apollo VIII Lunar Mission orbited the moon, laying the
groun dwork for later moon missions to land on the lunar surface. On that journey, the crew
captured the first pictures ever of an Earth rising over the surface of the moon Earthrise, as it
has come to be called (http://www.nasa.gov /) [Figure 6.]. The era of satellite photography
had begun.

6
The year 1998 saw Alias/Wavefront releasing the 3-D animation program they called
Maya. Figure 7 shows a desktop view of the Maya Program, and a three dimensional drawing of
an airplane b eing created in the program. Maya has since become the property of AutoDesk and
has become the industry standard in CG (computer generated) animation. In 2003 Maya was
awarded an Academy Award "for scientific and technical achievement," citing its application "on
nearly every feature using 3-D computer -generated images" (http://www.oscars.org/press/
pressreleases/ 2003/03.01.06.html). This pr ogram, as well as CAD drawing programs used in
architecture and engineering, introduced groundbreaking zoom and tumble perspectives to their
computer design programs, making difficult perspectives easily accessible to designers.
Taking all of these described historic events into account, events that shifted humanitys

perspective of life on earth, could these be examples of technological innovations that have also
impacted the form and content of published narratives for children and emergent adults?
Figures 6, 7 & 8 (left to right).

If Technological Changes have Affected the F orm and Content of P ublished Narratives for
Children and Emerging Adults, Can Some of Those Traceable Changes be Identified?

Eventually, everything connects.- Charles Eames

Recently this writer registered significant changes sweeping through the published design
of Adolescent Literature. Innovative perspectives flooded illustrations that had for centuries

7
focused almost exclusively on landscapes and close-upson human -scaled and human -accessible
perspectives. Creative typography suddenly danced across pages. After researching these and
other observed changes, I theorized a possible answer: Could it be that our cultural perspectives
shifted follo wing events such as that first-ever deep space photo of Earth the afore-mentioned
1968 Earthrise image from Ap ollo 8launching the era of satellite photos; later reinforced by
Computer Animation programs such as Maya that offered the first ever easily accessible zoom
and tumble views and provided the technology necessary to make such a perspective shift easy?

Or that typography now dances due to the wid espread adoption by the public of computer layout
programs that offer easily usable digital typography layout opportunities, programs such as
QuarkXPress, or Adobes InDesign or Illustrator? Could it be that human culture has recently
become more self -awareaware of their own existence in space? Could it also be true that the
rapid adoption of so much new computer and web-based media is finally offering the tools
necessary to do something with that expanded awareness, to dramatically alter the mindset of

designers of published narratives, and that this is changing the form and content of published
childrens narratives on and off the page?
Before looking at examples of published narratives for young readers that are evolving
off the page, this paper will first briefly explore whether these technological breakthroughs
affecting our cultural perspective might have impacted the field of childrens published narratives
in visible ways by taking a quick, historical loo k at a possibly simultaneous evolution of
perspectives in a minute representative sample of childrens an imated feature films and childrens
picturebooks [To be thorough in this exploration, similar histor ical reviews covering neighboring
areas would also be appropriate (such as reviews of typography and page design evolution in
childrens picturebooks). Due to space constraints, these are addressed in related papers]
It is a fairly clear cut task to trace the emergence and spread of satellite views or

birds-eye views in animated movie illustration post-dating the advent of satellite photography.

8
Although a broader study would show the same trend, one can gain a basic sense of this change in
the animated feature films field by comparing the perspectives use in two movie trailers.
Trailer number one predates the first satellite photographs and is from the first of the
classic Disney animated feature films, Disneys 1937 Techni-Color production of Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs. The entire exquisitely

Figures 10a, b, c, Figure 11 (top to bottom).

illustrated trailer consists of some close-ups and

many standard landscape perspectives very
similar to what is shown in Figure 10c featuring
the marching dwarfs. Perspectives are typically
from the side, mid-distance away (very similar
to childrens picturebook illustrations up
through the mid -1900s as well). This is true
except for one unusual, static shot looking up at
Snow White from inside a well as she looks
down [Figure 10a] . Even this shot is an
undemanding one to illustrateit is a
combination of a frontal view of Snow Whites
face framed by the darkened circle of the well
surrounding her, nearly identical in composition
to the landscape view in the movie of the evil queen looking in her magic mirror [Figure 10b].
This movie is similar to most films of this pre-Satellite era with very few exceptions, and even
those few exceptions did not spread throughout the industry, probably in part, b ecause the
technology to support such perspectives had not yet arrived.2

9
The second trailer is from Disneys 1991 Beauty & the Beast , the first animated film ever
to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy (and it did win two Academy Awards). This

was only the second movie where Disney animators used the newly developed CAPS
(ComputerAn imation Production S ystem), developed by Pixar for Disney (the first instance of its

use was the ending rainbow scene in the 1989 Disney movie, The Little Mermaid). CGI, or
Computer Generated Imagery, was not originally considered d eveloped enough to use for this

movie, but finally it was decided to put it to significant use during the "Beauty and the Beast"
waltz sequence. In this scene, that still remains remarkable memorable nearly two decades later,

a traditionally-animated Belle and Beast dance through a computer-generated ballroom as the

virtual camera dollies around them in simulated three-dimensional space, first looking up at the

frescoed dome, and then looking down from the dome on the dancers below [Figure 11.] (view at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 9qtTPTxvoPA&feature=related ).3 Charles Solomon tells his
readers in The Art of Animation that, Creating the three-dimensional ballroom enabled the
directors to employ sophisticated cinematography that rivaled the best live-action films. The
swooping pan [shot] through a glittering chandelier elicited admiring gasps from audiences

10
(312). It remains obvious to viewers
to this day that a technological shift
has occurred in the treatment of this

ballroom dance sequence as the

camera wheels around a perfectly

columned room from above with

such ease and perfection.

Figures 13, 14 (left to right).

A comparable historical review of picturebooks, researching the emergence and spread of

aerial perspectives, reveals a similar story. As Childrens Literature scholar, Perry Nodelman,
observes in his 1988 text, Words About Pictures, middle-distance shots and long shots
predominate . . . and most picture books depict the actions they describe in a series of pictures

that all imply the same distance from the scene. It may be that, either consciously or
subconsciously, illustrators of childrens narratives in past generations have felt that continuity in
picture design might help the child reader read the illustrations and the narrative more easily
and correctly. Perhaps illustrators felt that too many perspectives might confuse a young reader
who is still new to reading, and still learning its rules. In any case, there are very few illustrations
with aerial or other unusual perspectives pre-1950s and 60s. Figures 13 and 14, respectively,
demonstrate the typical and popular landscape perspective and are from the work of French

illustrator Edmund Dulac (1882 to 1953). Figure 13 is from Bluebeard in the 1910 edition of The
Sleeping Beauty and Other Tales From the Old French;; while Figure 14 is of Gerda Kissing the
Reindeer on the Nose from The Snow Queen in the 1911 edition of Stories of Hans Anderson
(http://www.artsycraftsy. com/dulac_prints.html). Relatively few close-ups are even used the
central action is most often given a setting and space to exist.5

11
It was not until the mid -1990s that any sustainable change in the perspective approach to

childrens book illustration appeared to begin taking hold across the field.6 This growing
awareness of the possibilities of dramatic perspectives is apparent in, among several other
examples that are discussed in an expanded paper, Steve Jenkins 1995 picturebook en titled,
Looking Down , a wordless book that is filled with collage illustrations [Figure 16, front cover.].
The perspective used in this picturebook begin s with an asteroids view of the Earth, then

continually zooms in until the reader is viewing a ladybug on a piece of grass. Looking Down
exhibits striking similarities in co ncept to the 1957 Boeke book and/or the 1968 Powers of Ten
movie. In fact, Steve Jenkins credits the Eames movie as his inspiration on his website
(www.stevejenkins books.com.). And, finally, this new awareness and shift in perspective
appears to be spreading to other illustrators across the field, as well.

Andr Malraux, in his text, The Voices of Silence,

reminds his readers that, whether an artist b egins to paint,
write, or co mpose early or late in life, and however
effective his first works may be, always behind them lies
the studio, the cathedral, the museum, the library or the

concert hall (Nodelman 315). The creators of narratives

for children and emerging adults cannot help but be
influenced by their life experiencesand, in a sim ilar

way, surely they cannot help but be affected by the

Figure 16.
technologies around them as they grow to the point that
they now take them for granted and almost do not see their presence and importance in their
lives. These technologies will inevitably impact the form and co ntent of the narratives that are

created for societys young readers.

12
If P ublished Narratives for Adolescents are Changing in Form & Content, What New &
Hybrid F orms of e-Narratives are Emerging off-the-page?

For the purposes of this discussion, the term published narratives for adolescents will
be given a definition with the broadest latitude in meaning [A related paper focuses on changes in
form and content within the constraints of the codex book formatthat format that includes
linear pages sandwiched between front and back covers that has been the standard form used to
publish narratives since Gutenberg invented his printing press in the mid-Fifteenth Century.].
This paper will co nsider published narratives that are evolving off the page or outside of the
constraints of the codex book format. It will also use a much broader definition of the word
published, including, in addition to books, film and theatre, a wide var iety of emerging e-media
that are currently beginning to be published off the page, and often to the Webincluding
digital videos, websites and blogs, games, etc. If the subject contains the possibility of narrative

aimed at young readers/viewers, and if it has been published in a form that allows a broad
readership to have easy access to essentially multiple prints of the same published piecethen

it may be considered [More details and more in-depth discussion of each type of narrative
discussed in this section are available in the expanded paper.]. It is time now to discuss some of
the emerging forms of e-narratives for young readers.
Emerging adults who are also users of Facebook or other social networking sites may not
realize it, but they are, in a way, creating their own personal narrative, their ever-expanding and

constantly edited autobiographies so to speak; then e-publishing them to the Web where th ey
are shared with their readers, consisting mainly of a circle of friends, colleagues, and family.

13
Creating personal websites and blogs has recently become much easier thanks to free

sites such as www.freewebs.com or Googles www.blogspot.com, both of which offer a simple

template design system and quick, simple processes to upload artwork, logos and other items to
the sites. These free and simple options are resulting in exploration and experimentation by
young readers, writers, or artists. Some of these experimental sites put together by young users
are innovative explorations of self-publication as well as of the possibilities of hypertext [In the
expanded paper, a specific example, with images, is discussed involving a young writer who
invites her readers to become characters in her on -line novels]. A multitude of young
author/artist/creators in several on-line genres, seem to be claiming the right to create without
permission of the establishment. Whether what they create is original, fan-based, or mash-ups of

pre-existing materialthese young creators are not waiting around for print pu blishers to notice
them. They are by-passing traditional avenues of publishing. They are creating and filling their
own niches. They are using their peers as their readers. There is something in their attitude of
ownership that one has to admire.

Figure 20.

14
Narratives that interact with their audience are not the sole domain of hypertext on the
Web. The Disney show, iCarly, is based around the plot-line of school students who decide to
create and produce their own weekly web show called iCarly. In each television episode there is
the frame tale of what is occurring in the characters real lives, and this includes several clips of
the filming and showing of the iCarly web cast. On the web cast within the telev ision series, the
shows hosts, Carly and Sam, sometimes announce contests and invite their viewers to

participate, with winners and /or their video entries frequently appearing on the web show. After
visiting the www.iCarly.com website, it becomes clear that there is actual interaction between
actual viewers and those producing and acting in the show. As Figure 20, a screen capture of a
page on the site, demonstrates, visitors to the website can u pload their own video or view other
videos uploaded by other viewers. Some of these fan videos have appeared in episodes of the web
show within the television show, and the fans who have produced these videos have also
appeared on the iCarly show. Different on and off-line media are interacting with each other, and

viewers are becoming a part of the narrativeanother case of interactive, hypertextual published
narrative for children and emer ging adults.

Figure 21.

15
One cannot discuss emerging e-narratives for children without considering the potential

narratives in on-line computer games. Games such as Runescape, pictured in Figure 21, are
examples of a MMORPG, a Massive Multi-User Online Role-Playing Game. In this game
players interact and talk with others. Their words appear both above their character in the scene,
and, simultaneously, in an instant messaging box in the lower corner of the screen as seen in

Figure 21. In that respect, games such as Runescape have possibly become so popular b ecause
they can also serve as a social networking site as well as a role-playing game. As players explore
the fantasy world, in Runescapes case, and build a virtual existence, they are also, in a sense,
creating their own narrative stories. In that regard, such games are fulfilling some young peoples
need for narrative in their lives (http://services.runescape.com/m=news/newsite m.ws? id=1386).
As shown in Figures 22a and b, the Runescape Epic Movie and The Little Fishermans
Tale, based on a tradition al Brazilian folktale, are both examples of narratives by and/or for

emerging adults from a genre that encompasses one of the most intriguing recent repurposing of
computer games by young people. Both of these narratives are animated using computer -game-

generated imagery. This form of animated narrative is called Machinima (muh-sheen -eh-mah), a
misspelled portmanteau of the two word term machine cinema, and it refers to filmmaking

within a real-time, 3D virtual environment, often using 3D video -game technologies (to view
videos, control click on images or visit, , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6OVZogMYUw or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbtPHE14Ob8, respectively). (http://www.machinima
.org/machinima-faq.html).7

Figures 22a (left) & b (right).

16
In this type of animation, instead of learning how to animate using a two or threedimensional computer animation programs such as Adobe Flash or Autodesk Maya, respectively,
game players have figured out how to create their own narratives by simply repurposing the
animation from the computer video games that they play and know well. In the case of these two
videos, their creators repurposed animation opportunities in Runescape and Second Life,
respectively, both of them avatar-based roll-playing games. Without the games, such animated
creations would require considerably more money to purchase the necessary and expensive
animation pr ograms; and then would take even more time and effort (including, perhaps, classes)
in order to learn how to utilize those programs to create such animations.
In spite of all the creative imagery that text inspires, up until recently, text, the medium of
the printed story, has remained a stubbornly static medium. Typography, or the design, layout and

presentation of text, in books and elsewhere has refused to evolve significantly over the last
century despite several artistic movements that have come and gone that might have affected its
form and use in booksmovements such as Dada and Futurism, for example [The expanded
paper includes a broader discussion, and also looks at typography evolution in picturebooks.] .

However, with the advent of Flash editing programs like Adobe After Effects, that allow the
editing of typography in digital videos, it is often students with class projects who are tackling a
new form of narrative called Kinetic Typography. This term refers to moving type or movies

using typography. The end results are short videos with letters and words as stars moving across
the screen, twisting, turning, winding, fading, growing and shrinking. The videos display a mood,
style and era of a narrative piece, demo nstrated through typeface choices and color palettes, along
with soundtrack choices. The results can be undeniably effective and the settings created by text

are sometimes visually stunning, as in A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that can
be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGNuPCFdIys. Will this element become part
of those children and emergent adult books published in digital form ? Jean Gralley, authorillustrator of The Moon Came Down on Milk Street (Holt Publishing), would answer a

17
resounding, Yes. She shared her vision of the future of books for children in a paper, Lift Off:
When Books Leave the Page, that she delivered at the annual conference of the Childrens

Literature Association in Winnipeg, Canada, in 2005. Her digital animation that accompanied
her paper, Books Unbound, can be viewed at http://jeangralley.com/books_unbound/.

The field of theatrical narrative for emerging adults has not been impervious to the
changes spurred by the emergence of new e-media. Improv Everywhere is a group that has taken
the concept of improvisational street performances of

Figures 25, 26 (top, bottom).

theatrical narratives and remolded it into a new form

with exciting possibilities. The performance-art group
is based out of New York City and was formed in
2001 by Charlie Todd. Many of this groups events
are open to the public and involve hundreds or
thousands of performers or agents who act in
concert with the group by listening to precisely-timed
instructions downloaded to their mp3 players for each

particular mission. Other Improv Everywhere

perfor mances use a handful of performers, and many
events are narrative-based.

Among the most popular type of events that Improv Everywhere stages are the apparently
impromptu, brief musicals, complete with songs and choreographed dancing, and staged in real
life situations. One of these was staged at a Los Angeles mall food court in the Food Court
Musical ep isode in which shoppers eating at the food court had no idea they were going to be the
audience of a musical performed by apparent food court and mall employees and other shoppers
supposedly having lunch [Figures 25, 26]. After the musical, all characters returned immediately
to sweeping the floor or working at the food court or eating (view video at
http://www.youtube.com/user/ImprovEverywhere#p/u/31/dkYZ6rbPU2M).

18
Several points about this type of theatre deserve consideration: One of the most unique
things about this sort of theatre is its impromptu appearance. There is a compelling quality to
theatre that happens before your eyes as you go about your every day life, performed by apparent

passers-by who just begin doing something unusual for several minutes, and immed iately return
to being passers-by when the event is concluded. Secondly, even those events that are not
narrative-based are creating narrative in the production stage. The movie creates and packages
the narrative, informing the viewer of the who, what, when, where, how and why of the story,
and then uploads it to a website where it can become an electronic culturally-shared memory of a

specific live event in real time. Thirdly, creators of this type of theatrical
performance have figured out how to break down the fourth wall
between stage and audience and invite their viewers into their
performances in a significant way. Audience/viewers/fans become

Improv Everywheres actorsand this saves the company money,

ultimately, as their actors are all volunteers. Fourthly, utilizing the
medium of YouTube has solved the limited run problem of most live

theatre, because Improv Everywhere audiences can now continue to grow

(their audience has now reached over 100 milllion) and their
performances continue on the Web indefinitely before a worldwide

audience as long as the Server supports their website [More discussion of

this subject in the expanded paper.].
For the first time in approaching five hundred years dramatic
changes are affecting the way young people are reading published books.
Books themselves have lifted off the page and are being transformed
into digital narratives that are read by means of electronic reading

devices or reading applications for laptops and cell-phones. The

Figures 27, 28, 29 (top to

bottom, top three images).

19
expanded paper discusses several of these devices, as well as applications that turn smart phones

into e-book readers, as shown in Figures 27, 28, and 29, showing Amazons Kindle, Barnes &
Nobles Nook and a reading application such as Stanza being used on an iPhone.
One excellent

Figures 30a & b.

example to demonstrate
the larger format iPads
book-reading experience
potential is Lewis
Carrolls classic tale,
Alice in Wonderland and

a free sample is included

with the iPad (view at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RM_gwtbQXM&feature=related ). The main illustrations in
this version of Alice are placed on what appears to be aged paper and use traditional typography
with a few updated touches, such as the enormous word SO surrounding an image of the White
Rabbit on which word is hung a pocket watch as shown in Figure 30a. Both the type and the

illustrations remain static, but elements in the illustrations move and change. When the reader
tips or shakes the iPad, the accelerometer in the computer, that makes the desktop orientation
switch when one changes from vertical to horizontal holding position, causes the pocket watch to
swing [Figure 30a], bottles to tip, Alices neck to grow and shrink [Figure 30b.], or royal crowns

to fall in believable gravity-fed ways. The pages of this e-book of Alice do not look as if they are
turning, as in a printed book, but slide to the side with a finger flick, and the reader views only
one page at a time, not the full double-page spread. This probably does not matter with this
particular book, because it was designed page-by-page specifically for the iPad ; and, although the

original Alices Adventures in Wonderland is an illustrated novel, it is not a picture book, where
double-page spreads and page turns can be vital elements necessary to the books overall d esign

20
and optimum reading experience [A discussion of a graphic novel/comic book application for ereaders is included in the expanded paper at this point].
It is perhaps inevitable that such multi-touch surface technology as has recently been

released to the public in iPhones and iPads could end up creating the ultimate virtual world for
a book reading experience. Consider the Alice in Wonderland e-book just d escribed, and imagine
it in a room with walls that envelope the reader in what looks like Wonderland. While a reader
reads the text, or, alternately, an audio voice reads it for the reader, a child in that room could

Figures 31 (left) & 32 (right).

interact with multi-touch surface techno logy walls, bringing the White Rabbit or Alice to life, or
making it seem as though the child is falling down the tunnel with Alice into Wonderland. An

illustration of Alice could grow and shrink on the walls next to the reader, or the images of
Wonderland could grow and shrink, making the reader feel like they are Alice and they are inside
a house that is suddenly much too small for them.
Such virtual reality book emersion experiences are not as far away as one might think,
and some aspects of the surface touch technology involved in such a whole room reading
experience have already emerged in the iPhone and iPad and in the multi-surface computer table

that Microsoft introduced in 2007 (view at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr1O917o4jI).

Using the table, pieces of glass lying on the surface can become video puzzles. Because of the

21
wireless technology built into the device, one can rest two different devices, perhaps a digital
camera and a smart phone, on the tables surface and use the d evice to complete actions such as
transferring photos from camera to cell-phone. This writer can visualize such software being
used to create the digital version of a Robert Sabuda paper -engineered book, something beyond
even what the current iPad e-book version of Alice in Wonderland offers, with readers potentially
finishing bits of a video jig-saw puzzle in a book illustration, or creating bridges between
illustrations that allow a character image to move from one illustration to the other to support the

plot. And this surface technology is expanding dramatically to walls and entire rooms [Figure
32.]. Such products have already been marketed to corporations such as Sprint, Accenture,
MOFILM, Cannes, and Sundance, as introduced at various world co ngresses in 2008 by Touch-It
UK, Ltd., whose show -reel video can be viewed by control-clicking Figure 32 or by visiting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbK8eJr3rtg&feature=related . It is this technology that I

described in my previous scenario of a virtual reading experience with the readers feeling as
though they have actually entered Wonderland. One has to wonder whether, as long as reading
the text is still a strong component of the reading experience, would such a virtual narrative still
be considered a pu blished book?

[At this point in the expanded paper there is some closing discussion of the audience for
such e-narratives, and how they will react to remnants of the book form surfacing in digital
narratives if they become unfamiliar with codex books; how they will understand the nuances of

post-modern narratives that referen ce culturally-shared tales if those tales become unfamiliar to
them; and the potential loss of text and quality of illustrations in crossing from the codex book
form to, for example, the miniscule smart phone e-reader platform for narratives. Also included
is some discussion of the emerging brevity in many of these new mediums for published
narratives and how evolutions such as this could and perhaps already are affecting the
young reader.]

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In Summary, So As Not to Remember . . . .

[In] modern Guatemala . . . Mayans remark that outsiders

note things down not in order to remember them,
but rather so as not to remember them. Nicholas Ostler (Wolf 74)
This discussion of just a few of the potential published narrative forms for children and
emerging adults that are currently e-volving off the page stirs up both excitement and

uncertaintyexcitement because challenges to standard forms of published narratives such as the

codex book can spur both the old and new forms to new levels of excellence as they feed off of
each others innovation. The uncertainty is brought on by thoughts captured in the above quote,
that people write things down not in order to remember them, but rather so as not to remember

them. Marshall McLuhan and other scholars discuss this very idea of how the invention of
writing allowed Humankind to hold their memories elsewhere, so not as much d epended upon the
oral memorization of history and all other cultural information. It freed up memory to be used to
acquire more knowledge and to focus on other areas. But these cultural bits of stored information
were still accessible because of the invented acts of reading and writing. The idea of potentially

losing important skills that have taken millennia to develop as we transition to a more visual, less
text-based, culture should be of concern to societies worldwide. Changes are happening faster
and more dramatically than such changes have perhaps ever happened throughout the known

history of Humankind and society needs to be aware of the possible consequences of such
broad, sweeping changes on our children and emerging adultsthis worlds future leaders. Our

culturally-earned abilities to read and write need to be protected so that Humanity may continue
to acquire knowledge without losing our pre-existing culturally acquired know ledge. Humanity
must protect its hard-earned skill and privilege not to remember [Reference lists and end notes
are included in the expanded version of this paper.] .