The latter half of the essay then moves into a theory about how this generation would make great Twitter-length copywriters that find a blend of fiction and fact matching the attention spans of our generation and our nature of crafting an online persona. It’s a compelling idea, but I want to get back to the first question of why this l33terati never developed (or has yet to).

It’d be tempting to blame it on the shortened attention span of our generation or the death of print (especially the consumption of literature that isn’t Harry Potter or Twilight), but I think that’s too easy of a target and would largely scrape the surface without finding the foundation.

It’s obvious to say a generalizing statement like, “kids don’t read anymore,” but I think you have to think about why that is — because of the attention economy.

But before the Internet, books consumed my life. I loved to read and it remained one of my core joys and hobbies in life until the Internet occupied my attention. In my school’s reading program, I excelled in a reading competition called Accelerated Reader (hopefully I’m not the only one that remembers this?) and you couldn’t pull me away from my books. Not being very skilled at athletics, I got a sense of adventure and fun elsewhere in the realm of fictional characters and their stories. This went on for a while, until I had access to the computer lab at my mom’s school library for hours after school.

Growing up, I had the unique experience of my generation to watch as the Internet exploded from something only a few computers in a building could access to nearly every home and every computer in the house. I remember the transition from dial-up to broadband. And in college I lived the glutton life of peer-to-peer consumption of all things digital.

All throughout middle school and high school I didn’t read anywhere near the volume of books I did in elementary school. I just wasn’t interested. And while my college years had a few moments of diving into post-modern minimalism (ie: Chuck Palahniuk), I read maybe a dozen books at most. Even now, I don’t read more than half a dozen books a year (and I haven’t been that big on fiction lately).

I don’t think it’s fair to say the introduction of the Internet provided me with one more generational distraction. That’s a huge understatement. The Internet provided my generation with an infinitely expanding distraction that probably gutted one’s path of jumping onto a literary movement.

Consuming the Internet is one thing. It’s another thing to be able to participate in its creation. And then use it to supplement your communication with friends. And share media. And play networked games.

At the end of the day, your life becomes consumed by a culture that’s managed to meld everything together into a seamless experience that places you in front of a screen and machine that incorporates all other media EXCEPT literature.

Long blocks of text never really went over well online. Yes, we read a lot of things online, but there’s something psychologically impossible about reading a whole novel on even the most beautiful of screens, let alone CRTs. And to read a book would mean unplugging one’s focus on the magic box that gave him everything else. Giving up literature seemed like a no-brainer decision that came with minimal sacrifice.

Maybe the reason “l33terati” never happened is all the geek writers value tl, dr above everything else.

Indeed, “too long, didn’t read” exists, but the reason why that attitude came to be roots itself in the simple reason of one’s limited amount of attention. If one’s attention is finite, then it made sense to shift that attention to a place where multiple things happened at once, rather than literature which is quite singular.

Before our generation, the growth of media and distractions could almost be linear. We had print. Then radio. Then TV. But the Internet isn’t linear. While you could only read one thing, listen to one thing, watch one thing, the Internet’s nature of what it could offer wasn’t singular — it is many and exponential.

Something had to get squeezed, and indeed many things did. The lack of a literary movement might very well be one of them.

But, I don’t think that it’s a foregone conclusion or will never happen. It still could, but it’s going to take a unique group of individuals to make extraordinary counter-culture decisions with their lives to refocus on crafting literature.

This means unplugging. It means the end of pointless clicking. It means shutting out distractions and not chasing more followers or web traffic. It will mean filtering what gets in and resisting one’s output to just literature exercises.

I think this l33terati, should it exist, has a grasp of the unique world we’ve witnessed and doesn’t need to play with the rest of the kids anymore. It’s time to make intelligent observations about it and discuss what happened to all of us as a generation.

More: Washington Post – The Sole Survivor

Technorati Tags: Marcus+Luttrell, book, Afghanistan, war+on+terrorism, Navy+SEAL, video, interview

Fortunately, I’ve got a little bit of time left until work starts and I decided to take a bite out of Max Barry’s “Company,” which is his third and newest novel. Previously, Barry was the author of “Syrup” and “Jennifer Government” — both of which I loved.

Barry has been a favorite author of mine for quite some time and I found him by accident one day after Fark.com linked to an online game he’d created called NationStates to promote “Jennifer Government.” One thing led to another and eventually it spiralled to me actually being able to meet him at a book signing in Chicago. I can proudly say that Barry is the first “famous person” I’ve interviewed. He’s easy-going, funny and has some great insights — and those same traits carry over into his novels.

The plot of “Company” is rather simple: the main character gets a new job in a faceless, souless work environment and rebels against it after discovering a secret. If I had to describe the book based on movies, think of “Office Space” meets “The Truman Show.”

The book reads really fast (I was able to blaze through its 336 pages in one sitting) and I found myself literally laughing out loud at certain points. It plays off of feelings we’ve all probably had at our jobs at one point or another. Questions of “Why am I doing this?” or “Why should I care?” But Barry is able to take those depressing thoughts and turn them around. If you’re thinking “Why should I read a book about working?” my answer would be “Because this book could help you find it more entertaining.”

The characters work well with each other, with the male and female leads playing off of the other’s polar opposite traits. Aside from the main storyline, several other minor stories dealing with supporting characters are also wonderfully woven in (much like Barry did with “Jennifer Government”) and these tales have an anecdotal feel to them. And they very well could be, as the novel is dedicated to Hewlett-Packard, where Barry used to work.

So, I’d recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, smart read. If you can’t track this book down at your local bookstore (it was tough for me to find), it’s going to be reprinted in softcover in early 2007, which is a cheaper alternative. Also, be sure to check out Barry’s other books, too.

One final bit of good news, it looks like Barry might be hitting the Chicagoland area in 2007 as well. That could be cool.

–> Max Barry’s Official Web site
–> “Company: A Novel” (Amazon)

Technorati Tags: Max+Barry, novel, books, fiction, Company

I’ll admit, I’m a casual reader of Sullivan. He’s not on my daily list of “must reads” (most of my must reads are local, state blogs with some entertainment/gossip mixed in), but I do find myself enjoying his approach to the medium.

I wasn’t planning on picking up his book, however, after reading through the prologue at Barnes & Noble, I grew very interested in what he had to say. I’ve managed to find time to read through the first two chapters so far, and it has been a very engaging read.

I can confidently say that no matter how you define yourself politically, you’ll probably enjoy Sullivan’s writing and also his topic choice: conservatism. What makes his venture different that the other “hot air” pundits who crank out their venom? Sullivan tries to explain his view of how there’s a great dividing difference between “conservatism” and “fundamentalism” and how each has developed on very different paths.

In his second chapter, Sullivan spells out how “fundamentalism” is built into the minds of those that believe in it. He makes the case that it is dangerous and explains clearly how this thought process works for those rooted in it — with modern, historical and personal examples.

I’m at the point in the book now where he begins to explain how the modern Republican party has become more rooted in fundamentalism rather than conservatism. It’s a fascinating read that branches out to readers of any particular political philosophy and also sends out a warning of allowing any type of fundamentalism into the political sphere, where politics and a “religion” merge.

I suppose that if you look at the core principles of Sullivan’s second chapter, the book could easily become a template and starting off point for even a liberal author, continuing to argue for a “liberal soul” rather than Sullivan’s “conservative soul.” The main point that I’ve gathered so far has been a call for the rejection of his definition of fundamentalism.

So, that’s my thoughts on it so far. When I finish the book, I’ll write my final reactions.

Technorati Tags: blogs, andrew+sullivan, conservative, liberal, fundamentalism