Ugh. Socially Paradigmed Authorship Metaspace Vooks.

Mod Down: A new form of “Hybrid Book” is being designed by (a) marketing firm(s) who believe they have seen the future of writing, and it is the “VOOK” [btw, ‘vook’ is the name of the company, ™]. The ‘Vooks’ started out as multimedia self-help books, fittingly, and look towards a future where authors as the individual, ala Witkiewicz el. Jarry, are completely subsumed into an anti-monadic sociality (read: ochlocracy?):

In some cases, social-networking technologies enable conversations among readers that will influence how books are written. […] Susan Katz, publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, predicted that “there is going to be a popular kind of literature where the author is seen as the leader of a large group and will pick and choose from these suggestions” by readers. [link]

Mod Points: 738.

Kind of a tautology: hard to imagine a specifically unpopular type of literature where an author specifically avoids suggestions by readers. Or is it?

Although the opposite perspective is also, suspiciously, a little too opposite:

“Reading is one of the few experiences we have outside of relationships in which our cognitive abilities grow,” Mr. [Walter] Mosley said. “And our cognitive abilities actually go backwards when we’re watching television or doing stuff on computers.”

Read the full article [HERE], lots of tasty interesting tidbits and pullquotes.