] A former English professor who teaches executives how to
] write, Mr. Brown, 59, calls "Intimacies" a digital
] epistolary novel, or DEN, terms that he has trademarked.
] The plot of "Intimacies" is based on "Pamela," the
] 18th-century work by Samuel Richardson that is one of
] Western literature's first epistolary novels. It is the
] format of Mr. Brown's work rather than its story that
] makes it postmodern: it is meant to be read with the aid
] of a software interface designed by Billy McQuown, an
] employee at Mr. Brown's consulting firm, Communication
] Associates.
]
]
] The story unfolds through e-mail messages,
] instant-message conversations and Web sites, all within a
] window generated by the DEN software; the program can be
] downloaded free from Mr. Brown's Web site,
] www.greatamericannovel.com.

[ I know from some past (and fairly spirited) discussions here on MS, that reading, and the various forms of content publication, is a popular issue. This struck me as a fairly innovative development, though I'm not sure it's one that appeals to my already well-aired predilections.

The article discusses the use of email conversations as a story telling mechanism, which isn't particularly unique, of course, but the first of them that i read, called Exegesis, was definitely worthwhile.

Anyway, I memed it more for the fact that it's a software based novel, which speaks to the possibility of more interactive storytelling in the near future, perhaps. -k]

The New York Times | Technology | Circuits | Call Me E-Mail: The Novel Unfolds Digitally