In many ways, the printed book
is very much like the shark
in that it was perfectly evolved to begin with
and thus has not needed to evolve very much ever since.
And I would say that
whatever the future of humanity might be
we will probably have printed books and novels
right until our end as a species.
Now, that's not to say that, from time to time
there will be new technologies
that will arise and will supersede
printed books for a while.
Printed books go out of fashion all the time.
But they'll generally still be there
when the latest technological fad
has receded.
Er, however, these emergent technologies
are all going to demand new approaches to narrative.
For example
the most prominent emerging technology
would seem to be virtual reality.
And with an increasing use of VR in daily life
and these VR metaverses
that we are promised
it is obviously something that is
a very real part of our world.
And while a lot of these VR metaverses
might very well, at the current moment
be elaborate exercises in data harvesting
that is not to say that at some point in the future
they will become a genuine art form
and a writer should, of course, be ready for that eventuality.
So, what ways could we approach a virtual reality
a completely wrap-around reality?
Well, I'd say that
a useful thing would be to create
the kind of global sense of culture
that I was talking about earlier
where you think of all the little details.
You think of what newspapers exist
what magazines
what the names of the shops are.
You think of what songs are playing on the radio.
You think of every tiny detail
of a person's experience
in this virtual world.
That would be enormously useful
in creating a 360-degree wrap-around reality
for the audience.
Also, I would say
that it would probably pay
to take the same sort of approach
that I took in my recent film
which is to have no secondary characters.
To give all of the tiny background characters
a story arc, a personality, a name
to actually make everybody in the story
even the people just passing through, interesting
and to explore the interactions between them
to give a completely immersive experience.
Now, as I've said earlier
a good enough novel, to my mind
is still our best form of virtual reality.
But virtual reality in its current technological form
is very compelling.
In fact, I could see it being
perhaps problematical
for a number of people
in that
most people are only too willing
to divorce themselves from reality
when all they have is television.
A much more immersive technology
might very well lead to people deciding
to relocate themselves in an imaginary universe.
I think that would be a bad thing.
But there's potentially beneficial things
that might come from such a technology.
For example
the transcendental states described by mystics.
These are things that only happen in people's minds.
Presumably, then, a well-enough constructed
and well-enough imagined virtual reality
could recreate a virtual transcendental state
and I really don't see what the difference is
between a virtual transcendental state
and a real one.
So, it is quite possible
that by using virtual reality
we might be able to actually move people
into more useful states of consciousness
in the same way that mystics have apparently
always been able to do that.
With enough skill
it is possible that virtual reality
could actually move your audience
into a higher level of consciousness.