Short and Sweet: Novels for Cell Phones
by Rosalind Adams

Japanese writers have been doing it for years: creating novels by uploading 140 character texts from cell phones. There are hoards of websites specifically created to house these updates, where readers can comment on the story, even ultimately directing the twists and turns of the final plot. The first keitai shosetsu (directly translated as mobile fiction), Deep Love, was written in 2003—and if this title elicits notions of gaudy or drippy romantic writing, then you would be right.

One interesting facet of this trend is who’s driving it: adolescent girls. Young girls are reading and writing these works in droves (Mika’s Love Sky was read by 20 million people, staggering numbers for any writer). Unwanted pregnancy, eternal love, rape, and prostitution are all popular themes. In a country where women are definitely considered an unequal gender, such a tool is giving more women a voice. With 20 million readers, you can bet that people are talking about these works.

In many ways, this trend is evidence of Japanese youth culture defining themselves, carving out their own genre, in the way that comic books, pop music and Facebook have for Americans. Traditional novels do not reach the younger demographic in Japan, but still they have found a way to tell stories that are relevant to them and, in some ways, rather important. While the genre has been questioned for its simplistic writing and lack of originality, at some point, writing becomes most important as a tool in relating one’s experience, even creating empathy.

So then, is the U.S. next? Using twitter is one possible medium, and quillpill.com has also capitalized on the trend.  American author Matt Ritchel gave the genre a twirl, using twitter to compose his own version, which he labeled twiller (that is, a twitter thriller).

But there are some inherent differences in Japanese culture that seem to be behind its popularity abroad. Japanese is a high context language, making cell phone novels conducive to the language. Sentences can be as short as one syllable in Japanese with subjects and articles often inferred. A two-hour train commute in Japan is common, whereas we Angelinos are more likely to try to sneak in a text when there are no cops around. Also, the cell phone is the primary form of internet access in Japan, while computers are more commonly used in America.

After reading a translated excerpt from Mika’s Love Sky and reading Matt Ritchel’s twitter history, I found there is something that is definitely different about this form. There is no flow to it; instead, it reads like small pops of electricity, each with a short burst of plot. It takes some adjustment but it doesn’t deserve to be written off.

What is definitely exciting is the embrace of new media to do new things, and to do them in different ways. Even if cell phone novels/twitter novels never catch on in the U.S, it is a sign of the diversification of such tools, and that people will continue to tell their stories.

cell phone, facebook, fiction, japan, keitai shosetsu, matt ritchel, mika, movile, novel, reading, technology, twitter