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The Future of the Novel

Connecticut Public Radio | By Colin McEnroe
Published May 13, 2013 at 2:59 PM EDT
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http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Betsy/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2005-13-2013.mp3

Listen to this quote: "I have just ... paid a depressing visit to an electronic computer which can write sonnets if fed with the right material... I have a feeling that by Christmas it will have written its first novel, and possibly by next Christmas novel sets will be on sale at Woolworths and you will all be able to buy them, and write your own." That was the writer Lawrence Durrell issuing a gloomy forecast, 50 years ago.

For about 45 of those years, novels didn't change all that much, but, of late, the Digital Revolution seems to be catching up to the novel. With ebooks and self publishing becoming more the rule, less the exception.  What seemed like an endangered form five decades ago seems even more imperiled, and paradoxically energized, today.

Coming up, four novelists tell us their hopes and fears.

Please leave your comments below, email us at Colin@wnpr.org or tweet us @wnprcolin.

Super special thanks to intern Jules Lefebvre for co-producing this show!!
Colin McEnroe
Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Colin can be reached at colin@ctpublic.org.
See stories by Colin McEnroe

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

Donate