When my company Twitter account gets new followers, I get notifications. And sometimes I look across the names to see just who is following us, and why.
The twitter bio for this account piqued my curiosity:
Apparently, she is connected to a bunch of other accounts related to 50 Shades of Grey. Some of them carry warnings that they are for people 21 and up, or 18 and up, and whatever.
I have no idea who is behind this, but there is an elaborate web of accounts that all tie into @50ShadesExposed. That account has not updated, but you can see from the list of Following that there are at least 32 accounts involved.
I haven’t read the book, so I can’t immediately determine if these accounts are attempting a real-time reenactment, or if this is sequel material from E.L. James. I do know that attempting to carry out a narrative through all of those accounts would become tedious and challenging.
Not a Canvas, but a Gem with Facets
In a book, you typically have someone anchoring the narrative, and there will be characters who appear only briefly to advance the plot in some way. But trying to write for 30 different point-of-view and keeping them all interesting and consistent would drive me crazy.
That’s not to say that somehow we end up with a very different genre of literature and storytelling. The immersive real-time novel. The implications for publishing are intriguing. Could such an effort sustain itself through ads in the timeline? Or is the game simply to keep a community engaged while working on additional books? Quite possibly, the author could use these Twitter accounts to test some ideas and get instant feedback from the most-engaged fans.
I know it’s been done with an entire universe (or two, Marvel and DC) where the characters carry on with their non-heroic responsibilities. @RealTonyStark comes to mind. Could be fun to watch, even if you like your literature less “adult,” if only to see how our definition of storytelling changes with technology.
