For those who want to read it
Serial Fiction and the Modern Community
In their 1991 examination The Victorian Serial, Hughes and Lund assert that “we no longer live in the age of the literary serial” and that we are, instead, “governed by the mode of single-volume publication” (14). Other scholars have taken issue with this assertion. Hayward believes the serial form, while different from its Victorian counterpart, still exists in modern society through television soaps and graphic novels (5). This claim is true, and it counters the argument Hughes and Lund put forth - television and graphic novels do not produce the same reader response as single-volume publications, proving that serial culture remains intact, albeit modified. And with the new rise of literary serials in popular newspapers as well as a surge of internet serialization, the form is experience a resurgence of the Victorian variety. However, these two new forms of serialization - newspapers (arguably re-serialization) and the internet - produce an interesting shift in the trend.
Originally targeted to a mass audience for a cheaper price, Victorian serialization functioned to serve as a bond between the lower, working class social group, who could all participate in the text by reading (or being read to). The transition to the TV serial continues to function in this way. However, Victorian serials transcended the class division and appealed to the middle and upper classes in a way that modern television and graphic novels are not able to do. But the new forms of serialization are targeted to a demographic comprised of both the wealthy and the well educated. These new forms function to provide a sense of community to this elite demographic that is otherwise not present to them as a shared experience.
Improvements during the Victorian period enabled the dissemination of texts throughout many different demographics. Advancements such as:
Urbanization, higher literacy, and the concept of leisure led to increased demand for reading matter; industrialization made possible a proliferation of consumer goods at lower prices; and transportation technologies, rapidly growing networks of shops (even in small towns), and the growth of advertising permitted the dispersal of these goods throughout the nation and abroad. (Hayward 22)
This newfound ease of production, along with the Reform Bill of 1832 (which halved the tax on paper and lowered the newspaper tax to 1d) increased the circulation of the Sunday Times to 20,000 copies an issue, an over one-third increase (Law 4). The increase of the periodical increased consumption of the weekly serials contained within by expanding to a larger audience of readership. This did not permit accessibility to every demographic, however, and the weekly serials “priced at sixpence or more… were still well beyond the reach” of the lower class masses (Law 4). Hayward infers this to mean “that the working class must have read communally if there were to read at all” (35).
An anecdote from the publication of Dickens’s Pickwick Papers serves to confirm Hayward’s claim. A group of twenty laborers formed a reading club which split the cost to rent each new installment from the library for two pence a day (which they could not afford on their individual salary). They would then meet in a locksmith’s shop where a literate member of the club would read the installment aloud to his fellow members (Hayward 36). This is the concept of the serial community at work. Victorian readers “existed within a community of readers whose voices… augmented understanding of literately works” (Hayward 10). Without the addition of the reading community, the Victorian reader had no framework with which to understand the text.
This phenomenon was not only necessary for the working class readers of texts. Reading groups existed in every demographic and served to satisfy the readers economic (in terms of purchasing power) and social (in terms of community interaction) needs (Hayward 36). In fact, the notion of reading aloud “became a Victorian institution which took place even among the middle and upper-classes not forced into it because of illiteracy or poverty” (Hayward 36) and it was not uncommon for a Victorian family to gather together to read the latest serial with other members of their neighborhood (Hayward 10).
This community aspect imbued Victorian readers with a shared reading experience that functioned to intensify their reactions to the text (Hayward 10). By participating in the reading experience together, readers also began to experience the elements of “pleasure...excitement…[and] anticipation,” that the text provided, together (Hayward 10). This proved important for the popularity of a serial between its installments. Those readers involved in the same experience of reading would come together to discuss the serial. The interim “gave people the opportunity to review events with each other, to speculate about plot and characters and to deepen ties to their imagined world” (Hayward 10).
Recent serial consumption has mimicked this sense of community. On the Scholastic website, viewers can enter their locality and obtain information regarding the next Harry Potter series book release party. These gatherings consist of games and contests regarding the series as well as the more Victorianesque devices of reading chapters aloud in groups and forming discussion panels to foster anticipation for the soon to be released installment. Discussion of common television shows “can form an integral part of a daily routine and work to bond discussants who do not know each other” in common public settings (Hayward 137). Similar experiences in the consumption of a serialized medium works to establish a commonality between two partakers that can link members of the same workforce or other social setting.
However, it is the way modern serials are consumed that make them conducive to promoting community. A 1992 survey of young soap viewers cited the communal aspect of watching television together with their friends as their main reason for watching soaps (Hayward 146). This shows it is not the consumption of the serial itself, but rather the aspect of sharing the experience that motivates the consumption. It is for this reason that Hayward suggests that the “reliance on serials has… to do with the ritual of (often collaborative) reading or viewing” which establish a community between those reader/viewers (137, emphasis hers).
Until recently, though, these rituals of community have been directed at the lower to middle class. The recent inclusion of literary serialization by The New York Times and The Washing Post as well as the movement of the form to the internet reflect the desire of the upper class to commodify a shared experience in their own demographic with their own peers. This demographic shift is codified by the medium in which the texts are presented as well as the individuals that can or want to access that medium.
The New York Times is, most famously, a periodical known for its prestigious status. As of its 2002 subscription consumer summary, 56% of its Sunday readership has a household income of over $100,000. Its readership is also extremely well educated, with 85% holding a college degree (and 48% holding a postgraduate degree) (Regular Reader Study). It is to this audience that Michael Chabon’s newest fiction work, Gentlemen of the Road, first appeared in the Sunday New York Times Magazine on January 28, 2007. Closely related in target, the Washington Post boasts a readership in which 72% hold a college degree and 46% of subscriptions are sent to homes with incomes of over $75,000 (Washingtonpost.com). David Hilzenrath’s Jezebel’s Tomb premiered in the Post as an “experimental project” in February 2007.
Obviously, both pieces are intended for the already established audience base of the papers - while inclusion of serialized fiction by a well known author (in the case of Chabon or the Patricia Cornwell and Michael Connelly pieces that came before his) or a popular “experimental project” might increase periodical circulation, the new market interested in following the text will generally come from the preconceived demographic. This is because these texts are not advertised outside of their respective publishing forms; in order to be aware of these textual happenings a potential reader would have to already be (at the very least) a casual reader of the media in question, or associate with a social group that did. This reaffirms the community aspect of the consumption of these texts. In order to participate in their consumption, readers must already be aligned with a group that interacts with the text (either through tangible social interaction or fulfillment of the demographic status).
The Chabon piece most realistically mimics the form of the Victorian serial. Released in Sunday installments, readers are only able to access new sections of the text as they are released by the Times. However, as a combat to the ephemeral status of newspaper publications, the Times readers are able to access past installments through the internet. This is important, because is through the internet that the modern reader reaction takes place. No longer do readers collect in groups and discuss serial installments - instead the reader commentary exists in the blogosphere where reactions, announcements, and analysis of the installments all reside. It is through this blog community that interactions between readers exist that form the interactive community.
The Hilzenrath piece behaves less like its Victorian counterpart. Although its installments are released Mondays and Thursdays, impatient readers can order the completed novel from the internet publisher Lulu.com. This corresponds to Epstein’s speculation of the future of the book. Any reader, upon ordering a copy, will have it printed, bound, and shipped to them in a few business days. This is economically feasible because copies are only produced on demand. Yet, this “convenient” ability functions to disassociate the reader from the serial community. Upon receiving and consuming the text in its novel form, there exists no ongoing discussion because the experience is no longer shared. Any interjection into a dialogue concerning the text must be held in check, or at least become censored, for those who want to experience the transmission of the text on the author’s terms. However, for those readers abiding by the serial constraints, the installment timetable encourages the growth of a serial community in the workplace. The texts, which can be easily read during a commute to the office or other daily routine, become a topic of conversation during office downtime discussion.
The new movement into internet serialization is another step to establish community within the wealthy and educated demographic. The most fundamental reason for this class discrepancy is the cost of the access - in order to interact with internet serialization, the reader must both possess access to a computer and the internet. While becoming a commodity more accessible each year, as of March 10 2007, only 69.9% of the United States was considered “penetrated” by the internet (calculated by dividing total internet users by total population) (internetworldstats.com). This leaves 30.1% of the United States population unable to participate in this form of serialization.
But this group is not only limited to fiscal ability in the pursuit of serialized text - education is also a driving factor. A 2007 survey suggests that the consumer of serialized internet literature has completed at least a bachelor’s degree, while most are committed academics involved in the pursuit of higher degrees (personal correspondence). These readers also all share a similar experience in their act of consuming the text - as one respondent put it, “Almost all my reading is done on my computer at work, while I’m supposed to be working” (personal correspondence).
The reenactment of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as an internet serial is perhaps the most interesting instance of this new form. Presented on the internet blogging site LiveJournal.com, the story began on May 3, 2006 - 109 years from the date the story began in the world of the novel. Each character had a blog created in their name and moderators of the project formed a “live journal community,” or posting area, that interested readers could subscribe to in order to follow along.
As the Stoker’s Dracula progressed from each character’s letter or diary entry, it appeared in real time (that is on the date it was labeled in the text) to the community as a blog posting by the character. For example, the text of Stoker’s Dracula begins on May 3 with a diary entry by Jonathan Harker. It was the only record kept on that day in the world of the novel, therefore it was the only post made on May 3, 2006. On May 4th and 5th, readers were exposed to new posts by Harker each day, but there is no record of May 6th, 1897 in the novel. This meant on that day in 2006, readers logging into the online community did not see a posting.
This real-time reading of the text establishes a set of individuals in the online community that are interested in sharing the reading experience. Unlike the Michael Chabon text in The New York Times Magazine which can only be consumed in installments released by the Times, participants in the online Dracula reading are not limited to the real-time publication. A simple Google search of “Dracula Text” turns up the complete novel available to read online within the first hit. Yet, these participants are patiently waiting for the next posting in the community. This illustrates that it is the community form itself that is the particular subject of interest for the participants and not the story. Otherwise, there would be no reason to wait the chronological length of the book to reach the climax.
The reason this form is the subject of interest is the interactive nature of the serial community. A feature of LiveJournal.com is the ability a particular blog’s readers to comment on the posted text - even if they are not part of the original posting group. Additional readers, in turn, are able to post comments about the blogged text, or reply to a comment left by another reader. In this way the LiveJournal.com Dracula serial community was created. Although readers were participating from various locations throughout the world, they were all able to contribute to the same dialogue about the progression of the text because they were all participating in the same real time reading experience.
At the height of the serial’s popularity, there were over 1,800 members registered in the online community (Dracula 1897). During the lull periods of the novel’s progression, these members convened through the comment capability to speculate on the future of the text (for those who had not read it previously) as well as critically discuss the actions and motivations of characters, the form of epistolary novels, and the context of Victorian England at the time of the writing. It is because of the collective educational status of the community that the reader could interact with the text through critical dialogue with other readers - a common skill set of analysis was employed as a means to promote the sense of interconnected community. The text, when read separate from the shared serial experience, is less likely to invite critical exploration. Hughes and Lund argue that:
the sense of community [of modern readers]… generates associations and connections… that are less easy to develop when whole works are read sequentially. Excitement about what happens next usually becomes communal as well as private [when reading serialized fiction]. (276)
This makes the addition of the serial community a separate reading experience that is not available without the built in community that accompanies the serial form. This also solidifies the similarities between the modern serial community and the Victorian one. Both groups exhibited the same sense of mounting excitement between large breaks in the installments of the texts and both groups discussed the text in a critical way in order to interact in a more satisfying way with the text.
Another popular form of internet serialization is a more traditional form conveyed through the medium of the internet. At websites like FiveChapters.com, fiction is divided into five daily segments where they are posted, one by one, Monday through Friday. The authors featured are not necessarily big name, but they are normally hand selected by the editor of the website Dan Daley, who comes from a background of reestablishing serialized fiction in newspapers (The Hartford Courant, for example) (personal correspondence).
By providing well written fiction in small daily chunks Daley hopes he can target and maintain the demographic he is intending his website for: the office worker. Says Daley:
The readers right now are online. People these days seem to do their reading at work -- we get our news surfing the web on breaks at the office. And when people are looking for a quick break at work, they log onto Gawker, or check their fantasy sports teams, or go to TMZ for the celebrity news. I wanted to compete for those readers. People can still check Gawker 10 times a day, but my hope is that once a day, they'll come to FiveChapters and read part of a story. (personal correspondence)
In light of the aforementioned survey on internet serial readers, Daley has made the perfect demographic choice for his endeavor. His position also reflects the movement of the elite towards a serial community. It is not only the desire of the upperclass reading demographic to participate in the shift to serial community participation, but it is also the suppliers of the form that are establishing the cultural move towards an elite serial text community.
The Victorian serial functioned to provide a social outlet and sense of community to readers of all different socioeconomic backgrounds. New technologies made the form economically feasible for a wider audience without alienating the demographic that originally could purchase is. However, the transition of the serial form into its modern embodiment did not carry over its all-encompassing nature towards the upper-class and educated demographics. The recent establishment of serialized literature in prestigious newspapers as well as the presence of the form on the internet functions to reestablish the social and communal nature of the serial form for that lost demographic. This is needed to provide them with the sense of community they lost when the form transitioned away from their demographic.