Social media-blog 3

I believe that “literary culture” today is the physical representation of something that people are discussing, all based on similar interests. Whether that is a blog post, novel, or comic book does not matter, as literary culture encompasses them all. Literary culture has brought people together, helped by the Internet, in finding people that enjoy the same type of literary work that another person does. What “literary culture” does is allow them a forum to discuss that similar interest. A good example of this is the Inheritance series, a personal favorite book series of mine by author Christopher Paolini, In short, the series is about a boy named Eragon and his quest to free his land from the tyranny of their king, Galbatorix.

Christopher Paolini has a Facebook page that many comment on with their opinions of the series, and it is a part of literary culture because it contains a discussion forum for people to post on. They all go there with one purpose in mind, and that is to talk anything and everything about the series. However, the lack of involvement from the author is kind of surprising, as his fans will often post things on his walls with questions that often go unanswered. In addition, his Facebook page has a biography on where he grew up, how old he is, and what current projects he is working on. I believe that this profile page represents a red herring, as it is merely quantifying the already existing network of relationships between Christopher in his fans, but making it easier to access. Even if this Facebook page didn’t exist, he would still have a connection with his fans, but perhaps not in this particular way, despite the fact that he never seems to be on the page itself.

I believe that the most important part of a personal Facebook page (and subsequently literary culture) is the interaction with the fans. It is important to thank the fans for making those authors the rich people that they have become (particularly in the case of authors like Stephen King, JK Rowling, and Christopher Paolini to name a few) by giving back to the fans personally on their Facebook pages or other social media. However, this is not the case for Christopher Paolini’s Facebook page, and that disappoints me. Readers who have stayed dedicated to a book series deserve a little more from their authors, because they have often waited many years for one book in a series to come out and then paid a good price to read it. The least an author can do is give a little back to their reader’s in social media, and Facebook or Twitter is a good way to do that. The “literary culture” of the time should be a two-way discussion, not simply the fans input.

Personally, I do not follow my author’s social media pages because I believe them to often simply be marketing tools, designed to get sales for their upcoming projects rather than the effective “literary culture” contributors they could be. If these pages offered more discussion and giveback from the authors’ themselves, I would consider following their social media pages. Do you believe it is worthwhile to follow social media pages of your favorite author?