Future of the festival
By Meropi Peponides
April 27, 2006 9:00 p.m.
This weekend, there are two events in Southern California that
are expecting an attendance of over 100,000 people. There is the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, held in Indio, which is
charging people a record-high of $197.25 for two days’
admission, including the various service charges. Then there is the
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, held right on the UCLA campus
““ and it’s free.
As the Festival of Books progresses into the 21st century, it
has the potential to reach an even wider audience than it has
already, taking advantage of progressions in technology and the
increasing amount of literature found online.
“It would be interesting to think about having some of
these events with writers, panels and discussions streamed over the
Web. There’s always way more people trying to get in (to
these events) than can be accommodated,” said English
professor Katherine Hayles.
Utilizing such technology would also give people in other cities
the opportunity to partake in festival events.
Despite the city’s reputation for producing mainly film
and television, the Festival of Books is a nationally recognized
event.
The 11th annual festival features over 370 prominent authors in
a series of programs, signings and other special events.
Exhibitors and booksellers lined up in front of Royce Hall and
at the foot of Janss Steps, with a few stages scattered among them,
complete the festival-like atmosphere. But it is the crowd of over
131,000 that will make this a signature event of Los Angeles; the
people attending are as diverse as the city itself.
Hayles points out, however, that the future of literature is
becoming increasingly involved with technology as we progress into
the 21st century.
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further coverage of the Festival Of Books
“There is now a lot more exploration of experimental
literature, such as novels using images and experimental
typography. The advantage of a digital work is that you can
incorporate many different kinds of files seamlessly into the same
environment,” she said.
Hayles also believes that digital work and tangible print are
not necessarily mutually exclusive.
“There are almost no print books produced today that
aren’t already electronic files,” she said. “It
is really more accurate to think of print as a particular output of
electronic texts.”
Many of the ideas currently being executed on the experimental
level would be very expensive and therefore impossible to carry out
without current technology, Hayles said.
Such experimentation creates a certain freedom within the realm
of literature and challenges how far boundaries and definitions can
be pushed.
“Electronic literature is going to be an important
component of 21st century literature,” Hayles said.
“But digital work (also) has significant archival problems.
Nobody understands how to archive digital work. Print is simple,
robust and easy to use. Its advantage is durability and
flexibility. With the right kind of paper and ink, it can last for
centuries.”
This is undoubtedly why traditional books have thus far seemed
to transcend the digital revolution.
“The subject (of introducing e-books) hasn’t really
come up in terms of programming for the festival,” said
Michael Lange, communications director at the Los Angeles Times
said.
“(However), we are providing as eclectic a group of
authors, activities and events as possible,” said Lange,
explaining that the festival attempts to target every part of Los
Angeles’ incredibly diverse population.
The Festival of Books began in 1996 as an idea of a group of
people working at the Los Angeles Times.
“We felt that it was important that we as a newspaper help
support literacy,” Lange said.
The initial expected turnout for the 1996 festival was
approximately 25,000 ““ only a third of the actual 75,000 that
attended, in an overwhelmingly positive response to the idea.
“Our goal is to make the whole reading experience a more
public experience,” Lange said.
“You get the feeling when you’re at the festival
that people reading on their own can get out and see other people
who like the same author. Too often, reading is a solitary
experience. We are working to bring people who read
together.”
