A Million ex-Penguins

March 7, 2007

deadpenguin.jpg

And so it ends. But what a work of genius.

I can’t help but hear a rueful quality in the words of Penguin’s Chief Executive: ‘not the most read, but possibly the most written novel in history’. Basically, that’s a publisher’s worst nightmare.

4 Comments

  1. Publisher’s worst nightmare? I suspect not. This single project has probably given Penguin more publicity than any other book they published this year, most of it in places that never cover publishing. And they deserve it–this is a worthy experiment in communal creativity. Here’s hoping they’ve inspired others.

    Comment by Monica — March 7, 2007 @ 8:19 pm

  2. I couldn’t agree more. I think you should read a little more closely.

    Comment by James Bridle — March 7, 2007 @ 8:56 pm

  3. Once upon a time there was a Crowd, a Publisher and a Net. In theory all the world could tell its story writing and reading it at the same time. Wiki novel was born in Web and there is living. In some passages it isn’t bad at all. However we like we can read a novel on the train or in bed. How many authors of contemporary fiction do we remember? Luckily we have forever Dostoevsky, but we need fiction of the moment.

    Comment by Paolo Mazzarello — May 23, 2007 @ 10:31 pm

  4. We have forever Dostoevsky, and we have the fiction of the moment.

    Once again, I could not agree more.

    Comment by James Bridle — May 24, 2007 @ 12:05 am

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