- Authors
- Biography & Memoir
- BS at the Movies
- BS Under the Covers
- The Doctor Will See You Now
- Eating Crow
- Erotica
- Essays, Commentary & Criticism
- Eyes on the Prize
- General Fiction
- GLBT
- Health
- History
- Humor
- Instructional & How to
- LISTeria!
- Mystery
- Newsies
- Poetry
- Politics
- Psychology & Self-Help
- Random Acts of Snarkness
- Romance
- SciFi & Fantasy
- Spirituality & Religion
- Trailer Park
- Young Adult
 |
 |
Categories
Keitai Novels All the Rage in Japan
Cell phones are about as appealing to me as one of those 28-hour compilation DVDs of “SciFi Classics” (a.k.a. movies no one’s ever heard of) my snarkpanion insists on bringing home from the bargain bin at Best Buy. Nonetheless, I found this story interesting.
In Japan, 86% of high school students read cell phone novels. Yup, that’s just what it sounds like: novels that pop up on your cell phone. Authors publish short novels in 70-word increments, specifically targeted for cell phone reading.
The craze had its origins back in the 90s with the onslaught of pagers, but didn’t really get going till 2002, when writer Yoshi wrote Deep Love: Ayu’s Story for the cell phone. Deep Love, about the trials of a Tokyo prostitute, was a huge success and inspired [print] books, cartoons, a TV series, and a movie.
The cell phone — or keitai in Japanese — is wildly popular in Japan. Nearly every adult has a cell phone, and many adults have two: one for work and one for home. “According to a recent government report, 31.3% of elementary school students and 57.6% of middle school students have cell phones. Research firm Net Asia adds that as many as 22.3% self-identify as cell phone addicts.”
The keitei novels are an ideal way for readers to pass the time on long train commutes.
One other thing I found of particular interest about this story. Most of the keitai novelists (and readers) are women. Nearly all of the authors mentioned in the Japan Today article are female, and one is even a Buddhist nun: Jakucho Setouchi, who translated the The Tale of Genji into modern Japanese, has disclosed that she has written cell phone novels.
Story Source Japan Today via Galleycat | Image Source CBS News
Comments
12 Responses to “Keitai Novels All the Rage in Japan”
Comment away, my little snarkie-pies. But please play nicely. Poopy-pants comments (spam, hate speech) will be flushed down the shitter.
-
Archives
WHAT IS A SNARK?
The Snark is a creature created by Lewis Carroll in his poem "The Hunting of the Snark". To give a proper description of Snarks, one must look no further than Carroll himself, who summed them up in one word: Unimaginable.
But this much we do know: some have feathers, some have whiskers. Snarks sleep a lot, yet they are an ambitious lot -- with very little sense of humor. They love bathing-machines and tend to bring them wherever they go; they are also handy for striking a light. Snarks live on a far-off island, a place filled with chasms and crags, and are constantly on the lookout for Snark-hunters. Their mortal enemies are hope, care, thimbles and forks.
The Book Snark's Pick for Best Book of 2008
Search
nice post. thanks.
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…
Hi, thanks for very usefull information
Nice post
Keep posting stuff like this
I absolutly can not stand it when people leave bad comments on any site, including my own. People only leave bad comments just to be able to win something in a giveaway.
Thanks for your suggestions. That was really helpful. Let me try how it works out.
I personally feel that it turns people away if you force them to make a Blog Account cause they will be wary of their email address being sent out and the fire in the article effect will be worn out since a lot of the people have busy lives and don’t want to bother if they don’t blog much, so thanks for leaving it open to the public for posting comments, your blog is great!
Hey, Chris here. This was great information on Cardio Exercise. I tend to do cardio 3x per week and it is really helping me lose weight and get in shape. Anyway, good info. - Chris
Don’t have a lot of money to buy some real estate? You not have to worry, because that is real to get the personal loans to work out all the problems. Thus take a commercial loan to buy all you require.
Thank you very much for the good enough knowledge. I could not determine this kind of essay papers .
Just wanted to give you a shout from the valley of the sun, great information. Much appreciated.