I’m feeling a little ornery this morning.  Not because I’m hung over or I didn’t get kissed at midnight or anything like that.  I had a fantastic new years eve that culminated in fireworks all up and down Banderas Bay which we watched from lounge chairs under palm trees.  And the fireworks actually seemed like overkill since there was a full moon above ringed by a circle of white light.  All of which I enjoyed surrounded by family and friends.  It was truly a spectacular night.

This morning, I’m listening to waves breaking on a sandy beach and watching as the sun slowly burns away the cloud cover.  The kettle is boiling and coffee is on its way.

So why the need for an early morning New Years day rant?  Two reasons really.  The first are the people who continue to refuse to accept change.  The second? It’s 2010 and I still don’t have a robot.

Last night, as we were preparing to leave for New Years Eve dinner with friends I read a tweet that got under my skin.

I hate that sentiment. (Sorry Judy, it’s not you.) If you feel the need, go read Ben Macintyre’s piece, which dates back to November and claims that narrative is disappearing.

Oh bullshit.

I’ve been hearing this fearful line about the latest mass medium ever since the wandering minstrel showed up in the first village and all the mothers hid their children under the mattress for fear that this innovation would pervert them.  A woman in her late 70s who I know tells me that her father — a scholarly man — wouldn’t let colour comics in the house because he thought would ruin his children for great literature.

Pop music will kill classical.

TV will destroy the novel.

How many times do we have to hear this?

Innovation doesn’t kill what came before.  But it does bring us something new and potentially wonderful.

On this glorious holiday, I read a 1000 page novel despite all the evidence in Ben Macintyre’s piece that my addiction to social media is killing my ability to absorb longer narrative.  It was okay, but even though the writer was working in the-oh-so-revered form of the novel, the experience left me a little cold.  The author failed to capture the promise of his premise and so I slogged through 800 pages waiting to get to the nut I was looking for.  On the pro side, every chapter was a good lead into a siesta.

Next, I read Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk, a slim volume of less than 150 pages which I crushed in less than a day.  Despite the fact that Gary writes like an infomercial and the book contained zero information that was new to me, it left me feeling excited and motivated.  I’m pretty sure that the high falluting culture snobs who are sounding the alarm about the death of narrative wouldn’t admit Crush It! into their library of approved reading, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and passed it on to someone else to read.  I think “Crush It” is quickly becoming my catch phrase of the moment.

Whilst reading these two books, I was also very much enjoying watching the video podcasts from MITs fourth Futures of Entertainment conference.  And when I say enjoying, I mean I was at the edge of my seat thrilled.  The ideas about new ways of creating narrative are nothing less than mind blowing.

As a consumer of entertainment and story and as a creator, I have never been so excited in my life.

HOW CAN ANYONE BE SO STUPID AS TO SAY NARRATIVE IS DYING?  It’s growing, it’s changing, it’s been reborn.  We are not less for it.  We are more.Novels, film, tv, radio, classical music, theatre, opera will all continue to exist.   Never fear, you’ll always be able to read Plato, Dickens and Falkner — and you won’t even have to do it on a Kindle.

But whole new forms are opening up before our eyes.  Amazing collaborations are springing up.  Readers/fans/audience members who want to stay immersed in beloved worlds will find greater and greater depth (or drillability as Henry Jenkins says).   We’ll be able to consume the narrative in film, tv, books, games and so many other ways.  Our thirst for story will satiated in a myriad of new ways and the human race will be richer for it, because culture — even popular culture — is good for us.

I started this blog as a TV blog.  And I have another blog which is about digital drama.  It’s been hard to stop the content from crossing over and as of today, done with that.  It’s convergence time.  From here on, I’m rolling the two blogs into a single narrative about story, storytelling, storytellers —  transmedia and traditional.   In the end, I want to blog about what I do and what I do is tell stories — in whatever media best suit the story.

Now, can I have my robot please?