Well, on a new Penguin Publishing site, you read it like a book. The text of select stories is literally displayed on maps. The site promises “Six authors. Six stories. Six weeks.” The first is a short story by Charles Cumming entitled “21 Steps,” inspired by the John Buchan novel The 39 Steps. And you can read chapters, snippets, and dialogue on a map of London. The interactive map guides you through the protagonist’s travels, revealing the next chapter of the story as you–and she–reach the destination. Visualizing the connection of the story to its physical setting expands the reader’s perspective and makes the story more palpably real.
Foreshadowing is a common writer’s device. Could it be that this site foreshadows the emergence of a new literary medium? The end of this story is a long way from being written.
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