The first German language Facebook novel in Austrian universities
The first German language Facebook novel in Austrian universities
The world’s first German language Facebook-Novel known as “Zwirbler” is now to appear on screens in universities around Austria. Despite interactive novels becoming increasingly popular, in which readers can contribute and alter the plot as they wish, Gergely Teglasy (TG) claims to be the creator of the first German language Facebook novel.
The world’s first Facebook novel “Facebook as a Weapon” was written in Croatian and English by journalist Ivo Scepanovic and was published in February last year after it was written online. The author was writing it live on Facebook and fans were commenting it live. Their comments have entered even the printed book available worldwide in English via Amazon.
The German copy of the idea, which TG launched in July 2010, is open to contributors over the age of 17 and is updated via status updates. Each entry or chapter can be no more than 420 characters and appears on fan’s news feeds as and when the author has added to the story. Readers can then add to the story and even alter the plot entirely, hence its name “Zwirbler” from the German word zwirbeln meaning to twist.
Students will now be able to keep up with the inventive novel as it continues to unravel, even when at university. “Zwirbler will not only be the first novel that was written on Facebook but also the first to appear on public screens during its creation. The literature arises firstly from a post on Facebook and it is then transferred to 70 screens in various Austrian universities,” explained managing director of “UniScreens”, Markus Müller. The company has screens in numerous universities which provide news, music television and sports clips for the students.
The Budapest born author, who studied in Vienna, Austria, gets the final say with the novel but rarely deletes any comments. Those which are not related to the progression of the story are deleted but everything else is kept no matter how outrageous. “It results in excitement, absurdity and surprise,” the author explained.
The story is now available as a podcast as well as on Facebook and on the UniScreens. To read or even contribute to the story visit: http://www.facebook.com/Zwirbler.Roman