On March 13th, Slate launched a "new publishing venture: an online novel written in real-time, by award-winning novelist Walter Kirn." It's a serialized novel, with Kirn posting entries twice a week. According to their announcement, what makes this venture unique is that:

this is the first time a prominent novelist has published a genuine Net Novel—one that takes advantage of, and draws inspiration from, the capacities of the Internet. The Unbinding, a dark comedy set in the near future, is a compilation of "found documents"—online diary entries, e-mails, surveillance reports, etc. It will make use of the Internet's unique capacity to respond to events as they happen, linking to documents and other Web sites. In other words, The Unbinding is conceived for the Web, rather than adapted to it.

The Unbinding can be accessed from this page. In an article about the net novel in the Globe, Sven Birkerts describes the plot a little:

The setting is the flash-speed world of information processing. His protagonist, Kent, works for a personal surveillance/protection service called AidSat, and in the opening installment, Kent fills us in on the details of his work. '''AidSat?' they ask us, and as we answer them we check our screen for their pulse rates and other vital signs, which are forwarded to us from sensors in their bracelets or, for Active Angel clients, in their earjacks."

While a new venture is usually exciting, Birkerts is slightly skeptical of how popular this genre of literature will be. He agrees that Kirn is a talented writer and that the premise of the novel ("data-is-power") is sound for the medium in which (and for which) it is being created. And, of course, it's too soon yet to judge how well it will do. But, Birkerts brings up what he sees as a conflict between the idea of "real-time" and the nature of art:

I'm skeptical. Not only because I can't imagine the real-time marriage of reality and narrative, but also, more basically, because I believe that real time and the time of art, the consciousness that makes art, are contradictory concepts-"real-time art" is an oxymoron.

He argues that the nature of art is fundamentally contemplative. That it distances us from the "chaos and turbulence of the immediate." That it brings sanity to our lives by erecting an imaginary wall between us and 'real-time.' Or, as Nietzsche put it: "We have art that we not perish of the truth."

Kirn's online novel threatens to bring down the wall, to put us in real-time. Birkerts isn't sure if we really want that. Or, really, if it is even possible. For the latter, only time -- and the continuation of this project -- will tell.