The NYT has a fascinating article about the rise of the “cellphone novel” – Japanese chick lit composed on cell phones and now taking over the best seller lists. I suspect this will get a few people going:

Rin said ordinary novels left members of her generation cold.

“They don’t read works by professional writers because their sentences are too difficult to understand, their expressions are intentionally wordy, and the stories are not familiar to them,” she said. “On other hand, I understand how older Japanese don’t want to recognize these as novels. The paragraphs and the sentences are too simple, the stories are too predictable. But I’d like cellphone novels to be recognized as a genre.”

Too many words, Mr. Mozart. Too many words.

But wait! Are cellphone novels a genre, or are they a style? Can you have cellphone SF, or does it have to be chick lit? We must categorize things! Where is Jay Lake when you need him?

Ah well, could be worse, at least we don’t yet have a ferocious debate between those people who want cellphone novels banned from the Hugos and those who think such works deserve a category to themselves.