Perhaps the title for this post is a bit harsh, yet I worry.  What's your general "feel" for the world of writing today?  

I grew up under the influence of Allen Drury ("Advise and Consent"), James Baldwin ("Another Country) and Norman Mailer ("The Naked and the Dead").  Giants like Hemingway, Steinbeck and Updike (before he got tired) were still making themselves heard.  Yes, I read them as a teen, which is why I was considered a wierd duck, a tradition I continue.

I started with the thought of listing a few of the more dismaying books I see being heralded as today's classics by the critics, books like "Alphabet of Manliness" by "Maddox" (a latter day Jim Jones), "The Devil Wears Prada" by Lauren Weisberger, or even "Walter the Farting Dog," a NY Times hit for a year. But I guess we could haggle over specific books and who the worthwhile critics are ad nauseam. And I don't know who defines "literary" or "greatness" except the test of time.  Still, I can recall reading Drury and Baldwin and feeling a shiver--something that said "this will be on the library shelf for years to come."

I don't feel that, these days.

I wander the library weekly (more than the book stores, as my wallet is thin these days) and am always alert for "that book" to show up as it would so many years ago.  It doesn't, and I don't think it's because I'm older.  That excitement for "good" has never waned.  It's just gone wanting.

I admit to a bit of mischief recently.  I make no secret of my dislike for the arrogant Barnes and Noble, but had to accompany a friend there recently to pick up a book. While I was at it, I asked one of the "associates" (or whatever they call them) to point me to some works by the "expatriates."  He looked at me in confusion, so I continued my play: "You know, the American writers in France."  Cow's eyes.  Got a nearby manager, however, which is what I had hoped.  She wanted to know if it was a book about draft dodgers during Viet Nam ("ex-patriots," got it?).  I finally threw out "Gertrude Stein."  With no idea who she was, she hit the computer and came up with "Alice B. Toklas," but still had NO idea who the expatriates were.

Maybe it's not that there are no good writers today--maybe we've all just dumbed down. Perhaps we will have to wait until there's actually an educational system in place before we will start to see good writing again.  Then, as one blogger put it, our "self steam will be better."  

Literature today--a Dark Age?  Or do you see signs of life (the onset of rigor doesn't count)?

Gully

Hemingway and Steinbeck are two of my favorites, but I must admit that I didn't read them until I was well past my teens.  I love many of the classics, but also have low brow tastes in the likes of scifi, horror, and fantasy.

"Walter the Farting Dog" considered a classic??  Maybe so, I haven't read it.  As you say, who defines those things?  As to "The Devil Wears Prada," I haven't figured out what a Prada is yet (haven't even googled it).

I got a good laugh out of your experience at Barnes and Noble.  Maybe we have dumbed down.  Or maybe we just ain't got no self steam no more.  

From what I see, writing, publishing, and even reading are changing from what I knew years ago.

The internet has opened up a new universe for creative people.

The rules are changing, the subjects are new, and the writer has almost instant access to a review of his/her work by competent critics and his peers!  

Just think for a moment. Years ago if you wrote a story, you had to send it in, wait, sometime months, until a reply came. And the only others that read your story were friends and family.

The method of writing has gone high-tech, for with computers, spelling, editing and research are just a keystroke away!

Try an experiment. Write a story with an old typewriter and stay away from the computer. To look up a word, you have to get a dictionary or Thesaurus. That takes time! A miss-spelled word on your manuscrïpt? Well just try to correct it and you'll understand how easy it is to correct on a computer using word!
Research was going to the library, usually, and that takes time.

Many of the old publishing houses are clinging to the old world in writing, and they are missing the revolution.

With so many new writers entering into the new universe of writing, shock waves are washing over the industry.

With writing, we have just left the horse and buggy and jumped into a car!!

Good points about the internet.  It occurs to me that, with the methods available, there's much more writing out there to compete with--BUT, while the percentages we reach may be smaller, the numbers are going to be higher, particularly if you have some quality!

People don't want art, they want TV in hardcover. A perfect example of this is J.K. Rowling, an author who I consider to be a literary joke. She is extremely popular, yet her books have almost no substance. I'm the kind of writer that tries to create art, hence, why I think Ms.Rowling is overrated trash.

I think the issue that we're dealing with is more of character.  So many genre books have one dimensional stock characters that play out over used plot lines.  

Good examples of these types of books are Harlequin and Forgotten Realms.  The good news is, that these books are great for novice writers to work out the kinks.  The bad news is that some don't.

Nowadays, most don't, but you can still get in some good books.  

Literature is literature because it packs an emotional punch and most genre fiction is for entertainment, not thinking.  

Cat's Cradle is still the best book of human folly.  Asimov's books are still thinking books. Salinger's, Hemingway's, etc. themes are still as applicable today as when they wrote them and that is what makes them literature.

Quote :

A perfect example of this is J.K. Rowling, an author who I consider to be a literary joke. She is extremely popular, yet her books have almost no substance. I'm the kind of writer that tries to create art, hence, why I think Ms.Rowling is overrated trash.

So many people are bagging on J.K. Rowling.  I remember that the Harry Potter books were so commercialized that I didn't want to read them.  My younger, teenaged cousins recommended them and lent the first one to me.  I love them.

I'm not arguing that they are literature, but the are definitely juvenile fiction, written for a younger crowd.  The theme, however, is universal.  Good versus evil.  Not only does Harry outwardly deal with evil in the form of Voldemort, but with his own self doubt.  This is appealing to lots of people and Harry gets cheered on because people want good to win, inside and out.

The whole gradeschool element is one that most people can understand.  It sucks at the same time that it is fun.

And, she sets it in such a fantastical world.  

It's not everyone's cup of tea.  I know a handful of people that don't like the books, but I'd say that they are far from "overrated trash."  Try reading a Harlequin novel!  Bleck.  

--Last edited by turbulentsiren on 2007-05-10 02:51:42 --

With the internet you also have access to the world. Oh my news is recruiting citizen journalists, who knows if there is a place that more advanced writers can graduate up to next.

I share the love of science fiction with Sullivan but still read comic books for entertainment....My ex-wife wanted to write children's books and one lady I know wants me to help her with her biography.  Another website wants me to join their writing staff, but will I be willing to invest the time and effort to do it?

On another topic I was reading that plagarism when done well is acceptable, when done badly is not. After all there aren't that many original ideas out there. right?