could literature be fashion?

could it ever be fashionable to read say a Flaubert over a Garcia Marquez or an Orwell over a Camus in one given season?
Could the combination of fashion and literature be the answer to bridging the gap between reading and writing and so turning both items on their heads to become the national hobby of all time? It is free enjoyable and above all liberating.
After all the Grand National is once a year and not at all educational but more fractional. So why not suggest books to become a fashion icon. To be seen reading is the fashion of sense and raison d'être. Literature is fashionable I feel is a very attractive idea.

what do you think?

I think that it`s nothing bad because everybody chooses what wants to read. We all saw Potteromania for example. I managed to read only the first part but every reason os good to children start reading. First of all reading should be a pleasure.

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Originally Posted by hannah_arendt

I think that it`s nothing bad because everybody chooses what wants to read. We all saw Potteromania for example. I managed to read only the first part but every reason os good to children start reading. First of all reading should be a pleasure.

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Hi Hannah I think you are right. Pottermania is because the media got involved. I remember going to watch the very first Harry Potter in the cinema before even picking the book up.

Literature is anything that is expressed through the printed word. The question is not "could it be fashionable?" The question is "why wouldn't it be?"

I consider lierature to be very much a matter of "present day" fashions. There are many authors were regarded as great in theur day who are barely known at all any more. Take a look at Nobel or Pulitizer prize winners. Some of them are unknow less than 100 years after they were regarded as great. Herman Hesse is a fine example. i have read several of his novels, and even the best of those was mediocre in my eyes. I could give more examples, but they all indicate the same things.

This thread also lends itself to a few words about so-called cliches. People have this concept about not using cliches without knowing when was the first time something has been said. In fact anything you say is cliche a-priori. If you were to avoid cliches, you would have left nothing to say. But of course, if you use anything as filler for your inability to produce a meaningful story, your usage is the problem, not the so-called cliche.

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Originally Posted by cafolini

Literature is anything that is expressed through the printed word. The question is not "could it be fashionable?" The question is "why wouldn't it be?"

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Why would not it? well it is not right now. It is more classic versus sassic. It either read for studies or read for passing time.

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Originally Posted by PeterL

I consider lierature to be very much a matter of "present day" fashions. There are many authors were regarded as great in theur day who are barely known at all any more. Take a look at Nobel or Pulitizer prize winners. Some of them are unknow less than 100 years after they were regarded as great. Herman Hesse is a fine example. i have read several of his novels, and even the best of those was mediocre in my eyes. I could give more examples, but they all indicate the same things.

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Present day literature I feel may slightly derogate and miss the point by miles. Everyday literature is a killer joy. I much prefer seasonal literature that flies with time and represents the core habits of human satiety. A book is handy and can tell a billion stories of everyone and all of us in a manner that is upgrading to our experiences and life. I would imagine books taken up a raison d'être or a way of life. Everyone has a point to make let's hear them all.

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Originally Posted by cafolini

This thread also lends itself to a few words about so-called cliches. People have this concept about not using cliches without knowing when was the first time something has been said. In fact anything you say is cliche a-priori. If you were to avoid cliches, you would have left nothing to say. But of course, if you use anything as filler for your inability to produce a meaningful story, your usage is the problem, not the so-called cliche.

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au contraire clichés is what makes one say more. The less one pays attention to the cliché the more one tells it how it is. There is no avoidance of cliches yes but what there is plenty more to come back with to push the clichés out. It is about knowing what to say and how to say it. A cliché gives you annoyances in order to try and disallow one the freedom to rationalise individuality into thoughts. It single the mind into a frame box where the only view is one way. Being aware of it makes it more the better because one can avoid if one knows. Clichés delegate thinking for oneslef and pushes one to be the same as another. Thus is the real cliché of clichés is that it thinks it can reshape and mould but in fact what it does is eventually shows up its age and becomes ignored. Fashion revamps language and books is what fashion needs to relaunch a better raison d'être or a savoir faire of a new timeless genre. Fashion's real sense is found in literature not garment because with the latest the changes occurs almost immediately whereas with literature it seizes it as its drive to write more which makes it more exciting.

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Originally Posted by cacian

Present day literature I feel may slightly derogate and miss the point by miles. Everyday literature is a killer joy. I much prefer seasonal literature that flies with time and represents the core habits of human satiety. A book is handy and can tell a billion stories of everyone and all of us in a manner that is upgrading to our experiences and life. I would imagine books taken up a raison d'être or a way of life. Everyone has a point to make let's hear them all.

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I understand what you mean, but interests change with the weather. What is relevant would have been a mystery ten years ago and will seem silly in two years. Fashions in literature as wwell as clothes change frequently. There are generalities that remain, but how thse things are expressed are the fashions. Have you read any H. G. Wells recently? I have; I read some things other than his noted novels, and I discovered why those things have been forgotten. I am reading some of A. C. Dotle's non-Holmes fiction, and I discovered that he was a fairly good writer, but his settings, characters, and style are old-fashioned. I don't mind that, because I learned that old in literature often means good, because until recently people who could not write well understood that. It isn't that the underlying themes and attachment to humanity are lost, but the specific situations and styles change. In a few years vampires will be minor itmes in literature, even crumby popular literature.

Seriously, take a look at te list of major prize winners in literature, and you will see names that you probably do not know. If you read their works, then you may find a few jewels, but it is more likely that you will find something tht doesn't fit these modern times. Whaen I wrote my earlier post, I was thinking of Both Tarkington in addition to Hesse, but I realized that many people ave never heard of Tarkington; Penrod was pretty good, but most of his noels are not as entertaining.

Cliches, more than most writing are a matter of fashion. a few weeks ago, I spent a day looking at some of Jonathan Swift's writing, and he did a lot. Some of it is excellent, but much of what he wrote related to what was going on around him; he was very involved in politics, and much of that writing is about obscure issues that don't resonate with today's issues. Perhaps a resident of London would be interested in the government changes on the early 18th century, but the issues that separated the Whigs and Tories were relevant to the times. Similarly he couched his essays in terms that were fitting to those times. I still love reading him, but I try to figure out the issue first to see whether it is relevant.

Some texts are fashionable like nail varnish colours, like tramp stamps, like Mairi Joanna, like My Space, like baldness (hair today: gone t'morra)