Is literature dead?

Literature is not dead.

Quote:

---

I do not think literature is dead, just the love for it.

---

I agree to some extent here but I believe that this "love" is also not completely dead.

My cousins from England came, the eldest was about eight years old. I noticed that he was really interested in sports. My mother gave him some books to read and then he looked at my mother in a strange manner and said that he does not read books at all. My grandfather, who is himself very much interested in literature becomes very disappointed to see that some of his grandchildren don't like literature at all. But as far as I believe, I think that everyone has his own choices. If you don't like literature, the world will not end. If "Pride and Prejudice" is not pleasing you then why care to keep on reading it? Leave it a side, your intelligence will not decrease. To enjoy reading is a natural feeling which one can not force on self.

IwillKIkU, I face this kind of situation atleast once a week. Sometimes I gets so engaged in playing GTA, Mario Brothers, Sims, Donkey Kong etc, that I forget everything. VIDEO GAMES ARE REALLY POWERFUL but we can control ourselves though sometimes it looks impossible to do so. Isaac Asimov said:

"I don't fear machines but the lack of them"

So, in the end I will say that litrerature is alive but because of modern technology, children have more engaging things to do and a nation's future is all based on children. If they are not interested in literature, from where good writers will come? This situation is quite dangerous. The only way in my opinion to control this is to get interest for reading in children. People say lots of things about Rowling but I believe that she is the one who created interest for reading in children. I am an example. I did not care for books much but after reading HP series I started to read books. Stephen King is also another good example. Teenagers like his works. (I consider his works a good deal of literature) Atleast these authors have not let the literature to be completely dead. We have still got something to read according to new generations demand.

You're rather contradicting yourself, Pensive. First you say

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pensive

But as far as I believe, I think that everyone has his own choices. If you don't like literature, the world will not end. If "Pride and Prejudice" is not pleasing you then why care to keep on reading it? Leave it a side, your intelligence will not decrease. To enjoy reading is a natural feeling which one can not force on self.

---

then

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Pensive

If they are not interested in literature, from where good writers will come? This situation is quite dangerous.

---

I'm more for the latter statement. Being able to read isn't just a matter of having access to a particular area of entertainment. It's access to complexity, tolerance and a sense of possibilities.

It's good, I suppose, that Rowling got you into reading - as long as it was a gateway drug that led to harder stuff.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mono

to a limit, one can even call the instruction booklet to my digital camera literature, but not in the same sense as Charles Dickens, for example.

---

Apparently, scientists somewhere have discovered that horses and cows are different, as well. :rolleyes:

PS My comment above was really not meant to be an accurate appraisal. Also, at that point, PeterL was saying that everything is crap, not just art. I wasn’t expecting to be taken seriously.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The Unnamable

Apparently, scientists somewhere have discovered that horses and cows are different, as well. :rolleyes:

PS My comment above was really not meant to be an accurate appraisal. Also, at that point, PeterL was saying that everything is crap, not just art. I wasn’t expecting to be taken seriously.

---

Not too seriously anyway.

I was trying to quote Sturgeon's Law, but I couldn't remember the exact wording or its name. The original was "Ninety percent of everything is crud."
More about Sturgeon's Law and Sturgeon's Revalation (which is what I was actually trying to cite) are available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon's_law

i think............................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .................................................. .............................
no.

I will begin this entry by informing you that I have not read this entire thread and therefore do not know what has already been discussed:

I have not read this entire thread and therefore do not know what has already been discussed.

The first few entries, however, seemed very interesting to me. i would like to introduce myself: I am a senior in high school, I live in the evergreen state, and I spend any free time with penguins. Penguin classics, penguin's greatest novels of the twentieth century, or penguin's anniversary editions of Graham Greene.

I am somewhat new to the world of literature.

Is literature dead? In answering this question, I would like to know what qualifies as alive. It certainly seems video games and movies have usurped the posistions of novels as favored means of entertainment. But then literature doesn't aim to entertain. Literature, by definition, offers a moral point of view doesn't it?
At this point, I would like to say that I have no idea where I am going with this.

Now back to my rambling.

I have a novel on my person at all times. By my count, I am about one of three of this type in my school (which, as an ethnically diverse middle class suburban community, may be taken as an effective microcosm for our wonderful nation). I am curious, does this change later in life? Will this percentage of lit. enthousiasts grow as I enter college and begin my excessively expensive studies? if literature is indeed "dead", what percentage of the population did enthousiasts make up when it was "alive"?

I am in no way attempting to make a statement. These are sincere inquiries.

If you have read this, far I commend you.
I hang out in a crowd where weekend fun results in headaches and nausea on Sunday mornings. My friends now get angry at me when I bring Fitzgerald or Kerouac to one of our high-class soirees. Why do i read? I am unable to explain myself, but lit. lives with me and that seems to be enough.

Literature will never be dead as long as there are those who can look at the world around them (or inside themselves) and make accessible their observations to others through the written word.

I realize that this is an old thread, but it's a topic that affects me on a regular basis so I wanted to jump in with my thoughts. I'm a new poster. I was thrilled to find this website because I'm a lonely reader in a sea of people who have never owned a book. I always want to discuss whichever book I'm currently reading, but there is no one to discuss it with. I have a high school diploma and I went to college for a year. I simply read for pleasure. You don't have to have a phd in English Lit to read, comprehend, and enjoy classic literature. I don't think literature is dead, but I think people who read good literature for pleasure are becoming more and more rare. I work in an office of 20 people. One male I work with reads fantasy and sci-fi, one female I work with reads mystery and court room drama, and I read classic literature (though I do enjoy histories and biographies as well). The other 17 people in my office haven't picked up a book in years. In all honesty, it's obvious when talking to them. They have a small vocabulary, horrible grammer, and a smaller range of interests and knowledge. I find it difficult to carry on a conversation with some of them. It has nothing to do with money or class. Reading is free. You can go to the library or download free literature on-line. I really don't know why more people don't read anything at all, let alone real literature. Maybe it's laziness. Reading a book takes more time than watching a movie, it requires more imagination and a more extensive vocabulary (or a dictionary). Maybe it's the effect modern conveniences have on the masses. If telephones, movies, television, and computers were around in 1700 or 1800 would our current lack of interest in reading have happened much sooner? I don't think it's horribly important what books you specifically read, as long as you do read books. Unfortunately I think there are far too many people who simply don't read at all.

Courtny

CourtnyG

Welcome to the forum. You will realize that there are many people here who were in your situation - there are more fish in the sea ;) It is pretty sad when you are talking to a group of people and they don't even know what the word "noose" means.

I think you are right about laziness. Modern technology has made everything more of a convenience; it takes less time to do everything and to read a book is the same as it was in 1700 - 1800. The appreciation for reading has definitely fallen...our libraries are underfunded and parents just don't care or are just too busy to teach their children the proper way to read.

I know of some professors who try to promote reading by having students read aloud from the textbook in class. I don't like hearing people jumble over simple words.

Sometimes I think the only hope we have is to instill an appreciation and a love for reading into our children and hope that they carry it with them.

Literature is not dead. It's living in a coma. :)

Art always depends people, economics and technology etc. In this century (Capitalism) time=money. While there's art of cinema of course people will prefer to watch a movie. If you can read fast, to read Brothers Karamazov will take at least 8-9 hours to finish. But it's only 2 hours to watch Brothers Karamazov movie, and you can characters, you can hear'em. Of course i don't think reading and watching are same thing. Firstly while you read you brain works, you think about sentences you read and you use your imagination. But there's not enough time to think on movies, on other word reading is much creative and productive for a person, movie is closer to consumption and less creative. But it's not people's mistake, cuz they have work schedules and an average person works around 40 hours in a week. If you count other factors, such as traffic, shopping rr LAZINESS etc. you can clearly see people really have a little time to live (life is not working on a company and spending time on roads of a city, i want to mean creative period of life). And while they even don'T enough time to LIVE how can they read a lot of books? I think because of modern slavery system most of people sees reading as waste of time. If you try to understand this in their point of view you understand what i mean.

Last word; literature will live forever, but in a coma. Cuz change of society and economics also changes people'S prefers. Cinema is most influential form of art since end of 1940's. And although i don't think movies are much better for personal-spiritiual development, cinema has it'S own advantages too, for example movie "A Clockwork Orange" was far better than novel and you can watch a movie with your friends or family. But while you reading a book you'r alone. I think it's an another factor too, movies are generally a group fun, and today's human is enough alone in his life.

Well if i'd know English better, i could tell more clearly but i tried to tell my ideas with the way best i can. :)

grace86

Thank you for the making me feel welcome. I agree about instilling the love of reading in children. My mother has always loved to read, and so I love to read. We lived in a suburb of Detroit until I was ten, and we went to the library for our books because we didn't have any extra money. I always looked forward to our trips to the library. I understand that people don't have much extra time, but people didn't have much extra time 100 years ago either. There was always something that needed to be done (and without modern conveniences it took longer to do them), the same as today. I work 40 hour weeks at a location 30 minutes away from my home. I could always be doing something instead of reading. My house is never as clean as it should be, my meals are never as intricate as they could be, there is always laundry to do, but I live with those things in order to have the joy of reading in my life. It's a small price to pay, and I've never regretted it; not even when non-readers come over and look at my dusty house, and my stacks of books crowding the end tables, and think it must mean that I'm the lazy one.

CourtnyG

You're welcome CourtnyG - and I understand completely on the dusty house and undone laundry :)

Ultimately you cannot force someone to read. As sad as it sounds, for several people, school is responsible for the disdain they hold books into.


I won't even bother answering the original question. Even as a rhetorical conversation starter, it is silly beyond belief.

xxxxx

Is literature dead?

Of course not.

You can propose the same idea with movie theatres in contrast to video rental stores, more and more movie lovers are inclined to wait for the DVD release rather than see it in theatres.

Movies and video games are limited in the information and subjects they can provide an audience. Naturally, people will turn to books to receive more.

And books are linked by common interests or subjects or references which usually sparks a chain of reader queus by many individuals.

Than there is pop-lit lead by the likes of J K Rowling, Stephen King, Dan Brown, and Chuck Palahniuk which seem to have increased literary reading by those whom have not had a great impulse to read.

Many people I know love to read and some just love discussing the messages behind such works as A Clockwork Orange, Survivor, Childhood's End, Brave New World, etc. Books have messages and that is one of their strongest draws.

I have the fortunate of having two large bookstores both not 3-5 miles away in opposite directions, Borders and Barnes & Noble, and the amount of business both stores enjoy collectively is personally very optimistic.