Difficult books are losing out to escapist genres with less formal merit-- aren't they?
Not surprisingly, writers and publishers sometimes ask difficult questions about the future of literature, especially the category called literary fiction. Concerns in the cultural world around is literary fiction dead, relate to more comprehensive issues around a decline in literacy or, most likely, interest in an art form which moves steadily and solitarily, in an age of media which is immediate and hyperconnected. There are obvious indications of this cultural malady, like the decrease of newspaper column inches committed to literary criticism and reviewing. Nevertheless, while literature might not hold the exact same significance in public life, it is also a mainstay of the societal subset-- itself united by social networks-- which prides itself on slowing down and making time to centre the self. Reading is a method to switch off from the world, which is why books always sell-- something which the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones knows well.
Readers, writers and publishers often think the novel is under threat. In an era of immediately available, inexpensive entertainment, it can seem like the process of sitting down to check out fiction is being pushed out by mass media companies, which make money from our attention spans being shortened by social media. Not all categories appear to suffer similarly: so-called light categories-- like love, crime writing, and thrillers-- continue to produce best-sellers every year, making authors and editors a great deal of cash. This is one reason the leader of a top investment company has a significant stake in the owner of Simon & Schuster. When people worry about the decline of the novel, they are in fact nervous about the death of literary fiction. Literary fiction alludes, generally speaking, to books which are more formally exploratory than best-sellers; which may tackle more difficult subjects, looking to interrogate the world we live in; or are, in some other sense, more difficult to read.
The death of the novel has actually been postulated for around a 100 years, however in this time more books have actually been printed and read than at any other point in history. Some commentators see current literary tastes-- romance, chick lit, science fiction, and thriller-- as being led by the film and TV sectors, cashing in on a basic craving for escapism. Nevertheless, the more one analyzes the angst around the concern of is literature getting worse, the more hollow it seems. After all, prosperous writers have been insisting on the death of the novel while continuing to release very popular books for the past twenty years. For instance, the head of the investment company with a stake in HarperCollinshead of the investment company with a stake in HarperCollins is not likely to put money into a dying industry. However, literary fiction is only a money-spinner for publishers once in a blue moon; and worries that the category is going the way of poetry, consigned to a cultural subculture, may not be completely baseless.