Is this the worst period in the history of the world for literature?

Question

When I was a kid there was Capote, Hemingway, Faulkner, Mailer, Tennesse Williams, John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller, Jack Kerouac, Scott Fitzgerald.
Who do we have now? J.K.Rowling.
What went wrong?

Answer 1

Maybe not 'worst' if you check out 'Savoy Books', 'S.Clay Wilson', Margaret Thatchers biog. that soon came out in the chip shops. There's usu. good stuff around, and people fleeing their own countries for it... Rousseau, Solzenitzyn, Hesse, Kesey. Always tensions. It does seem that history shows intense creative episodes eg Maupassant and his crew.

Answer 2

If you think Rowling is the peak of acheivement in current literature, may I suggest you leave questions for a while and take a look at these websites:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/
http://www.bl.uk/
http://contemporarylit.about.com/

The reason why some of these names aren't 'household' is because it takes 10 years or so to become established and studied, like all of those you name above are now. They didn't appear overnight; unfortunately popularist fiction will always have a more immediate impact. This won't last; you should see the lists the Victorians put forward for their Poet Laureate - the bathetic (adjectival form of bathos, as opposed to pathos) nonsense is laughed at now. Luckily they realised fashionable taste is no match for class/talent.

To say all we have is JK Rowling (who isn't even a particularly skilled- just successful- writer for children ... Pullman and Swindells are far more skilled) would be like forgetting all those about and summing-up the early-mid twentieth century's contribution to literature as Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie!

Answer 3

Well, under the whole branch of literature, we have scientific, mathematical, and medicinal literature, that I believe serves a greater purpose than any of the literature written by the authors you have stated. Those literature surely weren't present during those author's time, or at least not as advanced and sophisticated. It is suprising that you mention the "world" but only list American authors or authors who write in English. What happened to authors in foreign languages? Perhaps you should try reading some before coming to such a conclusion.

Answer 4

I have an excellent library with all those named authors but you have missed out Tolkein probably one of the best literary minds of the 20th century and my children will tend to have a read through couriosity. though Rowling does have a certain charm there is no doubt her books have got children to actually pick up a book and read which is important and you never know they might drift towards the classics and have a wider opinion of what a good book really is.If books are not available in the home how can we expect them to read 'good' literature? the schools are trying but their choice of books for the childre to review are very poor at times.

Answer 5

Daisy Duke you fcuking retarded retard how is Dan Brown the greatest living author. This is a man who rewrite books to call them new have you actually read anything other than th Da vinci code? or for that matter any other books ever.

Though i do have to say the authors listed never really did it for me I like fantasy so authors i like are David Gemmell, Raymond e Feist, David Eddings, Stephen Donaldson and the such plus many more so for me there are a lot of authors I love who are still alive. Although David Gemmell is dead and Raymond e Feist is nearly dead lol.

Answer 6

I don't agree-when you were a kid, its true that those great writers were around, but there was plenty of pulp as well, just the same as now.
In fact it may seem worse now, because in the West we have a surplus of everything, including literature-you just have to do a bit of sifting to get to the good stuff.
Great writers have always been in the minority compared to hacks.

Answer 7

I think you are not looking too hard! Added to which, I'm puzzled that ALL your list of greats is American, and the only current (bad) example you quote is British. Some prejudice creeping in here?

For a start, read some Iain Banks (like his first novel: The Wasp Factory)

Answer 8

I would have to agree that your period of time as far as writers go, was a good one....but we do have some brilliant writers now, its just that there are so many out there now, its so difficult to rumage through the rubbish, to come out with, outstanding writers....try looking at James Patterson, Dan Brown,& Karin Slaughter....i can promise you they will both give you a good read.

Answer 9

Possibly. It is difficult to think of many tremendous classics that have been written over the past two decades. Still, there are good books out there that have been written recently, you just have to look for them. Have you ever tried reading any non-US literature?

Answer 10

You have just mentioned mostly American writers...We still have some good ones nowadays like Elizabeth Hyde, Alan Hollinghurst, Kazuo Isighuro and many others...plus remember that "Genius always finds itself a century too early."