Trying to put into words a thought I've had for a while now…. current literature just isn't the same (for me), as, for example, mid-century literature. I have lots of authors I love from this period, including Ray Bradbury,Cormac McCarthy, and Flannery O'Connor. I have precious few from this era. I think it has something to do with the standard M.F.A. pipeline most authors seem to come out of nowadays. It seems to strangle original writing – the prose seems far too "instructed", if that makes sense. Anthony Doerr is a big offender here for me. Doerr is a good writer, but his prose comes off to me as the exact median "this is good writing" prose taught to M.F.A. students. Nothing unique to himself. Bradbury OTOH, learned to write by reading, and was far less influenced by what a teacher told him was "good writing" – to me RB is one of the most mesmerizing prose stylists in American Literature.
We need greater diversity of experience!! Which leads me to say that part of the problem, surely, is the relative upper-middle class sheen of authors in modern literature. This leads to many authors with the same viewpoint , leading to fewer interesting books.
by cheerfullysardonic
7 Comments
I mean…this isn’t just about class.
I agree about the outcome but am less sure about the cause. It could be that people are just not reading as adventurously. Or maybe it’s the profitability of appealing to a broad demographic. Could be publishers, could even be algorithmic. Or probably some combination of homogenous education and the above. But I agree – I was reading Vonnegut and wondering why no one writes with a distinctive voice like that anymore.
My friend, if you are making this post and you are not worried about making a living in this economy, you have your answer. The people who could be providing insight about our world are not in MFA programs. They are just trying to survive.
Mark McGurl wrote a book about this called The Program Era. You might find it of interest.
Do you only read American authors? Most other Anglophone writers don’t have MFAs.
I don’t really know which writers I’ve read have or haven’t been to MFA programs, but I don’t feel like I lack for good contemporary fiction in my reading diet. Have you tried switching up where you’re getting your ideas for new reads?
Even the most voracious readers read only a couple thousand titles in a lifetime. The US publishes 200k titles per year.
Why on earth do you think you’re capable of generalizing about unique writing in the modern era? Maybe the problem is that you’re reading the wrong people?
The luxury of looking to the past for good books is that the cream already had time to float to the top. It’s like nostalgia about 80s music. If you sample contemporary hits randomly, 80s music sucks. But when people say they like 80s music, what they mean is that they like the stuff that still holds up.