Thread: Does litterature still evolve?
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Old 02-11-2015, 04:24 AM   #20
Rev. Bob
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasper Hviid View Post
Is a novel written i 2015 in any way different from a novel written in, say, 1965? I have noticed that modern novels has mobile phones in them, but are there other changes?
Undeniably so.

If you really want to see the growth and maturation of a form of storytelling, pick up a comic book from the 1960s and compare it to a new one. Almost everything is different - more intricate art, longer storylines, less sensationalistic narration, and more "adult" content. (I don't mean that last in terms of 18+ sexy stuff, but that newer comics are more prone to dealing with subjects beyond the "kid stuff" that used to be the norm.) Certainly I'm painting with broad strokes, as the old EC comics hold up well and we've still got Archie digests that have used the same setting and format for over 70 years - but the trend is unmistakeable.

Returning to the purely written word, compare a SF novel from the 1940s to one printed today. There's a certain flavor to the older book, a "Golden Age feel" that differs sharply from the more modern work. Some of it's due to a certain author's style, as I found when reading a Simak novel from the 1970s that could've come from twenty years earlier. I followed that up with another novel published the same year that read more like a 1990s (or later!) book, and had I not checked the copyright dates, I never would have thought they'd been published in the same decade, let alone the same year.

Some of that is undoubtedly due to editorial preferences and social changes, but there seems to be rather more at work than only those factors would explain.
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