Quote:
Originally Posted by SpiderMatt
When did people stop caring about writing as an art form?
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With the advent of universal suffrage, and giving the 'masses' discretionary spending money, rather than no more than starvation wages.
That said, I don't think appreciating writing should be about the form (that is to say, I find most lit majors fairly annoying to listen to when they rave about the importance of their 'craft'), as form is ultimately nothing more than a tool that is meant to create an effect. (which is why parodies, even unsubtle ones, can still be effective.)
The difference we're encountering here in appreciation is mostly due to the fact that most people will have low expectations, and actually prefer books that expect little of them, when they want to be 'immersed' in a story. Which is why, f.i., mr. Brown does. When people are already acquainted with more challenging/technically demanding literature, they may or may not call Brown a "guilty pleasure" (an annoying phrase if I've ever seen one) depending on whether or not they could resist his
charms..
Once you consistently read more subtle books, where "renowned professor toodlepip" is not being chased through a museum that, you are told, apparently contain expensive paintings, the way in which these facts are imparted to you might progressively seem more and more hackneyed, and you can successfully resist taking up such a work.
This is something that applies equally to film, literature and music (marching band music), btw.
Anyway, the annoying thing, of course, is that there are so many people that the above does not apply to, and that the PR industry has free reign in deciding what to call "amazing literature" in its propaganda campaigns. Their assertion is then taken up by those same readers, who start telling everyone that "this book should not be missed", start trying to socially exclude you ("you think you're too good for") in order to get you to also approve of their taste, and so on. The media then have to pay attention to it (they don't want to alienate their consumer base), and after a while the bloody things become nearly unavoidable.
I'm sure this will in time lead to more social stratification, less interaction between different social classes, etc. (That is, the more people are educated, the fewer intelligent self-/uneducated people will remain in the lower SES, and the more mutual resentment will build up. This will of course not all be due to D. Brown's work.)
But really, I'd prefer it if they put age stickers on all claims of literary fame/worth, i.e., that people would stop making unqualified assertions about literary merit. (This applies equally to claims about books by Brown's ilk and Dostoevsky's)
The only problem being that people would perhaps feel less encouraged to switch, or to straddle middle positions by liking both. Still, considering that you can't really force people to like things, only slowly teach them to appreciate something (or not), I'm sure the above doesn't need to be put into law
