Quote:
Originally Posted by dadioflex
Must say, I don't normally do this but I agree with the last paragraph of Moejoe's epic rant.
But, seeing as I like Subway and HP Sauce, it's fine by me.
If Steinbeck was alive today he'd be writing for HBO. What's the problem?
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*Doubtful, highly doubtful. Even though I must admit HBO is about the only television produced anywhere in the world that is actually worth watching any more, still, Steinbeck wouldn't write for them. His greatest works were motivated by a sense of injustice born out of his experiences during the great depression and a passionate desire to communicate that injustice to the rest of the world. He was not just a storyteller, he was a social commentator, a journalist and a crusader (no wonder he associated himself with the Arthurian legends). His motivation, as far as my study of his life allows me to understand, was never money, but a sense of indignation at suffering under oppression (Grapes of Wrath) and interest in the human animal within a social setting (Cannery Row).
The decline of fiction mirrors the decline of mass culture almost perfectly. As mass consumption increased (a by-product of technological innovations and the increase in advertising) the level of comprehension needed to understand that work receded.. Compare the best-selling books pre 80's and post 80's and you'll see the radical shift away from intelligent and passionate adult writing towards the corporate, series based, genre specific, youth-focused tales that dominate most fiction now. It's not an undocumented shift either, as far back as the early 80's Barry Norman, the English film critic, coined the term 'juvenilisation' in relation to the works, and the audience expectation, of cinema in the post Star Wars, new merchandising age. Cinema shifted radically away from the gritty, adult orientated focus that had dominated in the 1960's-70's and turned, over the 80's and 90's, into a child-focused, special-effects laden, market tested experience we see today. In part this was due to corporate consolidation and the 80's drive toward profit as the be-all and end-all, but also in part to the Baby-Boomer generation abandoning the hopes and dreams of the 60's in favour of a more selfish outlook.
No surprise then, that we saw in this same period a rise in conservative values, censorship and the so called 'family safe' notions that reduced cinema, along with fiction and other forms of entertainment, to a castrated, PG-13 mess that would never challenge, nor engage the audience in any substantial way. Steinbeck's devastatingly human and ambiguous ending to the Grapes of Wrath would not pass muster with the modern, corporate publisher for fear that the 'audience wouldn't understand' or that it wouldn't 'sell enough'. The modern publisher would more than likely need Tom Joad to appear in a series of endless sequels where crime is fought and the status-quo is restored by the time the credits roll, and 'The End' is written on the page.
So then, as a culture the bottom-line is now sales, not meaning or cultural importance, not literary merit or innovation. The best-sellers of earlier years, the lengthy, time-consuming, individual stories of creators are replaced by rehashes, re-imaginings and novelizations of movies inspired by the comic book of a toy. Fiction that is written by ghosts for celebrities so paper thin in intelligence that they too might also be considered ghosts. The baby-boomer notion of profit-above-all is so engrained that anything that doesn't sell is considered illegitimate and abandoned by publishers without any of the nurturing that occurred with publisher/editor/author beforehand. We are left with a culture where adults read children's books that children don't read, and defend that simplistic fairytale world with venom. A world where all the men-children buy statues of comic-book heroes and attend conventions dressed in costumes that will soon lead to a generation of embarrassed children. Fan fiction written about fiction that is another form of fan fiction, only with the names changed.
But, saying all that, I'll add that my concerns may be short-lived. The torrent of childish, youth-focused, marketed to death, bland pabulum that spews forth every year from the content industries and now the independents (you broke my heart with that one, independent creators) will eventually make the younger generations sick to the stomach (if it isn't already). No, we won't see another Steinbeck soon, but it might come eventually, when the last of the baby-boomers is dead and they realise you can't line a coffin with dollar bills, nor make art on the bottom line.
*The views expressed in this lengthy tirade are that of my alter-ego, Moejoe. Any resemblance to Moejoe is purely coincidental and also completely understandable. If you would like to print these views on a t-shirt, please seek medical advice immediately and make sure the straps on the jacket are fixed tightly. Moejoe is not property of the Monsanto Corporation, nor can he be used to grow crops. Use Moejoe sparingly.