R.I.P. The English Novel 1485 - 2009

[Laz116]

I think it's too easy just to brush of any critique of the current state of the publishing business. True, breasts and circuses will and has probably always sell/sold more than quality.

But I think something else is afoot: Books are not to the same extent as earlier considered a formative media. It's about mere entertainment. That of course has a lot to do with a lot of new media popping up, taking over the formative position that books once had.

In other words: While Camus could be a smash hit and be the talk of the town back in the fifties, nowadays it's the movies or television shows or internet that has taken over such a formative role.

But it is a shame since books present a quite unique form of media interaction, where we are forced to put ourselves in the place of another in the very act of reading.