“I'd rather take coffee than compliments.” ―Louisa May Alcott
This week’s Deep Musing
There’s a question that I keep thinking about - and I’m nowhere near providing any sort of answer - but it’s something along the lines of “Why has literature evolved so little in the last few centuries?” I’ve just finished a novel which was kind of innovative (ish) in its storytelling & structure but the techniques felt more like artifice than foundational alterations. Sure, there’s been the rise of the novel, especially in the 19th century which went through iterations like romanticism (ie. “Nature’s so beautiful, a passion burns in my soul!”) and bleak realism (ie. “This coal miner and his family haven’t eaten in three weeks!”) and there have been a few attempted tweaks in the 20th century but fundamentally, novels are novels are novels. And yet if you look at music or art, the evolution from Bach to Gershwin to Kendrick Lamarr is much more palpable. Same with the path from Botticelli to Rothko to Kusama.
I think the answer lies with experimental fiction and how its influence spreads in ways more subtle and insidious than other media. When the Beatles released a new sound, every band suddenly started to sound like them. When James Joyce published Finnegans Wake, - widely agreed to be the most “incomprehensible” novel - writers nodded enthusiastically and critics congratulated themselves for figuring out aspects of the plot, but few were prepared to truly emulate that innovation in a direct way. Maybe there’s something fundamentally conservative about literature, or at least about the tastes of readers? When I read semi-innovative fiction like the book I’ve just finished, I can’t help but think that other artists might have pushed the envelope further, and would in fact have been highly praised for trying something a bit impenetrable. Or is it just a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”?
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Lit With Charles to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.