June 4, 2008 at 11:27 Literature of the future
Recently read a book. Jack London "Martin Eden." Awesome book! In my opinion, I have never read the best in life. Throughout the book, I literally lived as the main character, thought how he was, combined his life with mine - I became not divided with him. I will not describe in detail what exactly attracted me to the book, and as in my opinion, the author managed to achieve this effect (or maybe I have nerves and psyche to hell), maybe I will write a review later.
But after reading this book, I seriously thought - and what are they - books of the future? What will the authors of the new generation write about? Or, say, what my children will write about?
Russia is the most read country in the world.
(slogan)
In general, the entire space of literary works (let's immediately agree that we are talking about works of art) can be divided into subspaces, delimiting them by the time in which the events described in the book occur. I would do it like this:
In the heart of everyone, at least one “of the genre-time eras presented on the shelves of stores ” will find a response. Preferring books from one category or another (my version of dividing the space of books), you, of course, find something close to you, I repeat, but you can’t find a better word exactly romantic - something you may lack in life than something that you irrelevantly would like to immerse yourself in, if only to get away from the real world (because it is then that books bring real pleasure?). Everyone likes his own era. Someone prefers swords and armor, and some light sabers and the ringing of a ship's bell, someone likes gorgeous social events, and someone wanders in interstellar space.
And how do you ... computers, information technology ..? Do you find it interesting? Do not you think that your grandchildren will not read about the “times of Steve and Bill”? Yes, modern writers also have themes taken from our lives with you, but abstracted from IT - the plots of numerous detective stories, novels of district towns. But the information sphere is expanding rapidly, swallowing us. IT has become not just a means of increasing the convenience and improvement of life, they have become a lifestyle, they have become an element of comfort (such as smoking - why not?) .
Do not you find that in the case of continued growth of the influence of IT on our lives, the next generation of writers will simply not have anything to write about, and it will not be necessary. As a vivid example of “not needing”, paradoxical and strange - you remember, books by contemporaries that describe the beauty of the southern seas, the difficult conditions of the taiga, or the north (not to offer Alfred Shklyarsky, he can no longer be called our contemporary). Can you recall many of these?
Of course, the categories I have listed will always remain, but if you noticed, I did not indicate the categories of “books about our time”. On purpose. This is really a problem - the authors of the 21st century devote too much time to fantasy, historical stories in a modern way, and science fiction. There is no such category.
This article is my personal opinion. I'm just sharing my impression. If there are worthy books “about our time”, it means that something in our country is still lost, because I have not heard of such and have not seen any in the ratings.
I am not against IT, I only sadly say that something very important is leaving our life. Yes, I don’t think that, based on the subspaces of the books I have listed , the popularity of reading will at least remain stable at all times, it will fall and will fall for a long time to come.
Instead of a conclusion.
Go to the store. Buy it. Buy absolutely any book on the subject of "space fiction." The authors describe our future. Did you see mentions of Facebook, twitter, jabber and other social diseases of our time there?Our future should be ashamed of us.
Igor Kuzmin, 2008.
PS If you are to reprint, please indicate the name of the author and a link to the source.
Cross-post on my blog.
But after reading this book, I seriously thought - and what are they - books of the future? What will the authors of the new generation write about? Or, say, what my children will write about?
Russia is the most read country in the world.
(slogan)
In general, the entire space of literary works (let's immediately agree that we are talking about works of art) can be divided into subspaces, delimiting them by the time in which the events described in the book occur. I would do it like this:
- "Historical" - books in which events occur somewhere in the distant past, relative to the present moment. Surely, everyone in childhood was read by Stevenson, Dumas ... Mine Read and Jules Verne also fall into this category. The books of all these authors are saturated with a certain spirit, the romance of the past tense, and this is their main value. Of course, most of them were written by contemporaries - authors who caught sight of that time with their own eyes. In the same category I write authors such as: Conan Doyle, Jack London, Dreiser, O. Henry, Selinger and many other authors of past eras. But there are authors of our time who also write historical novels, they, not infrequently, surprisingly combine the same “romance of past centuries” with some modernization. (see Authors: well-known Yuri Nikitin, and no less famous, but not very prominent (in my opinion), Andrei Belyanin, recently also fell into the hands of Alex Orlov’s book).
- "Science Fiction" is a separate category that may not find a response in the hearts of a sufficient number of people, but this, in my opinion, is an immortal direction, but everything that is outstanding, written in it, as a rule, gradually begins to be attributed to another space of books . The time and place of these books usually corresponds to the time of the author.
- “Space Fantasy” - everything is clear here - events found a place on the spiral of time somewhere, at least in the next century. Intergalactic flights, Frank Herbert, Dan Simmons, Harry Harrison, and entire legions of other science fiction writers for most people have turned the word "fiction" into a synonym for this genre. A disease of the last century, which, however, despite the much more weighty approach of civilization to the described events, is no less popular, attractive and romantic today.
- And of course, “fantasy” - in my opinion, in Russia the genre became widespread only at the end of the last century, but still does not lose ground. The main names, familiar, perhaps to everyone: Tolkien, Perumov, Nikitin, Zhelyazny, Salvatore. Millions of people around the world see in fantasy stories an alternative model of a pretty world, dreamers, romantics, or just people who seek peace, often prefer fantasy. (However, I, perhaps, am myself one of those). Numerous role-playing games are arranged for especially popular fantasy books. First of all, according to The Lord of the Rings.
- "Books of recent times." Not real! Perhaps I will refer to the authors Pelevin, Bogomolov, Solzhenitsyn.
In the heart of everyone, at least one “of the genre-time eras presented on the shelves of stores ” will find a response. Preferring books from one category or another (my version of dividing the space of books), you, of course, find something close to you, I repeat, but you can’t find a better word exactly romantic - something you may lack in life than something that you irrelevantly would like to immerse yourself in, if only to get away from the real world (because it is then that books bring real pleasure?). Everyone likes his own era. Someone prefers swords and armor, and some light sabers and the ringing of a ship's bell, someone likes gorgeous social events, and someone wanders in interstellar space.
And how do you ... computers, information technology ..? Do you find it interesting? Do not you think that your grandchildren will not read about the “times of Steve and Bill”? Yes, modern writers also have themes taken from our lives with you, but abstracted from IT - the plots of numerous detective stories, novels of district towns. But the information sphere is expanding rapidly, swallowing us. IT has become not just a means of increasing the convenience and improvement of life, they have become a lifestyle, they have become an element of comfort (such as smoking - why not?) .
Do not you find that in the case of continued growth of the influence of IT on our lives, the next generation of writers will simply not have anything to write about, and it will not be necessary. As a vivid example of “not needing”, paradoxical and strange - you remember, books by contemporaries that describe the beauty of the southern seas, the difficult conditions of the taiga, or the north (not to offer Alfred Shklyarsky, he can no longer be called our contemporary). Can you recall many of these?
Of course, the categories I have listed will always remain, but if you noticed, I did not indicate the categories of “books about our time”. On purpose. This is really a problem - the authors of the 21st century devote too much time to fantasy, historical stories in a modern way, and science fiction. There is no such category.
This article is my personal opinion. I'm just sharing my impression. If there are worthy books “about our time”, it means that something in our country is still lost, because I have not heard of such and have not seen any in the ratings.
I am not against IT, I only sadly say that something very important is leaving our life. Yes, I don’t think that, based on the subspaces of the books I have listed , the popularity of reading will at least remain stable at all times, it will fall and will fall for a long time to come.
Instead of a conclusion.
Go to the store. Buy it. Buy absolutely any book on the subject of "space fiction." The authors describe our future. Did you see mentions of Facebook, twitter, jabber and other social diseases of our time there?Our future should be ashamed of us.
Igor Kuzmin, 2008.
PS If you are to reprint, please indicate the name of the author and a link to the source.
Cross-post on my blog.