Cover via Amazon
I agree with this article but there is a big misconception about authors. There are good authors who are not recognized because their work is not mainstream popular reading. The decisions to read and study certain literature in a canon is determined, in my opinion, by political and cultural preferences. Whatever is popular now is what people want to read about. There were books held back from the public (like Kate Chopin‘s The Awakening) because of people in power found their work offensive. Literature is a fickle thing. I don’t know a lot of people that can actually agree about what should be studied in college literature classes or read as entertainment. As a society we are like a leaf apt to go where the wind blows us.
The new writers and authors are flooding the market with self-published books and e-books. There are all kinds of writers. Sure we don’t have a lot of Mark Twains or Edgar Allen Poes’ anymore. But shouldn’t we find some that are still worthy to quote? Obviously the Noble Prize in Literature is still finding candidates to hand out the award to. Even the Newberry Award is given out every year. So there is still some talent out there.
Mark Twain statue (Photo credit: stevebkennedy)
People will read what they want to read. As writers we just need to write what we feel. Whether it will make it into a canon or not is up to those who select it.
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