literature

I don't think literature-- fiction, poetry, drama-- is nearly as central to our culture as it was even when I was a child. The high point of the novel was probably the nineteenth century. Dickens, Balzac, Tolstoy: These were tremendously influential figures in their cultures-- centrally influential. And in this country it sputtered on into the mid-twentieth century-- Fitzgerald, Mailer, Bellow (I never liked Roth). But today? I'd say Jonathan Franzen is arguably the best known serious novelist in the country-- and even that's due largely to Oprah-- but is he really a very influential figure in our culture? I don't think so. I think fiction is kind of going the way of what used to be called 'fine art'-- an incestuous little loop of producers and consumers. Have you noticed how much writing today is just . . . about writing?

And surely nobody cares about poetry. Why, for example, does this country have a poet laureate? The British had one so Alfred Lord Tennyson could write birthday ditties for Queen Victoria, but I doubt one American in a hundred could tell you who our current poet laureate is. I can't.

As for drama, I can only speak personally. I don't go to the theater. I don't go to movies. I don't even have a television set. What am I missing?

Our culture today is some combination of market forces, technology, and public policy. Literature doesn't have a whole lot to do with it.