The Future of Literature Is In Danger
There wouldn’t be any stories, biographies, or classics in the future. The end of ‘stories and literature is here.’
I look back in time and cannot help but feel the sudden urge to gather all the authors I have read, give them a tight long hug, and tell them how much I enjoyed the part of their imagination.
In all honesty, without exaggerating, I don’t think I would have been the person that I am today if it wasn’t for all the great books I read in the past 4 years.
I read fiction books and they helped me become:
- Empathetic
- More mature towards my own emotions
- Building a strong human connection
- Honoring other’s stories, views, and opinions
- Knowing I am not the only one suffering
I became more human when I read fiction.
By reading self-help or nonfiction books, I realized the value of:
- Perception
- Power of consistency
- Focus
And when I read biographies, it made me realize:
- Other people go through the same struggles as I do
- Life can be more of like a movie when you look back at it instead of worrying about ‘what will happen next?’
The list is never-ending. But the fact of the matter is, when I read, I become.
Every book that I read made me a little more mature, and a better human being. For example: When I read Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, I learned to stop complaining and rather became hurt-less. You cannot hurt me without my permission.
Or when I read Little Women for months I couldn’t stop but think about my favorite character Beth who lived little but in a way that you could sense heaven must be a real place for after death, people like Beth reside there. It made me want to love and live fully without saying ‘I don’t care.’
Now, you must be thinking ‘Where am I going with all this?’
I want you to realize that books and words, stories, and imagination have always been the real swords of our society. With one story, you can change someone’s entire life. With even one little sentence, you can make someone realize the truth of life. This is the reason, I believe, stories are still in trend.
This is the reason, why people still read ‘Little Women.’
I am not concerned if stories will be in trend or not. I am concerned about ‘what kinds of stories will be in the trend?’
When Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women, she was able to create four iconic characters that still resonate deeply with us. Some think they are Beth, like me while others are inspired by the wild and free spirit of Jo yet there is a character Meg who wants to create a home.
Pick a woman, and she will find a deep connection with one of these women. But how is it possible that a book that was written decades ago is able to connect with people today?
The reason is — Louisa may have traveled deep with herself, observed the women around her, how society cages women, how people think about themselves, how people think about a certain way of living, or how people dream and what inspires their dreams.
You see these are the common parameters of life that travel through the generations. Hence, with her uncanny observation, Louisa was able to write a book that touches everyone’s heart even today.
This is what real literature is. This is why classics are classics. This is why stories connect.
Stories are not a part of imagination. Stories are US.
But the END IS HERE
If you read a biography that was written before 20s or perhaps in early 20s, you will get to read a perfect ‘movie’ like experience on paper. Why?
Because people actually lived that time. Their life, however challenging, was adventurous. They did insane things whether it was crossing a country through the ocean, spending months in a secluded place, living off the land, or maybe exploring different cultures, religions, and ideas.
Hence, reading about their life was fun as well as knowledgeable. Because you would get to learn something that’s not on Google. You would get to read the experience of something that never crossed your mind. That used to make a real-strong-fun biography.
The Upcoming Biographies:
What kind of biographies do you think our children will get to read?
No one is thinking any longer. Everyone has everything served on their plate yet everyone is complaining about not having enough. Kids today want iPhones and adults are crying for a trip to Italy. Our dreams are the same and the struggles, nonexistent, are the same too.
Everyone’s favorite hobby is scrolling social media. Everyone is a trauma survivor. And the only thing we are trying out is — making it big as an influencer and sharing our struggles and how we didn’t have a perfect background to record a YouTube video.
What will we write? What kind of biographies are on the line to come? Who will share their unique story?
Think about it!
If no one is doing anything new and everyone’s dreams are the same, will there be any real-strong-fun biographies in the future?
The End of Classics:
The end of classics wouldn’t come because classics already ended when certain books became popular.
I wouldn’t name any but please what kind of books are we making a best-seller?
Let me tell you how it starts:
A poor girl who is beautiful and literal walking sunshine who can make a red flag green with her cute little heart and her smile. There is a billionaire men who for some reason hate all women and the idea of love. Though he sleeps around with a lot of women and then complains that ‘women push themselves on him.’
Then this ruthless guy meets the walking sunshine girl and the girl makes him a human again who falls in love with this sunshine. But he controls her and says absolutely disrespectful things but that’s okay because the guy had a trauma and well, he is rich.
And then they live their happily ever after.
The worst part is these kinds of books aren’t only bestsellers but they are popular among teenage girls, especially in America and widely in India as well.
I may sound judgmental but if your teenage daughter is reading these books and idealizing these kinds of men, then you failed as a parent to first teach them ‘what a real man looks like.’
Anyway, these are the books that we are producing and letting the young minds get addicted to them.
Not only it is the end of classics but also the end of a well-behaved civilization.
The question is then ‘What can we do?’
Make The Change:
You may not be able to change the entire world but you can change yourself.
Who says you have to read the biographies of other people? You can live a life that is worthy enough to be captured in words. You and I can take the responsibility to do the real things, take up challenges, learn about the real world, think on our own, ditch our phones, and scroll life instead.
We can live a life that may or may not get published but you can share the story with your grandkids to teach them that ‘life is lived not scrolled.’
We can hype classics over nudity on paper. We can teach our children what a real man looks like and why it can be traumatizing to make someone human again.
You and I may not be able to write a classic but we can teach good things before society teaches them something utterly stupid.
Conclusion:
The future of literature is not in the hands of writers but it’s the responsibility of all of us to live a life that inspires true literature. Writers aren’t just inspired by their own lives but their stories depend on ‘how people around them live.’
Hence, I believe it’s on us to really LIVE A LIFE that can be a true inspiration.
Because only when a life is well lived, it becomes a story that passes through generations and makes ‘the lived life’ alive forever.
