The world is changing fast. Everything in the world is changing at a rapid pace. We have worked a lot to create some of the most wonderful wonders of the world in order to make our lives easier, more comfortable and (yes) luxurious. Literature has not been bereaved of the progress that humanity has witnessed in the previous 2 decades. Yes, my area of concern is sharply focused on the digital and technical advancements that we have made. The tech revolution has dramatically changed the world of literature (mostly for good)… however, this change has come at the cost of a few things too dear to compromise. Quality has suffered because authors have increased. Readers don’t find it comfortable because the quality of literature has suffered at the hands of mediocre writers calling themselves authors of the contemporary era who can experiment with content, plot and characters as per their whims.

Kindle books, digital editions, book websites, social media, advertisement, things have changed too much in terms of literature and in relation to it. Authors have also changed their ways to approach their audience and that has changed the entire game. In this article, I will make an attempt to discuss things about the same.

James Joyce and Virginia Woolf had their fair share of experiments with the works they offered to the world. T. S. Eliot and other poets of his league, Samuel Beckett and other playwrights of his group… they had their joy of experimenting with the conventional traits of literature in different genres and they got huge success, opening the pandora’s box of creator’s fancy. However, modern experiments or rather contemporary ones are not that accommodative. It’s all about manipulating the same themes and plots, character types and storylines to the benefit of the authors so that they don’t have to work a lot. That’s not good for literature, for readers and even for the reputation of the authors involved.

In Hindi literature also, one can witness the same things as we do in English literature. There are certain sets of authors who have been involved in reproducing the works by other authors and poets from the bygone era or even in the peer group and modelling them as new. This is not good either. Readers are, sooner or later, successful in catching the game and that’s why no ingenuine authors can stick to writing (or reproducing) for long.

Literature should be liberating. Literature should be more than entertaining. Literature must be genuine, to say the least, and then only other determiners come into play. Modern literature, in all its glory and lows, offers vivid. It offers the best experiences at its peak and protracts the suffering of the readers at its lows. It’s all up to the readers to realise what to take out from the books they read and, that previous item, that is up to their reading preferences. What kind of a reader are you? Do you also have complaints about the literature you consume? Or, you savour whatever is thrown at you by the authors?

By Alka for Novels to Read