Why do newer books feel like they were written by troglodytes when you compare it to any book written in the 19th century?
Why do newer books feel like they were written by troglodytes when you compare it to any book written in the 19th century?
Why do newer books feel like they were written by troglodytes when you compare it to any book written in the 19th century?
Because modern education is a meme and a regression compared to the education people received in the 19th century. And the israelites made it possible
True
If I recall correctly, didn't 19th century education include Greek and Latin? They read classics as they were originally written. Focus was likely on Shakespeare, The Bible, and possibly Iliad.
Wasn't just Hemmingway. If Kafka's original prose is anything close to the translations I've found, he was shit too. Same goes for Knut Hamsun. All this simplified shit showed people like Bukowski that you don't have to try.
Because Hemingway destroyed modern prose
What really stuns me is not so much the writing in older books but the quality of writing in old letters. How long did they spend writing them in order to write so beautifully? One of the few things that makes me feel possibly dumb is imagining they were writing letters off-the-cuff because a lot of it holds up against the formal writings of who we would consider good stylists today in published essays.
The internet has definitely affected our writing style in a very negative way. Imagine back then you knew a letter could take anything from several days to a month or more to reach the recipient. People were not in a hurry to write and so they made each word count.
Media always makes it look like people wrote letters in one-go, in one sit-down session. Did they have drafts? Did they write them over multiple days while mulling over the exact wording throughout the day? I can only hope!
Frankly I don't know. Depending on how far back we go, we need to account for the cost/scarcity of paper and ink - at least to the average person.
I think the general standard was so high people just wrote that way. If you are interested in fun comparisons, I found some old harvard book reviews on project gutenberg and comparing that writing to what is produced now is hilarious. How we laugh at people who speak pidgin is how I imagine the Victorians would treat me if I time travel back to then.
The masses then didn't have much possibility to read what other members of the masses wrote. When mass literacy began you could basically only read what the already highly literate wrote, thus you were started on high-tier writing even as a first-generation reader.
Survivorship Bias.
You're reading the letters of Marcus Aurelius not Johnny Peasant's.
It's much easier to be published now, and you probably are reading older works that passed the test of time.
>older works that passed the test of time.
It's this. All the crap of yesteryear fell by the wayside and so you're comparing the heights of the art over a span of centuries to all the scribblers of today. It's a bad comparison.
What's some crap of yesteryear? I'll compare it for myself
>muh test of time
Random letters from soldiers in the Civil War are better written than modern MA theses.
True but why is that?
I like what Harold Bloom says about when settlers migrated west, many of them had two books: the King James Bible and the Complete Shakespeare. So I suppose when that's all you have to read and therefore learn from and compare to, it probably helps.
I honestly doubt they had Shakespeare
>Random letters from soldiers in the Civil War are better written than modern MA theses.
Many common soldiers were illiterate and had others write their letters for them
https://www.americancivilwar.com/kids_zone/soldiers_letters_civil_war.html
For example the soldier's letter in the link above is full of misspellings
I would imagine the more well written letters were mostly higher ranked soldiers who had the opportunity to receive some education
probably those from wealthy families lol. many letters were written by soldiers that could hardly read or write
In the days of old, writers were genuinely interested in exploration and discovery, either metaphysical or natural.
Today, consumerism has turned most writers into hacks. Like everything else in modern society Quantity is valued more than Quality.
How did we fall so far? Hear my heart, IT HURTS BAD
We have some iteration of this thread every fricking day the answer is, as it has been the past 3000 times this kind of thread has been made, because culture has changed. People read for escapism, and also just have access to forms of entertainment that require less work to consume. You also have completely vapid education standards which wile never perfect nor universal used to atleast be a bit higher. Reading was more popular for a multitude of reasons this facilitating wider range of kind of books created. You’re just seeing the best of the best of that time, atleast as far as what’s popularly known as the “classics”. Scholars/academics with influence surely play a role too. But like I said all this has been stated a million times this must literally be your first day on here
People are addicted to instant gratification from social media. So of course they're not going to read some gay old book which takes at least a day to give gratification. Literature and other medias have had to adapt to the information age, to make everything snappier so people don't lose interest.
For me, it's the prose. Authors used to write so beautifully and poetically, and now people write matter-of-factly without any poetry in their prose.
less evolutionary pressure
>be 10 in 1820
>translate Homer and Cicero into pristine English
>be 10 in 2020
>write a 2 paragraph essay on YA
I think there's 2 reason, and this thread has only touched on 1.
Generational and cultural shift is the first. Yes, thanks to universal literacy the barrier of entry into lit is now for whoever can read and write a tweet. Have you seen boomers on facebook?
Second, and this is important, english is now universal. When English was a small language of academics the eloquence of everyday use was extraordinary. But this is now a language used and abused by every country on earth. It has now been dumbed down for billions. English is no longer a language used to speak poetry or express oneself, it is used for business and for traveling.
More people speak english as a second language than as a first. No shit the eloquence has left. Even writers want to sell to other languages so they make it as simple as possible. There's no reason to use academic language for anything other grandstanding.
Tripledubs checked. But why, out of an admittedly enormous pool of people now writing in English, can we not seem to muster even one person who can write at the standard of quality set in the nineteenth century? Surely there should be a few, statistically speaking.
Another take: declining genetic quality has impacted average intelligence to such a degree that very few people remain who would be capable of producing prose at that level, if they pursue a career in prose at all.
Even smart people who can write well are spending all of their time on sites like Twitter, which has a significant impact on how they think and write.
What merit is there in 19th century English? Most prose are written so clunky and overly verbose that it hinders fluidity.
this
>Most prose are written so clunky and overly verbose that it hinders fluidity.
Unironically filtered.
Exactly, what merit is there in filtering an audience?
Books are business at the end of the day, and no business thrives by filtering customers.
that would be of concern if one were desirous of making it onto the most prestigious NYT bestsellers list rather than gaining entry into the respublica literaria
Because writers of the 19th century went to grammar schools and learnt Greek and Latin.
plebs learned how to read and write
most of literary production nowdays is by morons for morons
which leads to further degradation of the writing profession. globalization and capitalism made it easy to spread any fart you make to millions of people effortlessly and since majority of people are dumb the standards shifted their way
it will get worse
How can it get any worse?
Sadly when I first heard this quote I thought he was insane. But the more you read the more it begins to dawn on you
This is so depressing. People just buy color packs of vintage books for decoration. They don't even care what it is cause they can't even read it anyway. Just "green book pack"
This is usually done for stage productions or sets.
based, I would definitely buy this. I like colour coordination and books are just for decoration anyway. Only an incel would remark on the loss of somebody's "integrity" over this.
The eugenicists lost and we are the result, for better or for worse
Old language is romanticized
I could write high style prose and used to, but most of my reading and writing is in Latin/A. Greek these days.
All books are from troglodytes.