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Why do people read contemporary books is something I can’t really get my head around. There’re so many classics to keep people busy for life - and are 100% guar

by cellu 3y ago

Why do people read contemporary books is something I can’t really get my head around. There’re so many classics to keep people busy for life - and are 100% guaranteed to be insightful and pleasurable.

bwb 3y ago
Contemporary books are just new classics. It is like asking why read :)
rustymonday 3y ago
Should people stop telling new stories? A century from now the best books of today will be classics. Books can act as a time capsule of a certain time and place and mode of life. And that has value.
OfSanguineFire 3y ago
There’s a distinct demographic in the contemporary-fiction-reading community, as can be seen in corners of Goodreads or Instagram, that demands new fiction to tell the stories of groups not covered, or supposedly unfairly covered, in that classic literature: LGBT, BIPOC, the working class, etc. In fact, they might even deny that the classics are “insightful and pleasurable” due to these social concerns.
- timeagain 3y ago
  That’s really weird. People are making all kinds of books and stories. And stories are relevant to their time. The matrix wouldn’t be written in 1900, a tale of two cities wouldn’t be written in 1200, … It is true though that if you have a culturally diverse set of friends and are open to their experiences and opinions, a lot of “the classics” start to smell bad. Imagine being black and reading Grapes of Wrath. You might think the situation of the main characters as humorous or infantile, considering how relatively fortunate they are.
Baeocystin 3y ago
What's the name of the law where the longer something has already been around, the longer it will likely stay around in the future? I've found that it definitely applies to books. Starting at a ~20 year horizon is a surprisingly good filter for quality.
- savoyard 3y ago
  > What's the name of the law where the longer something has already been around, the longer it will likely stay around in the future? The Lindy effect.
  - Baeocystin 3y ago
    Thank you.
gamepsys 3y ago
I think the risk of reading a suboptimal book is not greater than the risk of not allowing myself to be exposed to different voices.
carlosjobim 3y ago
One of the best books I read last year was the story of the rescue of the football team that was trapped in a flooded cave in 2018 – written by cave diver Rick Stanton, who found the team and led the rescue. How would that account have been written into a book before it happened?
barrysteve 3y ago
Yes, and there's been a drop in quality since then too. The 1800-1940s really saw literature as the high water mark for quality media and it shows. Finding deeply valuable and high quality books is much rarer in today's crop of authors. The best minds are rarely making the medium of literature their highest good, but are instead chasing dollars and relations with the rich and famous.

by cellu 3y ago

bwb 3y ago

Contemporary books are just new classics. It is like asking why read :)

rustymonday 3y ago

Should people stop telling new stories? A century from now the best books of today will be classics. Books can act as a time capsule of a certain time and place and mode of life. And that has value.

OfSanguineFire 3y ago

There’s a distinct demographic in the contemporary-fiction-reading community, as can be seen in corners of Goodreads or Instagram, that demands new fiction to tell the stories of groups not covered, or supposedly unfairly covered, in that classic literature: LGBT, BIPOC, the working class, etc. In fact, they might even deny that the classics are “insightful and pleasurable” due to these social concerns.

timeagain 3y ago
That’s really weird. People are making all kinds of books and stories. And stories are relevant to their time. The matrix wouldn’t be written in 1900, a tale of two cities wouldn’t be written in 1200, … It is true though that if you have a culturally diverse set of friends and are open to their experiences and opinions, a lot of “the classics” start to smell bad. Imagine being black and reading Grapes of Wrath. You might think the situation of the main characters as humorous or infantile, considering how relatively fortunate they are.

Baeocystin 3y ago

What's the name of the law where the longer something has already been around, the longer it will likely stay around in the future? I've found that it definitely applies to books. Starting at a ~20 year horizon is a surprisingly good filter for quality.

savoyard 3y ago
> What's the name of the law where the longer something has already been around, the longer it will likely stay around in the future? The Lindy effect.
- Baeocystin 3y ago
  Thank you.

gamepsys 3y ago

I think the risk of reading a suboptimal book is not greater than the risk of not allowing myself to be exposed to different voices.

carlosjobim 3y ago

One of the best books I read last year was the story of the rescue of the football team that was trapped in a flooded cave in 2018 – written by cave diver Rick Stanton, who found the team and led the rescue. How would that account have been written into a book before it happened?

barrysteve 3y ago

Yes, and there's been a drop in quality since then too. The 1800-1940s really saw literature as the high water mark for quality media and it shows. Finding deeply valuable and high quality books is much rarer in today's crop of authors. The best minds are rarely making the medium of literature their highest good, but are instead chasing dollars and relations with the rich and famous.