Untitled, or Reading, Thought and Authorship.

Woof. Not much sleep last night, and I don't have that pleasant tired buzz I get when I don't sleep.

Well, the buzz is sort of there.

Summer is reading season. I don't want to go outside that much, so I'm content to just sit and read with a cup of coffee and listen to some Mozart in the background. Not only am I reading from my self-imposed syllabus, but I'm also catching up on some other books too.

I have been thinking about the shape of twenty-first century fiction. Are we living too early in this century to predict what literature will look like? I find most fiction is widening, an acute sparseness in the prose. Nineteenth century literature really attempted to sculpt a thought and show its every contour. Now, prose races across the page by reducing and distilling the language. The colours, sounds and shapes amid the words emerge, and are given greater emphasis. The sounds between the notes.

For example, one common method used in reasoning is called modus ponens. The form is a very simple inductive argument. It looks something like this:

If P, then Q.
P.
Therefore, Q.

Or,

If England plays against Portugal, then it is Saturday.
England plays against Portugal.
Therefore, it is Saturday.

The nineteenth century author wrote the complete, unabridged description of a thought. An immediate example that comes to mind is Poe's "The Man in the Crowd," and to look even further back, one can include Austen's work as well. One of her sentences would stretch for several lines, heavily punctuated, teasing out each possible angle and nuance the thought contains. In essence, the reader will see the entire modus ponens argument; however, the contemporary author would only write this:

If P.
Therefore, Q.

Arguably, the early twentieth century author was no different, at least prior to Modernism.

Perhaps the lack of modifiers like adjectives or adverbs, or the chronic insistence to eliminate passive sentence structures are to "blame" for contemporary literature.

More importantly, how will colonialism, imperialism and warfare be treated in global literature? I believe this will be an exciting time for authors. Just as nineteenth century novelists saw an increase in readership due to innovations in printing technology, twenty-first century authors have access to the internet. Although the medium is still somewhat exclusionary (as is literacy, cultural capital and recognition) the possiblities for new and greater dissemination are being explored.

For those who are concerned, I did, in fact, register for the French classes I needed. Thank you, insomnia.