The Novel is Dead?

Sunday, 06 June 2010 13:05

Jeeesh! Long time since I posted anything on this poor lonely blog. Why so long? Turns out, I’ve been reading...a lot.

Which brings up an intriguing comment by Jonathan Franzen in the Sunday New York Times Book Review (6/6/10).

Haven’t we all secretly sort of come to an agreement...that novels belong to the age of newspapers and are going the way of newspapers, only faster?

As an old English professor friend of mine likes to say, novels are a curious moral case, in that we feel guilty about not reading more of them but also guilty about doing something as frivolous as reading them…

Okay, so it’s tongue-and-cheek. Or not. Still, I’m wondering...

Questions for Book Clubs

1. Who’s “we”—as in “haven't we all secretly"? And why is it a secret agreement? Because nobody wants to talk about it?
2. Does he really think the novel (printed and digital...or just printed) is on its way out? If so, what will replace it: graphic novels...or the Internet...or video games?
3. Are novels "frivolous"? Has anyone told book clubs yet?