The experience of reading has become more complicated since
I was a child in the late 1990s to early 2000s in the United States. I feel
that books strongly reflect current trends in American culture, such as the
trend of equally representing all individuals in pieces of information and the
trend of placing a stronger emphasis on the group of persons of GBLTQ in novels.
The aspect of social justice is also more prominent towards the creation of
books in the present time, since the concept of social justice has been heavily
emphasized by the culture of the internet. Since my childhood, more formats for
books have been developed, such as digital ebooks and audiobook CDs, as opposed
to physical books and the audio cassette tapes of books in my past. In
addition, the general shift towards the digitization of printed information in
books and widespread accessibility and acceptance of electronic text is a
massive change from reading during my childhood. Also, books are presently available
in a multimedia formats. During my childhood, books could only be constructed
around one specific format.
Also, I don’t know what trends in reading will occur in
twenty years, so I can only give guesses based on my observations and on
certain readings from the class. I think that publishing will become more
intense in twenty years of time. Many authors currently try to sell their
individually published novels through online publishers, such as Amazon.com, so
I would argue that authors will continue to publish their novels through companies
that utilize the internet or through online retailers. In some ways, reading
will become more interactive with the stronger incorporation of multimedia
formats and the integration of the idea of having multiple endings in the
process of reading books. This idea may stem from the idea of authors not
assuming responsibility towards certain events or the ending of a certain
novel. However, the idea of an interactive book may merely arise from letting
readers decide their own ending or allowing the readers to be excited by sudden
twists in the book’s narrative by permitting the readers to directly choose the
outcome of the book’s events.
I
also believe that traditional publishing will greatly diminish, since a greater
emphasis will be placed on online publishing or independent publishing. Traditional
publishers of books will slowly go out of business, as authors publish titles
under massive corporations, such as Barnes & Noble. However, traditional
publishers will still appeal to old-fashioned readers or to readers from a
group of individuals from approximately forty to ninety years of age, since
these individuals will be used to the idea of reading physical novels from
traditional publishers. So, there should be a small following of individuals
who will sustain the profits of traditional publishers in the future.
In addition, I believe that the activity of reading books will
be extremely popular among a teenage demographic or a demographic group of
individuals in their twenties and thirties, since I have observed that these
demographic groups read at great rate in the present day. Individuals will read
more a considerable amount more than they currently do, since I believe that
the amount of current reading from ordinary individuals has exploded with
online publishing. Also, if escapism is heavily emphasized as a reason for
today’s reading culture, then it is probable that individuals will desire to
read at an extremely high degree in the future in order to escape the hardships
of a technologically progressing world.
Personally,
the strong possibility of this occurring in twenty years disgusts me. I feel
that a dramatic increase in reading will be a double-edged sword in the future.
The increase in the amount of published works may promote an increase in
knowledge when facts and parallels to real life are incorporated in books, but
the effect from individuals reading a great amount of fiction titles will be
devastating. Individuals will become obsessed over details that are
meaningless. Tropes will be worn thin in fictional novels. Characters will also
feel flat and uninspired, since the attributes of the characters have been
created by other authors in the past, and the characters will lack a quality
that is truly appealing in horde of online and physical books that have been
published. Nevertheless, the classic tropes in the titles of fiction will
beckon to masses of fans, and the fans will continue to read.
In addition, the act of reading books will be often
accomplished in order fulfill “a social need” (Le Guin, 2008, p. 3). Specifically,
individuals will desire “to experience and share great stories” to fulfill
their social needs (Hollands, 2016, p. 27). So, individuals will read in order
to better appeal socially to their friends and to remain self-absorbed. These
individuals will desire books that “everybody is reading” (Le Guin, 2008, p.
3), and the individuals will utilize the content of the books for a mere
opportunity to connect themselves with other human beings (Le Guin, 2008, p.
3).
I also believe that many individuals currently read for
themselves, and they will continue to read for themselves in twenty years. Individuals
don’t usually read for knowledge or wisdom, but they will read for an emotional
release. Some individuals will read for critical analysis, but few individuals
will think for themselves. Due to the ubiquitous presence of the internet in
the future, individuals will primarily rely on the opinions and reviews of
others in relation to reading books and ignore arriving at their unique
conclusions of certain books. Individuals will often follow unanimous opinions
of the crowd and avoid writing controversial statements on social media
websites, such as Goodreads or Facebook, when discussing their opinions on
certain books.
It should also be noted that publishers currently “get away
with making boring, baloney-mill novels into bestsellers via mere P.R. because
people need bestsellers” (Le Guin, 2008, p. 3). So, in twenty years, I would
expect popular series, such as The Hunger
Games, to drastically fade from human memory from the books’ sheer
dissonance with reality and from the author’s reliance on serving the needs of
the public through the aspects of the books in order to sell a suitable amount
of printed or electronic copies. If this trend does not occur in the future,
then a hollow sense of nostalgia towards the books will likely triumph.
In addition, the world of reading will continue to remain as
a pointless and fanatical juggernaut in twenty years. Within the last twenty
years, the internet has probably exacerbated the problem of reading fiction at
a drastic rate, but the popularity of reading fictional titles of different
genres has always remained fanatical. The fanaticism about Frank Herbert’s Dune in the past is hardly different
from the zeal of fans towards the newest Game
of Thrones novel in the present day, so I expect that spirit of fanaticism towards
books to remain in the next twenty years. Individuals will pointlessly compare
aspects of fiction with elements of reality through relating reality back
towards fantasy and making fantasy adhere to reality. Both women and men will
be pointlessly drawn to the allure of fiction and will be mysteriously excited
by its promise of relief and of satisfaction in relation to a real world that
unfortunately appears boring or meaningless to those readers.
Nevertheless, the unique voices of literature and the sole
impact of an individual or a group effort in a work never appears to die. If
the voices and impact do die, then the deaths will be slow. The content of
literary materials will transcend time, since individuals will need “to be able
to have books to suit” their every mood (Saricks, 2009, p. 11).
Since timeless stories and snapshots of authors’ voices have
been created in the past for certain novels, the future will also reflect this
unique occurrence. Individuals will not primarily focus on the aspect of fondly
remembering works of great fiction, but they will focus on the achievement of
the voices who created the works. The books will be viewed as a recording of
the past and of the knowledge, memories, and beliefs of the individuals who
created the books.
Titles of true literature will not only serve the needs of the
public in the future, and there will be sparks of inspiration and life-like
qualities within the titles. Titles will be constructed that reflect a triumph of
human freedom. The construction of titles will celebrate life in a general
sense and will make one more deeply consider the various elements of life in
the future. These titles will be stories “that feed our spirits, our emotions,
and our intellects” (Saricks, 2009, p. 11).
References:
Hollands, N. (2016). Every book its
reader: after the renaissance. Booklist, (7). 27. Retrieved
from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.ulib.uits.iu.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=9c3128f8-8641-43cf-80c9-80ba08196ebd@pdc-v-sessmgr01
Le Guin, U. K. (2008). Staying
awake: notes on the alleged decline of reading. Harper's
Magazine,
316(1893). Retrieved from
https://iu.instructure.com/courses/1702577/files/folder/Week%2016?preview=75530224
Saricks, J. G. (2009). The
readers’ advisory guide to genre fiction (2nd ed.).
Chicago, IL:
American Library Association.
