Has anyone noticed how the quality of writing has slowly slipped away over the p

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   eli greyposted 13 years ago

   Has anyone noticed how the quality of writing has slowly slipped away over the past 35 years?...
   
   Reading a lot of modern poetry and stories, it seems as though a lot of it is just people expressing their anger rather bluntly on paper. Even music lyrics picked up on the trend. Not only that, everything is so dumbed down so we don't have to think too hard about it. It's sad but as such I find it a reason to stay away from modern literature. Am I wrong for doing that?

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   MickSposted 13 years ago

   Of course; it has slipped away because of the inane politically correct brigade that dictates that you can't tell the poor little dears in school that they are doing it wrong.

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      Catherine Kaneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know about that. There was some real garbage written before political correctness as well...

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   camloposted 13 years ago

   I think there are still some very good writers around who do get published. But because many more writers get published nowadays, good and bad, and because there seems to be a place for everybody, one could believe the quality has slipped.
   Just depends if you can find the good writers among all the bad ... books are promoted to make money, and those that are being most highly promoted might not necessarily be written well.

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   Marturionposted 13 years ago

   It's not that good writers aren't writing, it's just that the audience is demanding more pop fiction and "feel-it" poetry.  there are some great books being written still, but you have to find them.  and please, please, please for the love of all that is good and Holy, when you do find an author whose work is exceptional, support the hell out of him or her.  Without continued encouragement and support, good authors bow out to the will of the masses.

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   eli greyposted 13 years ago

   There have been times when I wanted to just quit writing all together. How can I compete with today's easy selling souless literature? When I write, my stories usually have a spiritual theme naturally. I don't write to please but I find that that is what people really want. Kind of like a kid; they want discipline but they don't know why. You discipline them and they thank you for it later on. The second question would be what if I go on undiscovered? I'm not very good at socializing so networking is out. I mean what will happen to my works then?

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      Catherine Kaneposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      if you don't write to please, you need to accept that one possible result is that you may not be widely read.
      And in this day and age, you can't wait to be discovered- you need to share yourself w/ the world and publicize yourself
      Good luck

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   couturepopcafeposted 13 years ago

   I agree with you for the most part.  You have to dig to find people who sculpt the language.  Granted, it may take some time to be an 'effective writer' but a lot of the kids today can't even spell enough to look up a word in the dictionary.  Oh, wait I said dictionary.  I actually have one of those.  I referred to it today as a real book because I went to a little paperback dictionary someone gave me and grumbled because I couldn't find what I wanted.
   
   If you're talking about published writing, i guess the way people write has changed with the times.  You said 35 years.  Don't go blaming it on the hippies, now.

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   Catherine Kaneposted 11 years ago

   It hasn't necessarily
   
   Part of the reason it may look that way is the poorly written things of yesterday have dropped away and been forgotten. Thus, we compare the whole body of modern work, both good and bad, against the cream of the past crop,
   
   It's only natural that today looks shabby in contrast
   
   There's still great writing going on though. Check out Stephen King, or Terry Practchett, for starters

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   Lady Wordsmithposted 11 years ago

   I don't think this is the case at all.  There are plenty of good writers out there, and plenty of exciting and original stories.  New fiction is published every year, and not all of it is angry or dumbed down - in fact, I've never read anything modern that I didn't thoroughly enjoy.  It's actually very rare for me to find a book that I don't like, and I pretty much only like positive stories with happy endings!

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