How often have you overheard your friends discussing the latest popular novel? I’ll rephrase the question to better suit the state in which popular writing is: How often do you hear about the success of a book, excluding the time your mother offered her opinion?
Before I continue, I would like to list authors I like and those I don’t like. The first six are some of my top favorites. The last three failed to rouse my interest and dispel my dislike. J.K. Rowling, Steven King, Cormac McCarthy, John Steinbeck, William Shakespeare, John Grisham, Dan Brown, Stephanie Meyer, Suzzane Collins.
In this writer’s opinion, the degradation of quality popular literature did not start with the “Twilight” series or novels like “Eat Pray Love.” It started with Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code.” However, personal preference trumps just about every conceivable argument one can have when trying to defend a certain title or explain its failings. In addition to personal preference, the main reason why certain novels, turned cultural icons, have the duality of being both popular and successful can be found in what we all read as children.
Rewind to when I was 14. A young lad with a will to read and absorb every single bit of popular literature I could. I would wait with bated breath for the new Dan Brown book to hit the shelves and was driven insane by the long waits for the release dates of J.K. Rowling. Those were good times to be an avid reader. The novels were solid, new writers thrived through innovation and often times mediocrity (see “The Da Vinci Code”), and established writers such as Steven King and Tom Clancy were still pumping out decent novels to remind their fans that magic was still afoot in the strokes of their pens.
Being a non-fan of popular culture literature feels almost like sitting in a coffee shop, sipping a latte and occasionally making a snarky comment toward the artist on stage for being pretentious. It gets you nowhere and half the people in the place won’t care what you are saying, a quarter will berate you for making such comments and the final quarter will simply be oblivious to anything anyone else says.
When considering how, recently, media fueled popularity of literature became prevalent, a common theme can be found lurking in many texts. “Twilight” famously proclaimed women are inferior to their male counterparts and that the best a girl can hope for is a boyfriend or husband. “The Da Vinci Code” gave birth to a whole new generation of readers who thought they understood well-written literature, but failed to see through its popularity to the both deeply hidden and glaringly obvious shortcomings. “Eat Pray Love” shows the world to readers everywhere who were not being correctly educated on how a well-plotted, non-pandering book was to be written and accurately absorbed into popular culture.
Another important factor in this ever-branching web of confusion, is how the media views most of these printed abominations. As the years have passed, marketing and the drive to drain the pockets of ignorant people have rapidly increased. In reality, this shows a dual threat of authors actually producing works to cash in on upcoming trends and the public’s dog-like obedience to follow what is considered “popular” or “controversial.” What passes for controversial or gruesome these days couldn’t go head-to-head with the weakest of R. L. Stine novels (if you don’t know who he is, you did not have a good childhood).
In closing, I would like to summarize my entire article with this statement: I respect everyone’s opinion. You are entitled to enjoy the literature of any time period or genre. At Elizabethtown College, I have not seen an influx of stupidity or ignorance regarding literature as many see across the United States. English majors here, like myself, give me hope that the future will not be filled with the spawn of unintelligent children who blindly consume raw garbage and tout it as their own Bible.
