Where are the authors like Baldwin and Victor Hugo today?

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Hope15
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Where are the authors like Baldwin and Victor Hugo today?

Post by Hope15 »

I recently read 'Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen and 'American Rust' by Phillip Meyer, both these books apparently earned National Book Award in America. Regrettably, they both hurt my sensibility and decency, by their vulgarity and violence, on top of their deep despair and cynicism.

What they are portraying may very well represent a part of the reality today; but, does that mean these authors have to keep hammering on those points until we become numb to them? Do they not know how to rise above these pettiness, and create characters and stories that show us some light in the darkness?

Victor Hugo was right when he said "What a writer writes reflects his soul." These writers have won National Award, but what's reflected through their writings doesn't speak highly of their soul.

On the contrary, I also read "If Beale Street Could Talk" by James Baldwin. That's a story where the characters don't give in to despair; they struggle on, hold on to their dignity till the end, even if that means being beaten down by the system. His characters and their stories inspire us, give us hope. At no point, the author takes recourse to showing extreme violence, even though one can feel that happening underneath; nor does he use an over-abundance of vulgarity or repeated obscene language.

Where are the authors like Baldwin and Victor Hugo today? I shall really appreciate if some of you can point me toward some positive and constructive writers.
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Cat Suelo
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Post by Cat Suelo »

I am not really a fan of authors. I critique a book through the way it's written since I think it would be too biased to judge an author based on just a single book s/he has written. Granted an author does have a signature way of writing but it might just be dictated by which written works his/her publisher/publishing company chooses to fund and print.

Maybe you can try reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. Or Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Or Memories of my Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These stories are heart-breaking, however, the characters' strength give you hope. To use your very own words, the characters do "struggle on, hold on to their dignity till the end."
Hope15
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Post by Hope15 »

Many thanks for your reply. I will have a look at the books you suggested. I have already bought The book thief, but I did not like the beginning, may be I need to retry it.
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LivreAmour217
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Post by LivreAmour217 »

I haven't read the books in question, but I've also noticed that books (and other forms of media) are becoming increasingly vulgar, violent, and cynical. It's depressing sometimes, and I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who's bothered by it all. Lately I've taken to reading classics, non-fiction, and YA just because these genres are usually more uplifting.
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein
Hope15
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Post by Hope15 »

The same way the fast-food makers use taste enhancers (in French we say 'exhausters de gout') to get us addicted to their junk foods, these thriller writers use accelerated but empty actions to get us hooked to their plots, and at the end we come out feeling smaller in life.
In this category, the worst I have come across is Karin Slaughter, who has literally slaughtered my sensibilities through her perverted stories.
The other problem with this junk literature is this: the same way the junk foods thicken our tongue and we can no longer appreciate good foods, the junk literature thickens our senses and make us insensible to good literature. At least that's what happened to me; after I stopped reading junk literature, it took me a long long time to get back my sensibilities. And now that I have them back, I can see what difference it makes in terms of pleasure and personal growth, when we read authors like Hemingway, Steinbeck, Wallace Stegner, and in France authors like Victor Hugo, Stendhal, and Gustave Flaubert, and Albert Camus.
I do the same, I read classics and non-fiction for the time being.
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Max Tyrone
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Post by Max Tyrone »

I haven't read the aforementioned vulgar novels, but what I think might be the problem, besides the "exhausters de gout" which is an excellent point, is perhaps--and I'm not saying it would be intentional--what I like to call the postmodern crisis, mainly the themes of absurdism and existentialism where positive answers are not always provided, sometimes no answer at all. Beckett, O'Connor, and Cormac McCarthy (to name very few) are prime examples of postmodernism. Now, I'm not saying that the aforementioned novels are not what you say, but novels of the like (especially in McCarthy's case) have at least some merit. They're just an acquired taste.

There is stuff out there, though, that are purely driven to sell.
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