Hi Billy, On Apr 20, 2012, at 11:42 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> Ernie : > Terrific explanation. But I would demur about this : > "most of the greatest books were novels, rather than treatises." Let me rephrase that; most of our civilization's treasured writings are narratives, rather than exposition This isn't an opinion, it is an empirical claim about the canonical set of "Great Books": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World#Volumes Sure, the numbers are arguably skewed by Shakespeare and the Greek dramatists (including Plato); Enlightenment thinkers wrote more essays, as did the church fathers. But even if you don't treat that list as definitive (it doesn't even have the Bible, duh), if you look at the books from more than fifty years ago that are still in print and read, I wager the majority (even excluding Shakespeare and the Bible) are primarily narrative. It simply sticks to the soul better. -- Ernie P. > > Again, its not just me. Until about 1970 fiction outsold non-fiction, > barely, but there was a margin. Would have to look it up to be sure, > but I think it is now about 2 : 1 non-fiction ahead of fiction. > > What has been happening is that "information desire" has been > creating new reader demands. > > I agree completely with the point you made about narrative. > But good writers are able to take hard information and > craft it into a narrative. > > Billy > > =================================== > > > 4/20/2012 11:06:34 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, [email protected] > writes: > Hi Billy, > > On Apr 20, 2012, at 11:01 AM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar wrote: > >>> All of this said, one of my heroes, Henri Saint-Simon , was addicted to >>> cheap novels >>> and was Dostoevsky himself. Maybe I am being too judgmental, but maybe not. >>> What explains some people's fascination with trash fiction ? There would >>> seem to >>> be some sort of lesson worth learning, if the answer could be found out. > > > The lesson is that people love narratives. > > There's a reason most of the greatest books were novels, rather than > treatises. > > People consume junk because great food is too expensive (in some measure of > time/effort/psychological cost). > > Figure out how to reduce the cost of creating and experiencing a great > narrative, and you can drive junk out of the market... > > -- Ernie P. > > > > > > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org > > > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
