<i>because the literary culture is going away fast, if it’s not already gone away. When John Updike was in his prime, millions of people read him (or they at last bought Couples and could spit out some light book chat about it on command). The number of writers working today who the educated public, broadly conceived of, might know about is small</i><p>I would argue he's missing what's really going on: literary culture hasn't gone away; it's just become personalized. Publishing is so much easier now that people can find authors they truly adore and aren't forced to read anything they don't really like. When I was younger, almost all of the books I read were written by dead people. These days, the books I read are mostly written by living people and I eagerly mark their next release date on my calendar. Nobody I know offline has ever read anything by any of them, and that's ok.
>When John Updike was in his prime, millions of people read him.<p>I read one of Updike's books (Run, Rabbit) and it seemed about one notch up (not a compliment) from Jacqueline Susann (3 of her novels once simultaneously topped the NYT bestsellers list). At about the same time, Philip Dick was very productive and being ignored (as he was until after his death, when he was suddenly 'recognized').<p>Since then, 'millions of people read' <i>50 Shades of Grey</i>. Topped international lists, translated into 52 languages. Not 'literary'? Neither was Moby Dick, while its author was alive. <i>Looks</i> like the critics were wrong. (Am I suggesting them to be comparable? Hell no.)<p>When I do a search on 'literary culture' not much of consequence turns up. Not surprised; it's hard to get <i>anyone</i> to commit to a definition of 'literature'. Maybe the author means 'Literary fiction'. Maybe 'deconstruction' killed off that whole distinction. Maybe two world wars and a Cold War did. Maybe that lode was mined out - maybe it was a chimera. It maybe that, now, genuine human voices are preferred over mannered, learned voices. Maybe we're waiting for a new voice to appear. Maybe we now see our pretenses too clearly.<p>"We will declare frankly that nothing is clear in this world. Only fools and charlatans know and understand everything." - Chekhov<p>"I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination." - Keats
I'm wondering where people are going for literary fiction, particularly shorter literary fiction, these days.<p>I tend to follow "Selected Shorts", which is pretty good, though I'll often find myself not especially engaging with the stories. (The ones I do are often older, dating from the 1920s -- 1970s or so). The selections seem to be largely from <i>America's Best Short Stories</i>, which publishes an annual anthology. I've picked up a few years' editions, and found a few winners, but even amongst the best the pickings seem slim.<p>There's genre fiction, though there's little of that I particularly care for. Cypherpunk is my usual exception (Stephenson, Dick, a handful of others), and perhaps some of the better-written Grisham novels.<p>Most of my reading is nonfiction, which I find interesting and egaging (much of it is autodidactic, and I've absolutely no shortage of material). But outside that ... fiction just seems pale.