Death or Evolution?

Hello everyone! Well I'm not so stressed anymore, but I still have a ton of reading to do. I'm posting one of my class blogs because I thought that you guys might think it was interesting. For years there has been the debate that the novel is dying. This article that I had to read is about the anxiety of obsolescence in terms of our beloved paper novel. I disagree completely, but you'll see that in the following class post.

Death or evolution?
Blog #9: Initial ideas on Three Discourses on the Age of Television

It’s evolution, evolution I say! I think that Barth says it perfectly in Fitzpatrick’s excerpt: “I’m inclined to agree, with reservations and hedges. Literal forms certainly have histories and historical contingencies, and it may well be that the novel’s time as a major art form is up, as the “times” of classical tragedy, grand opera, or the sonnet sequence came to be. No necessary cause for alarm in this at all, except perhaps to certain novelists, and one way to hand such a feeling might be to write a novel about it” (Fitzpatrick 23). After I read this I felt pretty good about my analysis on the claims about the death of the novel. I had written something similar, though not as eloquently, in the margins of my copy on page 20 when I first noticed the word “blame”. I wrote: “Why does there have to be blame? What if this is the ‘natural’ evolution of the novel? Like Global Warming could be natural… there is no way to disprove it.” Hah ha! That was me! Pretty smart huh? Anyway, let me explain my Global Warming analogy. Even though I’m just as prone to pinning horrible weather on Global Warming as the next person, I’m not so sure that Global Warming really exists. This is simply because there is no real PROOF that the emissions that this day and age emits to the atmosphere has the ultimate effect on the world. Since this has never happened before there is no way for scientists to prove or disprove that Global Warming really does exist. Yes, there are some ice caps that are rapidly melting, but then again there are other places where the ice is thicker than ever. How are we to know if this is just the way that the earth’s evolution is supposed to take place?
Likewise, since the novel is a relatively new form of literature, how do we know that the novel isn’t destined to follow the path of technology and economy? As we know, previously everything was printed on paper because that was what was available. Now the option of the internet has expanded the resources that the novel can use to expose itself. I think that in twenty years, maybe even less, Amazon.com’s Kindle will be in everyone’s bag like Blackberries and Ipods are right now. I mean seriously, why wouldn’t you want something that is the size of a mini legal pad. No matter how many pages the book that is uploaded into is, the Kindle will always be the same weight at 10.3 ounces. Okay, so Amazon isn’t paying me to advertise for them, but do you get my drift? I think that the “death” of the novel isn’t really a “death” but more of a growing spurt. The novel is becoming a teenager and what better way to celebrate its growth but with a new 4-level grayscale screen? I’m being slightly sarcastic here, but really, I think this technology is going to change the way people read—possibly even get people to read more. Like I sadly said in a previous post, Borders and Barnes & Nobel are going to become novelty stores.
Before you chew my head off about my claims on Global Warming, try to find me an actual scientific piece that isn’t influenced by the media that says that it actually exists. Like the novel, everyone wants to blame something or other. Why does there have to be blame? Can’t we accept that the earth/novel is changing, perhaps for the better. For the record, I do think that emissions are ruining the Ozone layer and ice caps are melting (among having other horrible effects on nature) because of it. There just isn’t any solid proof out there for me to shout from the roof tops “Damn you Global Warming!”.