American Literature in Fifty Years
American Literature in Fifty Years
With the closing of bookstores and creation of many new technologies every year, it is difficult to imagine that American literature will remain the same. In fifty years from now, there will be many changes not only to how Americans create literature, but also to how they access it.
A large factor behind the evolution of American literature is the changing type of technology developing in order to consume it. For example, Google’s current development of a pair of glasses in its current form allows people to augment reality by peering through lenses, but in the future its platform will likely be able to be directed to the retina (DesMarais ¶ 11). More than one scholar agrees that what this kind of future technology will allow when it comes to literature is interactivity (Di Blasi, Kelly ¶ 14). Kevin Kelly writes, “in recent years complex stories with alternative pathways have been wildly successful in videogames,” and there is no reason to think that people born today who enjoy this type of interactive experience will not include that in the literature they create via future technology (Kelly ¶ 14).
Another change will be an increase in mainstreaming of the literature of different cultural backgrounds. John E. Smelcer, a member of the Ahtna tribe of Alaska, says that currently, “the literary powers-that-be . . . don’t take our literature seriously” (Seeds 145). As current minorities are predicted to overtake the majority in population by 2050, it is reasonable to guess that the literature of authors from a variety of backgrounds will be taken more seriously.
Finally, as Katherine Pennavaria writes, “When a novelist describes a possible future world in which libraries are shut down and books burned, she is giving voice to a fear generated by current events, not by clairvoyance” (231). Although the mediums may change from Kindles to computer/brain interfaces, from text only to multimedia experiences, the hunger for stories and literature about ourselves will never change, it will simply evolve.
References
DesMarais, Christina (7 Apr 2012). Google Glasses All Hype or Reality? PCWorld. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/article/253404/google_glasses_all_hype_or_reality.html
Di Blasi, Debra (18 May 2012). Braver, Newer Literary Worlds. Unbound: Speculations on the Future of the Book. Retrieved from http://futurebook.mit.edu/2012/05/braver-newer-literary-worlds/
Kelly, Kevin (15 April 2011). What Books Will Become. The Technium. Retrieved from http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2011/04/what_books_will.php
Pennavaria, Katherine (2002). Representation of Books and Libraries in Depictions of the Future. Libraries & Culture 37(3). 229-248. Web. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25549011
Seeds, Dale E. (2002). The Future of Native American Literature: A Conversation with John E. Smelcer. MELUS 27(3). 133-145. Print.
