Dvergar wrote:
Aestu, there is a significantly larger percentage of non-traditional books being printed today than you think. Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist.
Could you cite some examples?
Dvergar wrote:
In addition, you're comparing major philosophical or technical works to novels produced for mass consumption, and using that to damn all current literature. Plato's contemporaries weren't reading just to pass the time, the technical manuals weren't made for the sake of profit.
This is true only because the dominant media at the time was theater. It's also irrelevant because the fact is that for thousands of years and even today, "major works" have been a source of "mass leisure".
As to profit, well, the status quo isn't doing much towards that end, is it? Aside from stupidly overpriced textbooks, and when the American economy/dominance peters out that will cease to be viable.
Dvergar wrote:
As soon as reading became a hobby people started making largely unimportant works for the sake of keeping people entertained. 1800s England had the same percentages of crap to worthwhile literature as we do today, but we don't remember or know of those works anymore than people will remember anything but the cream of today's crop.
I'm aware of that. I've started collecting some of them for posterity, actually. No better way to get a really clear image of what these people were actually like.
The point stands that today, never before has a greater quantity and less quality been written. Most eras have a high abundance of crap literature, but today alone is there really nothing of value.
I don't agree with the viewpoint that quality and the profit motive are in direct conflict. That holds true only if the audience is incredibly stupid.
Dvergar wrote:
Quote:
If publishers published books that were interesting and relevant and not purely political
Again, while you might think they're everywhere, books on politics are a small percentage of the books actually published. I have printed literally thousands of books and have done perhaps 4 or 5 political books. We usually print for universities (you've probably run across the Loeb Classical Library books at some point, I've printed a number of those), but we're taking just about anything now and we still aren't getting political books.
Printed? You personally? lol. Meaning what, exactly?
I don't mean just political autobiographies or manifestos, I mean works with no real draw besides the appeals to the narrowly political or trendy.
