Can we just acknowledge the fact that the publishing industry has become so greedy, materialistic, and political that it’s practically impossible to publish anything of real quality and storytelling is losing all its meaning.
Writers and artists used to spend years on a single piece of work that truly expressed something about themselves and about the world, that invited people to feel and think and interact in a new way.
The upper class used to value art and literature so deeply that they would sponsor their favorite writers and artists, so that they could dedicate themselves to their work over extended periods of time.
These days, you can’t even get your work seen by an agent without building a social media following. And even if, by some miracle, your work gets seen by a publisher, odds are they won’t publish it because it’s too controversial or it doesn’t line up with the latest trending social agenda. And even if, by some miracle, it gets published, they won’t risk any more of their money than they have to. They don’t do any marketing for you, any publicity. And if you sell well they’ll demand another book as fast as possible.
Literature may be published to the collective, but it is written for the individual. It shouldn’t just feed our current perspectives and beliefs. It should challenge us to look backward, forward, inward, and outward at something new.
For most of history, storytelling has been a means of connection, culture, and expression, not financial gain. Whether orally through recitation or song, physically through dance or ritual, or visually through art or written language, the underlying, deeper function of storytelling is to explore what makes all of us human and how we are all connected through the human experience. That should not be a lucrative experience, nor an expensive one.
A culture that monetizes its art and literature is placing restrictions on critical thinking and self expression. I’m not saying that artists and writers shouldn’t make money for their work. I’m saying that the current publishing industry is designed to benefit publishers. Not creators, who are subject to creative manipulation and restriction and who receive relatively little compensation, and not audiences, who suffer from overexposure to fast, instantly gratifying material meant to sell as opposed to thoughtful, genuinely creative material meant to provoke and inspire.