Some of my favorite books as a young teen were Watership Down, The Lord of The Rings, Atlas Shrugged (Dagny Taggart is still my all-time favorite protagonist). These novels were written with such description and clarity that you could see the details of every room, scene, characters face. You could feel the cold, the weather, hear the rain. They were long books but the details made the stories. A writing teacher told me that today, people want "quick". That's why you don't see these huge epic novels anymore. Thoughts???
0
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
4 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Your teacher is full of it. Plenty of long reads are still popular, and penny dreadfuls/pulp fiction have always been around.
Oh, and I can never get through Ayn Rand. Not because of the length, but because she is soooooo full of shit.
MrBeelzeebubbles
Level 7
July 21, 2019
2
I don't necessarily believe in her philosophies but I do like her stories.
I haven't read it. But have found certain things in common with the people who rave about it.
The Game of Thrones series started long ago, but was popular in written form before the TV series, Harry Potter? Percy Jackson? There are many sprawling and evolving stories, I think that what has really changed is how the story is ingested, with multiple media forms now available.
That said, given the pace of life, a lot of people do want instant gratification, but I don't that's purely generational any more.
Pompey
Level 6
July 21, 2019
1
It took me forever to get through Atlas Shrugged as I just didn't have the time to devote to reading it all at one time. It's a great book but could have been shortened dramatically. With the millennials wanting to see, feel, touch everything right now... I doubt things will get better any time soon.
If Atlas Shrugged were written today it would be a comic book or a 100 page E-Reader download.
RiverRick
Level 7
July 21, 2019
1
Without commenting on the subject matter, books of over a thousand pages have been the bane of publishers from their inception. Huge epic novels present production problems that publishers would rather avoid. It is not the reader, but the producer that dictates that novels be more modest (less than 500 pages). Epic novels are only ever printed for authors that have proven sales records. Neither Rand nor Tolstoy published their epic novels(over 1000 pages) as their first work. Writers write what their publishers tell them too, publishers tell writers to write what will sell today. Don't forget that Lord of the rings was not a single novel, but 3.
glennlab
Level 10
July 21, 2019
1
I actually got into Rand via music as a young teen (another story, LOL!) but as a 14 year old I was a little put off by the length of her later works (The Fountainhead/Atlas) I started with We The Living just to see if I would like her writing and I basically fell in love with her style and detail. I don't have any issues with smaller works, I think, for me, it's the intricate little details, setting the mood and vibe in each scene, that make me want to read some of the longer works. Yes, I did remember that LOTR was a trilogy. I should have made that clear. However, reading one without the other two just leaves too many questions. LOL! Thanks for replying! 
@GrungeGirl90s Something I thought of later was that in todays market, authors will write a series rather than a single epic. i.e.King's Gunslinger series.
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.