Did you know there are texts from ancient Greece that talk about how culture is in decline and writing is dying?
For thousands upon thousands of years, people have been saying the same thing:
Music is dead
Punk rock in particular is dead
Hip-hop hop in particular is dead
Blogging is dead
Literature is dead
Comics are dead
The novel is dead
The theatre is dead
It’s never true.
None of these things are ever dead. None of them ever will be.
They’ve all changed, sure. They’ve all evolved. They’ve transformed.
In some cases, they’re completely different to their last evolution.
But they’re not dead.
We keep looking at that transformation and throwing our hands up and claiming that all of these things are dead because they don’t look the way we want them to.
Or the way we remember them.
But that’s not only unfair, it’s obtuse.
Evolution is a pretty natural thing.
I think we need to be a lot more optimistic. Stop looking for the drama and the doom and the gloom, and start focusing on the positive aspects of change, instead of digging our heels in and objecting to “The Kids.”
Sure, punk rock is a lot different now than when the Sex Pistols did it. But the Sex Pistols weren’t saints. And at the end of the day, they weren’t exactly in it for the purity of the music either.
Sure, literature is a lot different now than when Herman Melville did it. But when Herman Melville came out with Moby, his critics thought it sucked - and said so pretty loudly.
Now we think it’s an honest-to-God masterpiece.
So don’t be too quick to write off the books that are published today.
We’ve got to stop being so cosmic about it all. And stop writing obituaries premature obituaries.
Because the worst-case scenario is that you’re right and the thing you love is dead, and you’re just wallowing in your misery.
The best-case scenario is that it’s not dead — which is probably the reality — and you look like an ass.
