The Novel seems to be falling to the wayside in terms of it’s functionality, as a tool of social criticism and change, it’s losing favor to third cinema and even more recently the internet, where everyone is a blog star. To me this a travesty. I think of our writer who wishes he could explain he is better than Michael Crighton but runs in circles and fails to be profound. Where is Gore Vidal today?
The novel is one of the most powerful weapons at our disposal, but we haven’t really fired one in years. That being said there is almost a sardonic quality in hearing Vidal talk about a nuclear holocaust, famine, and environmental breakdown, all from his seat in 1968. In Myra we get glimpses of a multitude of our failures as a culture and a democracy. John Paul Sartre, one of the greatest revolutionaries of all time, claimed fiction was the most far reaching tool of criticism and change. To me, this is a novel. It is arresting.
Sorry for the short post I suddenly have to run, more to come tonight.
Brandon
