> The article seems to talk about the "wokeness hypothesis" on this issue in terms of attributes of authors (e.g., their race or gender) rather than of stories. I don't know much about that. But if there's a way that wokeness or something like it has influenced writing, I'd say it's from a different angle: I just get the sense that there's a lot more risk today in writing about characters very unlike the author. It can be perceived as trying to "tell [insert group name here]'s story" without their involvement or consent. I think the severity of this is overstated by right-leaning reactionaries, but it's hard to argue that it's not a genuine shift in societal mood and values.
People in general don't take as much risk anymore. It's been variously documented by Byung-Chul Han in The Palliative Society, Jonathan Haidt in The Coddling of the American Mind, and even The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch. Generally, it's a response to increasing complexity, atomisation and declining social ties, all of which contribute to a state of emotional insecurity. On a related note, Chris Hedges remarks in The World as It Is:
> But in the game of American journalism it is forbidden to feel. Journalists are told they must be clinical observers who interpret human reality through their eyes, not their hearts—and certainly not through their consciences. This is the deadly disease of American journalism. And it is the reason journalism in the United States has lost its moral core and its influence. It is the reason that in a time of crisis the traditional media have so little to say. It is why the traditional media are distrusted. The gross moral and professional failings of the traditional media opened the door for the hate-mongers on Fox News and the news celebrities on commercial networks who fill our heads with trivia and celebrity gossip.
Christopher Lasch talks about this in The Culture of Narcissism, but essentially it's a response to greater levels of emotional insecurity due to atomisation and social disconnection.
I have noticed this too. I spent my childhood immersed in fantasy and dystopian fiction, but nowadays, all I do is read nonfiction. Granted, part of it is probably because I realised that reality is typically much stranger (and therefore often more interesting) than fiction.
> The cost of producing anything by anyone has fallen through the floor, famously, and as a result, there is no economic logic that says you have to filter for quality before you publish.
Moreover:
> What we are dealing with now isn’t information overload, because we are always dealing with information overload, the problem is filter failure.
I think this is a compelling take. It's gotten to the point where I have to use ChatGPT to look for good sources instead of Googling directly. I held out for a while, but had to capitulate in late 2024 when search engines just became a total slopfest.
As a sidenote, I did enjoy Houellebecq's Le sens du combat. :P
People in general don't take as much risk anymore. It's been variously documented by Byung-Chul Han in The Palliative Society, Jonathan Haidt in The Coddling of the American Mind, and even The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch. Generally, it's a response to increasing complexity, atomisation and declining social ties, all of which contribute to a state of emotional insecurity. On a related note, Chris Hedges remarks in The World as It Is:
> But in the game of American journalism it is forbidden to feel. Journalists are told they must be clinical observers who interpret human reality through their eyes, not their hearts—and certainly not through their consciences. This is the deadly disease of American journalism. And it is the reason journalism in the United States has lost its moral core and its influence. It is the reason that in a time of crisis the traditional media have so little to say. It is why the traditional media are distrusted. The gross moral and professional failings of the traditional media opened the door for the hate-mongers on Fox News and the news celebrities on commercial networks who fill our heads with trivia and celebrity gossip.
I talk about this more in my essay here, if anyone is interested, although it's quite long: https://jakehpark.substack.com/p/epistemic-telos-god-as-sadi...