I’m not sure why Philip Roth seems so concerned about the future of the novel; perhaps because he’s about to die, he thinks the novel should go with him? Or maybe he’s talking about it because he has a new book just out, The Humbling.
In this Guardian article, Roth, who at 76 has been more prolific than ever, showers pessimistic forecasts about the future of the novel. He predicts that the form will “dwindle to a ‘cultic’ minority enthusiasm within 25 years.”
And the death of the novel will be because of “the screens.” Roth says, “the book can’t compete with the screen. It couldn’t compete [in the] beginning with the movie screen. It couldn’t compete with the television screen, and it can’t compete with the computer screen. Now we have all those screens, so against all those screens a book couldn’t measure up.”
My sentiments on this are in alignment with Jeff Jarvis’ quote: “I wish we could declare declaring things dead dead.”
