For the Bygone Bureau, Kevin Nguyen calls out Jonathan Franzen and Gary Shteyngart for the condescending portrayal of youth culture in their latest novels.
From the piece...
At a lecture in Seattle, author Jonathan Franzen could not suppress his scorn of “young people.”
As reported by The Stranger, “A member of the audience asked if he believed there is ‘any hope’ for a culture whose ‘young people’ are ‘blogging and texting.’ Franzen responded by saying there is essentially no hope, that while our culture may have more words, there is not much ‘serious reading and writing’ going on.”
Perhaps Franzen believes that if we didn’t have the internet or television or other lowbrow distractions, we’d all be reading “serious” literature. Maybe he’s afraid that “serious” authors of “serious” literature are dying out, which might be a legitimate concern in a world where Freedom didn’t sit at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list or where people didn’t pay $70 to see Jonathan Franzen speak.
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