Philip Roth: The Novel is a Dying Animal

Is the novel a dying animal? In this segment from TheDailyBeast.com's Web series, 'The Beast Bar,' Philip Roth tells Tina Brown it certainly is.

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News & Politics

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• philip roth
• tina brown
• the humbling
• the beast bar
• the daily beast
• Kindle
• literature
• books
• writing

[Ferrari312pb]

I find I'm far less willing to commit to reading a novel than I was twenty years ago, but maybe that's what comes from studying literature at university for three years... .

[gomezz]

Roth is wrong about this.

[Graenelolz]

I'm so glad to see people not just saying things like "He's so right, our generation sucks".

I BELIEVE - of course it's unpredictable, that's why it's only my opinion - that we will keep on reading novels for the next 100 years as we did it the last 100 years. Just look at our writers: J.K. Rowling, John Grisham, Dan Brown, Paolo Coelho, etc.. Of course there are some of them that don't write as well as a Philip Roth, but still I think there's a lot of hope based on a lot of facts.

[RyanP91]

he is, but it's exactly that negativity that drives Roth and other writers to keep the novel alive, without that fear, they, we, wouldn't write with the urgency that it takes to complete a good book.

[JayGatsbyOdysseus]

Before the New Deal and a middle class, reading was just for the rich, royalty. We could be going back to that.

[obiwanobiwan13]

I hope you're right and he is wrong...

But I do worry...there will always be readers and there will always be writers--

But what makes that relationship special is when the writer believes he can truly influence the reader, and in a meaningful way, whatever way that may be...

Orwell didn't write "1984" for nothing, after all.

But would "1984" have meant today what it did in 1948?

Would it have the same impact?

Would people care to read?

Most people care about movies now, books...less so

[whitewolfe001]

People always think that the younger generation is stupid. Young people who grew up immersed in a digital world still get excited about books. The paper format may go away eventually, maybe, but not reading. Not stories. It's an EXCITING time for the written word! The Kindle revolutionized not only HOW we read but WHAT we are reading. Self published authors have an equal shot. What is available for us to read is no longer being filtered through a very small group of people (publishers).

[theoriginalshaun]

Wow. I must say I think this is bollocks. Don't agree at all.

[happyhardcore502]

it is ridiculous to suggest that the novel will die in 20 years time, when ancient Greek tragedies and Shakespeare are still being read and adapted. There will always be a cause to read and write it has been a part of human nature for centuries and 'the screen' despite how many of them there are will never change this. Roth lied at the start of the interview when he was asked was he trying to be provocative clearly he was or his intelligence has been over estimated by the public.

[dschinni]

it would be awesome if you explain why you think so, not just say it.

[andreamalaguti64]

DO PRINT BOOKS IN LARGER AND MORE READABLE FONTS!

[Grifiki]

"I've been studying writing for the past fifty years, and also don't read many Novels, but I read just about everything else."