I think that some artists come around to this perspective over the course of their careers, perhaps because darkness and pessimism get old (if that's where the arist began, perhaps because they once though "serious" art required it), and keeping one's practice fresh requires injecting hope.
I can trace this progression in two of my favorite authors, George Saunders and Ted Chiang. (Saunders' early work is particularly bleak so maybe the bar is low lol). I plan to break this down on my Substack at some point, but for now I wonder what people think of "Exhalation" and "Ghoul." These stories are pretty dark in that the characters have their worlds turned upside down in existentially devastating ways... But they end with an uptick of hope that I think makes all the difference. (Exhalation in particular speaks to the Existentialist dilemma, I think)
Agree with the sentiment here. I think some of what made Station Eleven popular (for example) was a general desire for something more hopeful. That's a post apocalyptic novel that leaves you feeling good when you're finished, and the HBO adaptation is absolutely beautiful.
I too have a push/pull relationship with those post-Revolutionaries and their timeless, ever-longing ilk, both before and after the cout d' etat :). Sometimes I find myself saying to them, "You're stuck! Do something different! Go upstate, or do a cold plunge. What would Jen Sincero say if she saw this poor-woe-is-me wade pool of despair after you've earned your freedom!" But it's like a toxic relationship...we can't get enough. Until we have.
My thoughts are similar to yours with a slight twist; the ardor, attempted pragmatism, and beautiful lattice-work of word and structure - that anachronistic novelty that a pimply, prose-loving youth gravitates toward when the crush of lit first strikes - steeps us into a tethered relationship. In modern armchair therapist terms, maybe one would call it persisted trauma bonding from the honeymoon stage of a past love?
My TBR response thus far has been two fold, and seems to keep me measured in my own relationship with the classics, and ultimately myself:
1. While I'm not fully off the societal introspection-of-trauma-origin train, I've gravitated toward realism and it's many shades; particularly that of the post-WWII west, before we officially hit the star spangled neo-liberalism era of the 80's. This was a fascinating time where many of those that financially famined in the 15ish years prior, now feasted, or at least could finally make a reservation at their farm-to-table of choice...they just needed to order the Uber of determination and domain/community-minded progress. As it does, culture and literature followed it's reflective suit with society, but these fiction-adjacent philosophers seem different. There was a translucently veiled optimism coupled with their immense tragedy of the 20 years prior. Uncle Sam and his industrial military Capitalism complex was still surrounded by scaffolding, which meant artists, writers, bankers, laborers, hippies, and whoever else could live and discover what they were about in terms of fulfillment, while riding the America-leading-the-way net of supposed financial and idea freedom (democratic socialism is great when it's managed properly). I know that's an immensely loaded statement, but something about that period just hits different, and I can't get enough of it, in a positive fills-me-up kinda way. Instead of the scale being heavily tipped in favor of "where we came from", it was balanced with "where do I, and we, WANT to go?". I respect the hell out of them for this perspective, because it's difficult to consistently maintain. It requires reflection, but also a departure from self. It's easy to fall into the sad, existential doom loop, because you never have to leave, and the message resonates with everyone. That's why it sells. On repeat. But not everyone wants to put the next foot forward and walk in a new direction. That takes guts...and real growth.
2. In this vein, I'm also working to curate a list of classic/notable nostalgia-core to understand what literary elements and principles I can incorporate into my life, mindset, and writing, without being consumed. I think I'm loosely attempting to understand the timeless shapes and colors that uplift and inspire, without getting mired in the nostalgia-emotion muck that can saturate the genre. Kinda like using a map in NYC to navigate the grid, without actually locking in on an acute position.
For me, John Updike, Peter Taylor, Saul Bellow, and their many contemporaries hit the spot when I'm craving this perspective and ethos. If you're interested in detailed and objective truth-seeking that typically drives history lovers, this particular era of the genre (as well as magical realism) is also an immensely fun way to pick apart the zero to one truth and fiction of how the heck we got to our current state of societal, cultural and literary state of things.
I can relate to the love of the old prose—and the need to curate it so we don't wind up in the doom loop! That's why I spent all last year reading utopian novels and it's why I'm reading humanist texts now! I've struggled to love modern literature as I find it adheres to that same doom loop, though agree that magical realism has been once way out of it. Have you read anything good in that vein I should read?
Thank you so much for an article that resonates with me 1000%. I feel that we badly need advance scouts leading us out of the intellectual/literary killing fields of the last 100 years. (Could two of the most traumatic events in world history WWs1&2 have anything to do with that long Dark Age?)
I wonder do you know Henri Bergson, French philosopher born 1859, "known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality"? His thought brightened the philosophical terrain for so many. And Pierre Teilhard de Chardin whose brand of theological/philosophical positivism turned the lights up even higher. William James the American philosopher wrote in 1908 of Bergson: " So modest and unpretending a man but such a genius intellectually! I have the strongest suspicions that the tendency which he has brought to a focus, will end by prevailing, and that the present epoch will be a sort of turning point in the history of philosophy." And then there was Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement in the US. And Mary Baker Eddy who lit up all of Christendom with her new understanding of "matter" and the allness of God. All of this revelatory work done around the turn of the last century now seems almost invisible.
My simple theory is that the horrors of the world wars drove the development of philosophical and theological thought underground and prevented or delayed the Bergsonian tendency from prevailing.
Maybe the new tendril of happiness or well-being based StoryMind that we are starting to recognise and desire is part of a resurgence...or a re-emergence into a line of light.
I hadn't heard of these folks, thanks for sharing them with me.
I think war served a purpose when it was against tyranny. But now I think we just need to work together to make the world even better. And I think we're in a good enough place to do it. At the very least, my art will head in that direction!
I highly recommend Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and its sequel, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. They’re pretty much exactly what you seem to be looking for: well-written, deep explorations of being alive right now, with an eye to what’s next. There’s a strong focus on being Very Online that feels relevant for a Substack writer.
This resonated with me so much. Our culture is saturated with darkness. From our news to our politics to our social media. It is hard to escape. Darkness prevades our entertainment also. Must every television character be "troubled?" Must every show have a social agenda? Must life be a constant battle? Must every thing be so bleak and dark and sad?
I don't want my entertainment to be "gritty realism." Isn't the real world tragic enough? Do we need to rehash it as entertainment. I don't find it very entertaining. I find it depressing.
Can't we have adventure, love, and happiness along with the gloom and doom (and zombies.) I want to be inspired and entertained by entertainment, not depressed and discouraged. I will freely admit it. I read (and watch movies) for escapism. I want to be transported to better places, to new worlds. To have adventure, and heroes (not anti-heroes), and happy endings.
We all experience tragedy. But tragedy and darkness shouldn't be the entirety of our outlook. We need hope also. A rare commodity these days.
I think that is why I rarely write entirely sad stories. I would rather be a small ray of light in the darkness. I would rather bring a smile with my writing. Despite some opinions, there is nothing wrong with happy endings.
In case you need an endorsement, I came to his writing after the classics, because we got access to european authors before american in india. And everything he has written completely and forever changed my idea of what writing could be about. I would suggest Cats cradle, or Sirens of Titan as a relevant start for you.
I think "Galapagos" is one of his most underrated. Slaughterhouse-5 is quite strange, as is Cat's Cradle ... not necessarily a bad thing, but just worth mentioning. As an appetizer to his work, this is one of my favorite videos on the Internet:
Good post, Elle! I had no idea there was a pandemic section in the bookstore these days, or maybe I just blocked it out. But yeah, we do pile on indeed. I wish had some suggestions for happy literary novels to give you, but I agree, it's pretty bleak out there these days.
I really enjoyed Humankind, so I was glad to see it on your list. I've always thought people were basically good, so it was fascinating to read a book about how we engineer society with the exact opposite premise. Also, I felt seen by his take on Lord of the Flies. Never a fan of that novel.
There is an awful lot to digest and reflect on here, and I am already a couple of thousand words into writing a response which will appear in my newsletter once I have a chance to finish it. But for now, a book recommendation that may seem to come out of left field. It is not strictly a novel, but a kind of parody of self help books written by a novelist. It is Walker Percy's _Lost In the Cosmos_. It is a strange concoction, but brilliant, and I think it bears very much on the questions you are asking here. I'd be interested to know what you make of it.
Yes, to echo Mary Louisa, Hopepunk -- and also Solarpunk.
Also, I just read a book called Progress - Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future (2016) by Johan Norberg. It convinced me that, however bleak the present might appear, it is way better for a whole lot more people than any period in the past. So there's that.
Then I would look at this series of posts on hope punk by Susan K Quinn https://susankayequinn.com/2022/05/hopepunk-musings.html see if anything inspires you. Certainly felt like she was coming from a similar place to where you are at in this point of time.
There's so much that's so great in this essay, Elle. Just, wow. It's like you and Erik Hoel have been reading my mind. So, so much to chew on.
This paragraph, especially, was so spot on:
'I think we needed that “fight” to overthrow oppression, to form new governments, to establish equal rights and personal freedoms—there are things to fight for still—but I think we’ve reached the end of what fighting will do for us. At some point, I believe humans need to evolve beyond “fighting every wrong” toward “working together to create something right.” From “there’s a plank in your eye” to “here’s where we see eye-to-eye.” Canceling someone over one word they said on the internet seems proof we’ve taken the fight too far.'
I have been VERY much feeling this lately. I used to love talking about, thinking about and discussing issues and politics and current events, but I must confess I find a lot of it exhausting now. Not the issues themselves, but the way we discuss them -- the same song-and-dance gets played out every time, among the same players, to the same tune. I'm with you! We need new ways forward. (And, that's exactly where I want to go -- the future, and not to endlessly replay the past.)
I know! The things we have left to fight about, aren't fight worthy. We aren't "building countries" any more, we are "perfecting countries." And trying to do that with two sides (or parties) is just keeping it a battlefield. We need a different skillset now, we need to get on one side, and work toward common goals! ☺️
"I’m also very over existentialism. How long can we continue to pine for meaning—and let that pining ruin us—before we accept that there is none and live happily? "
I think you've stepped in the great struggle. If there is no meaning, around what does a group of people cohere? On what foundation morality? I agree that fighting is a terrible metaphor for the struggle to make things better, but you've got to have a definition of "better" to struggle for.
Without meaning, why would you plant trees the shade of which you will never get to sit under? Why don't we build Cathedrals? (by that I mean massive, beautiful things for their own sake)
I don't presume to have the answer. But I think part of it is found in Christopher Booker's "Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories" The title is fairly trivial for what is a monster of a book in both size and erudition.
I think what you are looking for can be found, often, in children's books. The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas is an amazing allegory.
I also think a Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin is incredibly uplifting.
As far as I can tell, modern literary fiction seems to be bent on self-destruction.
The upshot of the point of existentialism is that we can't seem to do that on our own. It's too much to ask of an individual. And it seems like it has to be mediated by stories or tradition. Which leaves us in the pickle -- if you want to write great uplifting stories, you have to have other great uplifting stories to draw from.
I think you have to start with meaning to life if you want strong emotional effect. I don't think you can start with the idea that all narratives are equally true.
Which I think, is why most of modern literary fiction seems so broken to me.
I LOVE your optimism! (And this substack, btw) But I’m very skeptical about your claim. I would like to hear an example of something meaningful that you have created in your life that doesn’t come from an ancient story, one way or another. I think you are more deeply embedded in culture than your statement suggests. At best, we remix meaning.
I think you will find that, for your Utopian novel, you will use the same symbols and the same tropes as everyone else does — maybe better, maybe worse — but that culture is all we have to work with. Mostly this is rehashing Christianity. Or pieces of it at least.
An example,
In the original Norse mythology there is no test of worthiness for Thor. He wields the hammer because he is strong. In the same way that Beowulf nor Achillies have no kind of moral component.
But as the story of Thor is updated and transformed, the very Christian idea of worthiness is added to it. And he becomes a different kind of hero.
I don’t know if this makes sense, but you want to do a podcast about it?
We might be saying the same thing. Here's how I would put it. You have to have stories to have a meaningful life. And all our stories are ancient, one way or another.
As a writer, I find it is very useful to read ancient stories because it helps you make better stories. Otherwise, all you are getting is the embers of the original spark, which probably isn't very good. But if you can get to the spark of what inspired many people who came after, maybe your chances of doing something new and original with it go up.
You might not need to read ancient stories, but your life will be more meaningful if you do.
Books that have felt like utopian breakthroughs to me:
Tom Hodgkinson’s How to Be Idle
Lorin Roche’s Radiance Sutras
TJ Klune’s House in the Cerulean Sea
Jenny Offil’s Weather
Elizabeth von Arnim’s Enchanted April (love the film, too)
Groundhog Day the film
This is definitely an idiosyncratic list and isn’t necessarily all literary fiction, and not all fiction at all. But reading these, I felt hopeful we could do better. These were spread over the last decades, but they stuck with me, FWIW
I think that some artists come around to this perspective over the course of their careers, perhaps because darkness and pessimism get old (if that's where the arist began, perhaps because they once though "serious" art required it), and keeping one's practice fresh requires injecting hope.
I can trace this progression in two of my favorite authors, George Saunders and Ted Chiang. (Saunders' early work is particularly bleak so maybe the bar is low lol). I plan to break this down on my Substack at some point, but for now I wonder what people think of "Exhalation" and "Ghoul." These stories are pretty dark in that the characters have their worlds turned upside down in existentially devastating ways... But they end with an uptick of hope that I think makes all the difference. (Exhalation in particular speaks to the Existentialist dilemma, I think)
https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/ghoul
+1 for Ted Chiang as one of the mold breakers! I haven't read a lot of Saunders, but appreciate having a specific rec! I'll take a read.
Agree with the sentiment here. I think some of what made Station Eleven popular (for example) was a general desire for something more hopeful. That's a post apocalyptic novel that leaves you feeling good when you're finished, and the HBO adaptation is absolutely beautiful.
I've been meaning to watch that so thank you for the reminder!
Oooof...this deeply resonates!
I too have a push/pull relationship with those post-Revolutionaries and their timeless, ever-longing ilk, both before and after the cout d' etat :). Sometimes I find myself saying to them, "You're stuck! Do something different! Go upstate, or do a cold plunge. What would Jen Sincero say if she saw this poor-woe-is-me wade pool of despair after you've earned your freedom!" But it's like a toxic relationship...we can't get enough. Until we have.
My thoughts are similar to yours with a slight twist; the ardor, attempted pragmatism, and beautiful lattice-work of word and structure - that anachronistic novelty that a pimply, prose-loving youth gravitates toward when the crush of lit first strikes - steeps us into a tethered relationship. In modern armchair therapist terms, maybe one would call it persisted trauma bonding from the honeymoon stage of a past love?
My TBR response thus far has been two fold, and seems to keep me measured in my own relationship with the classics, and ultimately myself:
1. While I'm not fully off the societal introspection-of-trauma-origin train, I've gravitated toward realism and it's many shades; particularly that of the post-WWII west, before we officially hit the star spangled neo-liberalism era of the 80's. This was a fascinating time where many of those that financially famined in the 15ish years prior, now feasted, or at least could finally make a reservation at their farm-to-table of choice...they just needed to order the Uber of determination and domain/community-minded progress. As it does, culture and literature followed it's reflective suit with society, but these fiction-adjacent philosophers seem different. There was a translucently veiled optimism coupled with their immense tragedy of the 20 years prior. Uncle Sam and his industrial military Capitalism complex was still surrounded by scaffolding, which meant artists, writers, bankers, laborers, hippies, and whoever else could live and discover what they were about in terms of fulfillment, while riding the America-leading-the-way net of supposed financial and idea freedom (democratic socialism is great when it's managed properly). I know that's an immensely loaded statement, but something about that period just hits different, and I can't get enough of it, in a positive fills-me-up kinda way. Instead of the scale being heavily tipped in favor of "where we came from", it was balanced with "where do I, and we, WANT to go?". I respect the hell out of them for this perspective, because it's difficult to consistently maintain. It requires reflection, but also a departure from self. It's easy to fall into the sad, existential doom loop, because you never have to leave, and the message resonates with everyone. That's why it sells. On repeat. But not everyone wants to put the next foot forward and walk in a new direction. That takes guts...and real growth.
2. In this vein, I'm also working to curate a list of classic/notable nostalgia-core to understand what literary elements and principles I can incorporate into my life, mindset, and writing, without being consumed. I think I'm loosely attempting to understand the timeless shapes and colors that uplift and inspire, without getting mired in the nostalgia-emotion muck that can saturate the genre. Kinda like using a map in NYC to navigate the grid, without actually locking in on an acute position.
For me, John Updike, Peter Taylor, Saul Bellow, and their many contemporaries hit the spot when I'm craving this perspective and ethos. If you're interested in detailed and objective truth-seeking that typically drives history lovers, this particular era of the genre (as well as magical realism) is also an immensely fun way to pick apart the zero to one truth and fiction of how the heck we got to our current state of societal, cultural and literary state of things.
As always, thank you, Elle!
I can relate to the love of the old prose—and the need to curate it so we don't wind up in the doom loop! That's why I spent all last year reading utopian novels and it's why I'm reading humanist texts now! I've struggled to love modern literature as I find it adheres to that same doom loop, though agree that magical realism has been once way out of it. Have you read anything good in that vein I should read?
Thanks Matthew!
Dear Elle,
Thank you so much for an article that resonates with me 1000%. I feel that we badly need advance scouts leading us out of the intellectual/literary killing fields of the last 100 years. (Could two of the most traumatic events in world history WWs1&2 have anything to do with that long Dark Age?)
I wonder do you know Henri Bergson, French philosopher born 1859, "known for his arguments that processes of immediate experience and intuition are more significant than abstract rationalism and science for understanding reality"? His thought brightened the philosophical terrain for so many. And Pierre Teilhard de Chardin whose brand of theological/philosophical positivism turned the lights up even higher. William James the American philosopher wrote in 1908 of Bergson: " So modest and unpretending a man but such a genius intellectually! I have the strongest suspicions that the tendency which he has brought to a focus, will end by prevailing, and that the present epoch will be a sort of turning point in the history of philosophy." And then there was Emerson and the Transcendentalist movement in the US. And Mary Baker Eddy who lit up all of Christendom with her new understanding of "matter" and the allness of God. All of this revelatory work done around the turn of the last century now seems almost invisible.
My simple theory is that the horrors of the world wars drove the development of philosophical and theological thought underground and prevented or delayed the Bergsonian tendency from prevailing.
Maybe the new tendril of happiness or well-being based StoryMind that we are starting to recognise and desire is part of a resurgence...or a re-emergence into a line of light.
I hadn't heard of these folks, thanks for sharing them with me.
I think war served a purpose when it was against tyranny. But now I think we just need to work together to make the world even better. And I think we're in a good enough place to do it. At the very least, my art will head in that direction!
I highly recommend Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and its sequel, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor. They’re pretty much exactly what you seem to be looking for: well-written, deep explorations of being alive right now, with an eye to what’s next. There’s a strong focus on being Very Online that feels relevant for a Substack writer.
This resonated with me so much. Our culture is saturated with darkness. From our news to our politics to our social media. It is hard to escape. Darkness prevades our entertainment also. Must every television character be "troubled?" Must every show have a social agenda? Must life be a constant battle? Must every thing be so bleak and dark and sad?
I don't want my entertainment to be "gritty realism." Isn't the real world tragic enough? Do we need to rehash it as entertainment. I don't find it very entertaining. I find it depressing.
Can't we have adventure, love, and happiness along with the gloom and doom (and zombies.) I want to be inspired and entertained by entertainment, not depressed and discouraged. I will freely admit it. I read (and watch movies) for escapism. I want to be transported to better places, to new worlds. To have adventure, and heroes (not anti-heroes), and happy endings.
We all experience tragedy. But tragedy and darkness shouldn't be the entirety of our outlook. We need hope also. A rare commodity these days.
I think that is why I rarely write entirely sad stories. I would rather be a small ray of light in the darkness. I would rather bring a smile with my writing. Despite some opinions, there is nothing wrong with happy endings.
Another thoughtful newsletter. Thanks, Elle.
I so agree. And your writing IS a ray of happiness!!!!! That’s why I love it so much!!!!
Thanks, Elle! 🤓❤️
Yes yes yes. Looking forward to our upcoming chat. But some beautiful and hopeful books that don’t shy away from the existentialist quandary:
-Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
-The Overstory by Richard Powers
-Farewell Cowboy by Olja Savicevic
-Everything Kurt Vonnegut ever wrote
-The White Album by Joan Didion
Thank you!
This was a nice read, Elle. Have you read Kurt Vonnegut?
No! Checking out....
In case you need an endorsement, I came to his writing after the classics, because we got access to european authors before american in india. And everything he has written completely and forever changed my idea of what writing could be about. I would suggest Cats cradle, or Sirens of Titan as a relevant start for you.
Ok that’s helpful. I was just looking at all the titles wondering where I should start....
I think "Galapagos" is one of his most underrated. Slaughterhouse-5 is quite strange, as is Cat's Cradle ... not necessarily a bad thing, but just worth mentioning. As an appetizer to his work, this is one of my favorite videos on the Internet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGru_4z1Vc&t=32s&ab_channel=EvaCollinsAlonso
+1 for Kurt
Good post, Elle! I had no idea there was a pandemic section in the bookstore these days, or maybe I just blocked it out. But yeah, we do pile on indeed. I wish had some suggestions for happy literary novels to give you, but I agree, it's pretty bleak out there these days.
I really enjoyed Humankind, so I was glad to see it on your list. I've always thought people were basically good, so it was fascinating to read a book about how we engineer society with the exact opposite premise. Also, I felt seen by his take on Lord of the Flies. Never a fan of that novel.
Oh awesome, glad I’ve got that one on the list! I guess we’ll have to keep looking for the rest... 🤓
There is an awful lot to digest and reflect on here, and I am already a couple of thousand words into writing a response which will appear in my newsletter once I have a chance to finish it. But for now, a book recommendation that may seem to come out of left field. It is not strictly a novel, but a kind of parody of self help books written by a novelist. It is Walker Percy's _Lost In the Cosmos_. It is a strange concoction, but brilliant, and I think it bears very much on the questions you are asking here. I'd be interested to know what you make of it.
This looks hilarious. Definitely adding it to the list.
Thanks Mark! And looking forward to reading your post!
And here is my post, "Being is meaning enough. Love is purpose enough": https://www.storiesallthewaydown.com/p/being-is-meaning-enough-love-is-purpose
This was amazing. So grateful for this discourse. Continued it in your comments!
Yes, to echo Mary Louisa, Hopepunk -- and also Solarpunk.
Also, I just read a book called Progress - Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future (2016) by Johan Norberg. It convinced me that, however bleak the present might appear, it is way better for a whole lot more people than any period in the past. So there's that.
Amazing! I just added it to my book list. Thank you so much for the rec!
I think you might take a look into the subgenera of speculative fiction called hope punk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopepunk
Then I would look at this series of posts on hope punk by Susan K Quinn https://susankayequinn.com/2022/05/hopepunk-musings.html see if anything inspires you. Certainly felt like she was coming from a similar place to where you are at in this point of time.
Good luck on your journey.
Thank you so much Mary! I hadn't heard of hope punk!
There's so much that's so great in this essay, Elle. Just, wow. It's like you and Erik Hoel have been reading my mind. So, so much to chew on.
This paragraph, especially, was so spot on:
'I think we needed that “fight” to overthrow oppression, to form new governments, to establish equal rights and personal freedoms—there are things to fight for still—but I think we’ve reached the end of what fighting will do for us. At some point, I believe humans need to evolve beyond “fighting every wrong” toward “working together to create something right.” From “there’s a plank in your eye” to “here’s where we see eye-to-eye.” Canceling someone over one word they said on the internet seems proof we’ve taken the fight too far.'
I have been VERY much feeling this lately. I used to love talking about, thinking about and discussing issues and politics and current events, but I must confess I find a lot of it exhausting now. Not the issues themselves, but the way we discuss them -- the same song-and-dance gets played out every time, among the same players, to the same tune. I'm with you! We need new ways forward. (And, that's exactly where I want to go -- the future, and not to endlessly replay the past.)
I know! The things we have left to fight about, aren't fight worthy. We aren't "building countries" any more, we are "perfecting countries." And trying to do that with two sides (or parties) is just keeping it a battlefield. We need a different skillset now, we need to get on one side, and work toward common goals! ☺️
Darkness is easy. Light is hard. Inspired light is very hard.
I'm blown away by your reading list and have to think about it
more. I find solace in reading Gary Snyder, but like all humans
he has his problems. Folks like Hemingway drive me nuts with
their "poseurness." Thanks for a amazing post.
Thank you, Mike!
"I’m also very over existentialism. How long can we continue to pine for meaning—and let that pining ruin us—before we accept that there is none and live happily? "
I think you've stepped in the great struggle. If there is no meaning, around what does a group of people cohere? On what foundation morality? I agree that fighting is a terrible metaphor for the struggle to make things better, but you've got to have a definition of "better" to struggle for.
Without meaning, why would you plant trees the shade of which you will never get to sit under? Why don't we build Cathedrals? (by that I mean massive, beautiful things for their own sake)
I don't presume to have the answer. But I think part of it is found in Christopher Booker's "Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories" The title is fairly trivial for what is a monster of a book in both size and erudition.
I think what you are looking for can be found, often, in children's books. The Robot and the Bluebird by David Lucas is an amazing allegory.
I also think a Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin is incredibly uplifting.
As far as I can tell, modern literary fiction seems to be bent on self-destruction.
That's the point of existentialism: If there is no meaning to life, then it's up to us to make it meaningful! 🥰
And I'm with you, children's books are the winners here (Narnia! Neverland! Wonderland!!! Does it get any better???)
Ok actually now that I think about it, wonderland might actually be dystopian... 😆
The upshot of the point of existentialism is that we can't seem to do that on our own. It's too much to ask of an individual. And it seems like it has to be mediated by stories or tradition. Which leaves us in the pickle -- if you want to write great uplifting stories, you have to have other great uplifting stories to draw from.
I think you have to start with meaning to life if you want strong emotional effect. I don't think you can start with the idea that all narratives are equally true.
Which I think, is why most of modern literary fiction seems so broken to me.
Of course we can create meaning on our own! I live a very meaningful life. A lot of people do! And I don’t think we need ancient stories to have that.
That being said, I hope my utopian novel will fill that void and be a meaningful story other artists can draw from. 🤓
I LOVE your optimism! (And this substack, btw) But I’m very skeptical about your claim. I would like to hear an example of something meaningful that you have created in your life that doesn’t come from an ancient story, one way or another. I think you are more deeply embedded in culture than your statement suggests. At best, we remix meaning.
I think you will find that, for your Utopian novel, you will use the same symbols and the same tropes as everyone else does — maybe better, maybe worse — but that culture is all we have to work with. Mostly this is rehashing Christianity. Or pieces of it at least.
An example,
In the original Norse mythology there is no test of worthiness for Thor. He wields the hammer because he is strong. In the same way that Beowulf nor Achillies have no kind of moral component.
But as the story of Thor is updated and transformed, the very Christian idea of worthiness is added to it. And he becomes a different kind of hero.
I don’t know if this makes sense, but you want to do a podcast about it?
Oh well sure, symbolism will live on forever. And art will always inspire other art.
I was speaking more on a personal level. As in: you don’t need to read ancient stories to live a meaningful life. 😝
We might be saying the same thing. Here's how I would put it. You have to have stories to have a meaningful life. And all our stories are ancient, one way or another.
As a writer, I find it is very useful to read ancient stories because it helps you make better stories. Otherwise, all you are getting is the embers of the original spark, which probably isn't very good. But if you can get to the spark of what inspired many people who came after, maybe your chances of doing something new and original with it go up.
You might not need to read ancient stories, but your life will be more meaningful if you do.
Books that have felt like utopian breakthroughs to me:
Tom Hodgkinson’s How to Be Idle
Lorin Roche’s Radiance Sutras
TJ Klune’s House in the Cerulean Sea
Jenny Offil’s Weather
Elizabeth von Arnim’s Enchanted April (love the film, too)
Groundhog Day the film
This is definitely an idiosyncratic list and isn’t necessarily all literary fiction, and not all fiction at all. But reading these, I felt hopeful we could do better. These were spread over the last decades, but they stuck with me, FWIW
These are amazing, thank you so much! I just googled every one and added them to my list!
(Also I JUST watched Groundhog Day last week, such a classic!)
I'm so happy they look helpful to you. I am a compulsive book recommender, so beware once you get me started. :-)
You’re always welcome here. I’m a compulsive “throw the book out if I’m not into the first three chapters-er” so I could use all the recs I could get!
I support this strategy!