The Vanishing Poets
by: Dean Bakopoulos



Today's commercial world of literature consists of formulaic legal thrillers, semi-pornographic housewive fantasies, and mystical self-help books. Thus it is evident why the world of literature is taking a backseat in the American bus of social importance. The true literature of today, with a few notable exceptions, is read by a selected group of individuals. Long gone are days when readers of various periodicals would anticipate the next installment in a work like Anna Karenina or A Tale Of Two Cities ; today`s readers anticipate Robert James Waller's latest spittle in the next issue of Women's Day, or the latest movie based on a John Grisham novel.

But in days past, in almost all cultures, literature was able to rouse the conciousness of entire countries, inciting the readers to revolt against injustice, to fight for individual freedoms, and to try and relate to his fellow man with tolerance and understanding. In short, writers were once much like what Socrates termed as gadflies sent from the gods, individuals who stirred our conciousness with beautiful and stark language, haunting and emotional images, and dire and melancholic warnings.

Perhaps the best description of the role of literature are the words of the Russian great, the father of the short story, Anton Chekhov, who describes what he feels is his mission as a writer. In his work Gooseberries, Chekhov alludes to the role of the writer in a manner very consistent with the image of the incessant gadfly. Behind the door of every happy man, Chekhov writes, there ought to be someone standing with a little hammer and continually reminding him with a knock that there are unhappy pe ople, that however happy he may be, life will sooner or late show him its claws and , and trouble will come to him illness, poverty, losses, and then no one will see or hear him, just as now he neither sees nor hears others.

Indeed, Chekhov was that man with a hammer, writing incredibly powerful and bleak stories of the wretched lives of the common peasants. This summation of the writer's duty is perhaps what is essentially the core of the writer's importance; the writer take s us outside ourselves and our situations, so that we may view others who lack the freedoms and pleasures we possess. By allowing us to see others situations, to explore different outlooks, and to experience the pain and injustice that others face, the wo rld of literature provides a crucial way towards the classical liberal ideals of tolerance, individualism, and understanding.

But in today's literary, the writer's role has diminished to one of a mere entertainer. The most successful writers are those who humor us, who frighten us, and who arouse our carnal lusts. The popular writers that come closest to probing intellectual or philosphical matters are usually loud-mouthed talk show hosts or weepy New Age gurus. The true writers of the day, those that still examine social injustices and the sorrows of existence; those who still probe the deepset emotions of human nature; and those that still question the Establishment are regulated to university communities and literary circles. For the most part, with notable exceptions like Ethan Canin, John Updike, and Joyce Carol Oates, writers who grapple with the perplexities and hardships that plague humanity have little popular success.

What does this literary trend say about American society? It seems something like the New York Times best-seller list would be an inconsequential part of the American landscape, but the fact is that what people are reading, reflects much of what people are thinking. Based on this logic, one can conclude that the American people are not thinking about much of anything. Why this trend in modern-day American society, when the readers of such lesser-advanced societies like nineteenth century Russia tackled weighty issues head on? Perhaps it is because in our society, much of our thinking is done for us. If their is a social injustice called to our attention, we turn to partisan politics. We listen to what Rush Limbaugh or XXX have to say about the matter, and our viewpoint is formulated for us. When weighty problems of human passions, relationships, or shortcomings come to our attention, they are usually in the context of a televison sitcom, and our resolved within thirty minutes. We see and understand the problems of our fellow humans through the eyes of people like Oprah Winfrey and Jenny Jones, who usually have a perf ect remedy to what ails our hearts and plagues our souls. And when the issues of God and His divine order arises, we turn to the hieracrchy of our organized religions, or to religious coalitions, or to the 700 Club; we dare not grapple with such issues on our own. Perhaps what is most important, and most indicative of the declining role of literature in our society, is the fact that when Chekhov's little man with a hammer begins to knock on our conciousnesses, we instinctively strive to block him out. To author Carlos Fuentes, writing is a struggle agaisnt silence. As Americans become less and less interested in understanding the deepest and heaviest issues we face as humans, this struggle will grow more and more futile for the aspiring authors and poets.

This fall of the writers status, this declining value we place on literature has no tangible remedy; no National Endowment for the Arts fund will fix the declining American mentality, no government program will fix this mysterious sociological problem. I n short, writers have always spurred us to challenge, to strive, to understand, and to search, and they still continue to do so today. But fewer and fewer people are reading these writers. Shakespeare's plunges into human character, Dostoyevskys struggle s to understand his God, and Faulkners efforts to discover the nature of humans, would probably go by unappreciated in todays world, unless perhaps they were exposed in a Hollywood movie, expounded on by a popular radio personality, or molded into a sem i-sexual, adventurous, and suspenseful formulaic and accesible story line.

The role of the writer and his work cannot be underestimated. One cannot overlook the revolutions, the enlightenments, and the social changes that were ignited by the passionate spark of literature. Essayist Roland Barthes once said that Literature is the question minus the answer. Our world, though it grows increasingly comfortable, is also growing increasingly complex. The questions that will arise in the next decades will be brought to light by the next generation of writers; it will be up to the nex t generation of readers to find the answers.