A Future Of The Novel

The novel was a dominant art form last century
https://www.economist.com/culture/2024/12/12/the-novel-was-a-dominant-art-form-last-century
from The Economist

This century’s novelists will need to grapple with this shift. Writers in the last century benefited from increased literacy rates, cheap mass production and the rise of chain bookstores, which all helped create a culture more receptive to their works. Novels could also easily hold their own against films; it is harder now that people have a giant film and TV library in their pockets.

What might a book written in 2124, looking back at the 21st-century literary novel, argue? That the novel continued to expand its focus outward, by engaging with genre fiction, for instance, as Colson Whitehead and Haruki Murakami do brilliantly; or with nature and science, as Richard Powers and Kim Stanley Robinson do. Novel-reading will become even more of a niche, worthy hobby, like going to a classical-music concert or ballet today.