Author Howard Jacobson has argued that the novel is not dead, but that modern readers lack the attention span to appreciate it. In a speech for BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking programme, he criticised the distractions of screens and the decline of nuanced criticism in the age of social media.
Jacobson lamented what he called the 'brutalism' of internet discourse, where 'everything is forgotten, discourse is reduced to statement, dramatic speech is inconceivable'. He insisted that concentration and enjoyment are not opposites, comparing the effort of reading to the physical exertion of marathon running.
Speaking at the Man Booker festival in London, Jacobson said: 'I think the novel is in quite good health... The problem is the reader.' He noted that sales of literary fiction have been declining in the UK since 2011, but argued that the relationship between readers and books must change, not the books themselves.
When asked about pressure from publishers to write 'page-turners', Jacobson advised authors to 'tell them to go to hell'. He said being told a book is unputdownable is insulting to readers, and questioned the appeal of plot-driven mysteries: 'Who committed the murder? Who the hell cares?'
