Love in the time of computers

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/trashy-teen

Literally a list of trashy (and mostly love-centric) teen novels

According to my mother, we are living in a "golden age" of literature, where so many excellent books are being written that it's impossible to read them all. I disagree with that viewpoint. I think many books are being written, but their excellence is debatable. We are living in a time when quantity is prioritized over quality.

In past centuries, the range of human emotions used to actually mean something. Take Romeo and Juliet, for example, or Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. The trials and tribulations in the works of literature would be used to accentuate how the stories applied to everybody. When past plays or pieces of writing utilized emotions such as love, despair, or ecstasy, they would do so in an original manner. The plots of such stories are varied, as are the characters and the settings. Cleopatra and Antony is a whole universe away from Twelfth Night, though both are tales of unbridled passion.

Hundreds of years later, love stories almost seem to have regressed. Yes, there are thousands upon thousands of YA novels written every year about love. The characters might be slightly more diverse than in Shakespeare's time, but not by much. As for the plots, they are all formulaic- and it's not a great formula, either. Basically (and there are always exceptions, of course), girl and guy meet, they develop feelings for each other, they are too awkward to express said feelings, some climactic event occurs that drives them apart at first, they finally acknowledge their feelings, and they end up together. Where is the originality, the nuance, the new take?

One could make the argument that it is infinitely more difficult to write satisfying love stories today than in Shakespeare or Austen's time, since more has been written and thus it is harder to find something new to write about. I would beg to differ.

Other genres have not reached the same barrier as "love" stories. Science-fiction and dystopian novels are continually being written, and each Asimov or Orwell book I read is different from the last. While these stories might contain love, romance is not the focal point. Because they are not constrained to following the same basic formula, the originality is much higher in these genres.

Writing with modern technology has become too...easy. Every little kid dreams of being a writer at some point. With computers and iPads, everyone can write, anywhere- and many people do. The advance of modern technology has led to the overwhelming quantity.

And the genre? Why do so many people write love stories? To be human is to imagine, to dream of a life without limits. Any form of escapist fantasy would then fit these requirements, but, alas, as children we believe everything will turn out just fine. Our desire for happy endings carries over into our adolescence and early adulthood, when we begin to remember our unfulfilled goals. We are all hopeless romantics and we are all hopeful romantics.

But please, stop! I can think of sci-fi books and tales of adventure that have resonated with me. I cannot think of a single modern romance novel I will remember in twenty, ten, or even two years.

In conclusion, so many Young Adult novels focus on dating, as though teens crave relationships the same way they crave double chocolate chunk ice cream. And similar to the craving for ice cream, it's good in small amounts, but too much is toxic.