The Story

Literature has shifted undeniably through the ages. A simple glance at the differences between Charles Dickens and Dean Koontz will tell you what has become of fiction, of storytelling. I respect Dean Koontz (and all his contemporaries), I really do. He is a far greater writer than I am currently or probably ever will be. But the fact alone remains: writers than truly, dearly yearn for nothing more than a STORY (finances aside) are oh so far and few between. What about Harper Lee, the author of one of America's most brilliant stories: "To Kill A Mockingbird"? Did she write her masterpiece for the money? No, it was her first and last book, and therefore her most acclaimed. And then there's Louis La'Amour, the spectacular Western writer that collegiate snobs always neglect to mention, but draw from almost constantly. Did Mr. La'Amour do it for the money? No! It was something greater that drove him, that drove Harper Lee, that drove Charles Dickens...that drove the great, wonderful classics. And whatever it was, it is either slipping from our modern grip, or has already done so. It is called the story.
A story, a story...it reaches too far beyond the confines of plot, device, character, and dialouge to be limited to mere analysis. No, a story is a thing, nearly tangible, that runs through the author's mind similarly in the way it does a reader: it unfolds. Some of the greatest stories that have ever been penned have been written without knowing when the thing was going to end - much less HOW it was going to end. But I have already strayed from my point...
Literature today is about novels and short works and artsy-farsty projects that philosophize but never DEAL with the issues they adress. When you see literature of the past (both ancient and recent), you swiftly come to the realization that they were not mere entertainment; even if they were fictional tales, they demanded action and reaction. Often, both were spurred, one after the other or all at once. But look at us today...we are bathing in uncertainty, having cast off most remaining fragments of good and evil, and now alongside our sociological, intellectual, and political correctness, we are allowing our literature to be affected as well. Here is why.
We have abolished the notion almost completely that the author is a person with beliefs and ideals, and that his or her book is meant to communicate his or her goal, and that a reader cannot simply glean any given analogy from the work if it was not intended by the writer from the start. Everyday, in high-school literature classes or universities or unwitting homes...we are ignoring the writers as if it is merely us and the text, nothing more. This allows us to take from a work whatever we want to, without sustaining the guilt of, say, reading something unbecoming or disgusting. What would "A Christmas Carol" be if Dickens hadn't been the author? Or "Old Man and the Sea" had not Hemingway brought it to life? You see, we are sucking the life from storytelling by making it about prose. But really, storytelling is all about the conveyance of a story, rather than the conveyor. The conveyor, of course, is language. Language is only a ferry that allows the story over the river and into your heart.
But we have fallen into a disrespectful habit of taking literature completely out of context, only to facilitate our sense of "correctness", so that we will not be harmed or yanked out of our little boxes or scathed by the nature of truth. It just doesn't work that way, and shouldn't, no matter what you'd like or dislike. I'm sorry, "Mein Kampf" simply does not illustrate the Christian walk, however blunt that sounds!
So what do we DO about this problem? Well, it's up to two factions: readers, and writers. Readers must soon realize that books are infuzed with the intent of their authors, that such is simply an inescapable fact they must face up to. Writers must realize that prose does not make a story, nor does plot or characterization or any other facet of analysis. A STORY makes up a story, and will continue to do so until either stories no longer exist, or we have all finally come to our senses.