You know something I miss in a lot of modern fiction? A certain poetic quality, a quality of storytelling rather than just scenes being described. That’s why I prefer many older writers to the current ones (with notable exceptions). There seems to be very little interest on the part of editors and publishers for the kind of lyrical, beautifully-crafted writing that I enjoy the most. Most books I see these days are either full of the kind of overwrought, gracelessly complicated prose that passes for “high art,” or the type of shittily descriptive writing that reads more like a bad screenplay than like a novel.
Maybe that’s why I like Stephen King so much. His writing has a folksy, American kind of lyricism that I find deeply enjoyable. It flows melodically, and yet every now and then I stop to admire a passage of particular beauty.
More of that, please.
