What is the role of the novel today, given the massive dominance of visual imagery, especially through television and film?
The novel has died many deaths, yet it still straggles on. In strict percentages, surely a greater proportion of the human race is reading literature today than was ever the case in the past, given how recent widespread literacy is. So there is hope. I think it is also true that people have an insatiable need for narrative, that this is something that is hard-wired into them, and that the novel perhaps remains the primary source for complex narrative. You could certainly make the argument that film, as far as narrative is concernedand narrative is central to it, as it is to most popular entertainmentstends to be highly derivative and reductive, and that if the novel died, film might go with it. The novel and indeed most forms of literature have always been more meditative than direct, and it is true that it is hard to compete with the onslaught of much more visceral stimuli. But the brain is a complex place, and will always eventually crave complex enjoyments. So maybe the role of the
