The Online World

Much of the literature of the 20th Century has been written in response to momentous events such as the first and second world wars. Draw up a short list of some of the momentous events that have been hitting our planet in the last 5 years and suggest a few ways in which writers might try to make sense of any one of these events. Your response to this suggestion, might itself be a piece of creative prose or poetry.

As we look back over the course of literature, we become entangled in wars, politics, cultural shifts, pain, love, nature and just about anything else you can humanely think of. I sit down to write these blog topics in the most creative way I can, but I become stumped – not because they are hard but because it seems I am not capable of creating anything that I feel has already been done before. This leads me to think about the issues that have prevailed the last five years and how they are going to be written about in a way that has not already been done.

It’s not doubt that the last five years have been something catastrophic not only to the planet but to the human race in general. From fires to floods, global warming and coronavirus, we have endured a lot. How it is though that we are going to communicate these atrocities that differs from the past? We seem to live in a time where imitation has become a way of life, we follow and repeat. This may be looks, words, phrases, jokes, videos… we have become a society that thrives off assimilating into one another. It is almost as if you could say that our minds have become mirrors. How then, are we going to talk communicate these disasters and try to make sense of them if it is just the same thing over and over again. After putting a lot of thought into this, I guess that is exactly how – we as a modern society are going to come to terms with what has happened through social media and the internet. Through sharing ideas, poems, prose works, pictures, videos and artworks from our time online. We are living in a generational peak for communication. Everything will be archived and available for centuries to come. These moments will not be written down on spare pieces of paper in the middle of a trench and forced to survive, they will thrive and be shared worldwide.

I believe that’s how we are going to make sense of it – as a collective, sharing ideas on the internet and being accessible to it all. If we were to look at the coronavirus pandemic, we are going to try and make sense of this through one another, online. I’m almost positive it is going to get messy as facts are blurred and lies illuminated but nevertheless, we will turn to the online world for answers as we always do.