>>513804439
It's the lack of reading. Virtually no one reads and the few that do read essentially porn. Most modern English literature, like the stuff that wins awards for being high-brow, they are now written at 8th grade reading level.
The average American reads at a 5th grade level (in reality it's like 30% reading at a 9th-12th grade level and 70% reading at 3rd grade or below.
Publishing companies openly break the law and say they won't accept any white male submissions which is the one demographic left writing in English that could write the next great modern novel so the entire reading industry has slowed to a standstill. The only people left reading are old cat ladies who listen to NPR, that's it.
Harry Potter is written at a higher grade level than most modern American literature (not book, literature).

When people writing stories don't read books they can't write stories. That's the beginning and end of the problem but no one will ever care because no one gives a shit about reading and the ones that do read books a child could read 30 years ago.

Wakefield Press is an independent publisher with actually good books, all of them obscure European works from the fin-de-siecle that have never been translated before. Pic related. If anyone is interested I can share 5 or 6 more good independent publishers.

Do you know how sad it is realizing that the books you enjoy and the people that wrote them are so far above modern man that most literature professors would struggle to even comprehend what's being said in them. Literature from the fucking 1970s may as well be written in an alien language for all the good the average Lit professor can explain them.