100 years apart

I am not at all making a universal point that themes of 21st centuary are just limited to solitude, loneliness and burnout. I happen to pickup such reads that's why I am tending to make this friendly comparison between fiction of this and the past century.

A shift from over-powering system to burden of individualism. We are so engrossed in ourselves that we no more care about the system or the working of our government and bureaucratic system. We are more exposed to identity crisis, maintaining work life balance and at the same time battling rising unemployment.

20th century was the regime of bureaucratic absurdity, controlling regimes, and wars over ideologies - capitalism vs communalism. All this can be sensed through the fictional works of George Orwell, Franz Kafka, and others.

The realities of 20th century still haunt us as they are omnipresent. Our consideration has significantly metamorphosised from battling the Big brother to live a Life in such absurd times.

Back then, everyone knew life was simple but the situations were making it tough. Now the forces influencing our lives are completely hidden, no one knows who has the control, no one can actually attest the future, everyday seems robotic because we have got so many options, that we tend to convulate our understanding towards leading a Life. In this chase, we face burnout, anxiety, depression, loneliness and perplexed. In such situations, people like me resort to reading a book, while some resort to instant diversion-Instagram, for emersing themselves in slop.

Nothing can be said as bad or good, it's just the perspective of mine which got developed upon reading fiction of the two centuries. (I might have happened to pick very selective genres.)

Words are laid bare like rock, interpretations are like tidal waters, free to come and go.