The "New" Literature

"The reporter would have dutifully produced a language devoid of sentiment, a laboratory language of detached observation, calculated to simulate 'fact,' as if the family were a statistic diligently recorded in the unfortunate economy of minor warfare." --Carolyn Forche

This sentence comes from a paragraph in which Forche is comparing a creative nonfiction writer's take on a story of a woman who witnesses the horrific death of her daughter and husband during a war to the same story told by a traditional journalist, a person who was writing an article for a newspaper or something like that. I feel that this is a huge problem in our society--we are far removed from the actual pain and suffering that goes on in the world; we are presented with a neat little package of "reality" from the media and corporations. I read the story about the woman, and I was shocked by how real it was for me. I know that the newspaper article about that event would have just made me shrug and say, "Well, that's too bad." The only way to help make change happen as writers is to overcome this "traditional" way of telling people about the things that are really happening in the world. People need to connect with other people and hear personal stories, etc. We do have to participate in a "new" literature; the literature of the past just doesn't seem to be helping many people in our current society.