>>24383655
I think there are, but they're not published and not popular on Internet platforms so they fall through all the cracks.
Consider that the literacy resulted in the cheapening of the literary medium. Read Joshi Junk Fiction about this issue.
Here are some factors that stunt the appearance of a new Shakespeare:
1) Simplified prose (My experience shows that the general consensus across the Internet is that prose more complex than Sanderson and Onyx Storm is pretentious. I should've taken a screenshot, but a reddit about publishing showed that the editorial process involves very heavy manipulation of prose to fit the general vibe of the industry: must be simple, understandable to anyone, must not offend any sensibilities. So, all the published books sound as if written by the same person.)
2) Easy cliche black vs white plots (and that includes the morally gray and subversion of expectation. More dumb readership, more dumb plots. It's all about the good guys, usually obviously liberal or crypto liberal as in fantasy, versus the bad guys, usually conservative or monarchistic and authoritarian in structure. Doesn't matter if it's a lib college girl versus a conservative lady or black polygamous elves versus human knights in black robes. The plot and struggles are the same. The morally gray characters and subversion of expectation are merely dumb ways to keep the attention glued on he page by an unexpected twist).
3) Heavily influenced by pop culture, that is, trash culture rather than mythology, philosophy, theology (Masses like pop, so current books included pop through references, quotes, characters, plot structures. Forget Greek allusions, theological constructions like Dante's Commedia, or multilayered autism like Ulysses. It's all about games, pop music, pop fashion. Stuff like that. Masses want reliable things, and if you try to be highbrow, good luck with publishing. There seems to be a general hate of anything erudite, learned, complex, requiring effort, and striving for excellence. I think it's related to women and bing bing wahoo redditors being the main consumers since both group publish the most and write the most, and one group can't write for shit while the other finds everything smacking of religious belief and erudition as pretentious).
4) Market force (dumb people don't want to read complex books, so they aren't published. A movie deal seems to be the new ideal for writers, so books remind of television through character and plots and are aimed at the common average dominator)
5) Women and tech autists as the driving source of the market (Women can't write anything good. Tech autists throw tantrums when books turn to complex because their neuroatypical brains can't comprehend anything past basic good guys bad guys plot. I think the rise of the IT which made a high caste out of autists is one of the reason why not only literature, but society in general, even vidya, is fucked up, but that's a topic for another thread.)

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If during Shakespeare's time only 10% of all people were literate and today that number has risen to 85%, shouldn't there be more authors of…