Era of Good Writing

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Albert Einstein once wrote, “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
Dissecting this quote, I realized that it can relate to writing. If you look at writers and what makes them so great, you need to realize the time of which they wrote during. It was because of the timing and what they wrote relating to the issues affecting that era was what made these authors the kind we look up to.
One example would be Charles Dickens. He was alive during the Industrial Revolution, a great time for the economy and a worst time for middle class workers. He was also known for writing about poverty and disparity, knowledge coming from his own background. The Industrial Revolution was a time during which the lower classes suffered, and Dickens wrote about that. “A Christmas Carol” is bound to be one of his writings (that I know of) that implicitly tells about the readers about the poverty oozing out from the streets.
A more recent example would be Stephen King and his book, “Cell.” This book is about, well, cells and how this technology we all live in may perhaps one day be our downfall. Movies like “The Matrix” and “Pulse” (Japanese version!) have only enforced that belief. It is because of the technological advanced world we live in today is that we are to remember these books and movies because it is something that affects us directly.
There is a saying that goes something like, be the first in your group. I may have it completely wrong, and I know I do, but what I want to draw from that is the meaning of the quote, which is for someone to be the first in their group to do something in order to gain more power as whatever it may be.
Female writers of the 1800’s were just that: the first in their group. Instead of following orders of being the pleasant housewife, they decided to up arms and declare their independence, but with pens instead of guns.
Jane Austen.
The Bronte Sisters.
Louisa May Alcott.
Elizabeth Barren Browning.
Mary Shelley.
Women who defied society’s standards and wrote some of the best literature of any century.
And being the first in a group also applies to men, like Edgar Allan Poe. The reason why I love his work so much and why not just I, but many others consider him to be the greatest was because of the mood of his poetry. In a time when all was happy, Poe wrote about the misery of human nature. Call him ‘emo’ if you will, Poe wrote about the darker side of humanity and that is what makes him all powerful. He wrote about things avoided in a time where lying could and will put you in a mental institution. He was the first ‘gothic’ writer and he continues to be remembered decades later.
Era, timing, period, what ever you may call it. Time has an influence in writing. Today’s writers will not write about life in the 1500’s using Shakespeare’ words because that is not what will appeal to people and draw them attention as mighty writers. They will write about the concerns of this era, like war and economic crisis and whatnot. The writers of the 1800’s are bound to be the best of the best because they were the first in their group, the ones who experimented with literature, and in the end got results that will have them remembered for centuries to come.