The Future is Flesh-and-Blood

The boom in literary readings, plays, happenings, branded parties, and debates — of which, for better or worse, I’ve participated in and organized — signals that communication deeply matters to us as a species and culture. But it’s also a sign that online communication has altered our ability to communicate, and therefore how we organize social experience. Having been closer to the center than the periphery of New York underground theater and literary culture during the last five years, I feel justified in making the following Sean Monahan-style trend forecast for 2026: live events will gain popularity in direct proportion to the decline of functional literacy; writers will write less for the page and more for the ear; readers will become, functionally and spiritually, listeners, viewers, collective-absorbers, reliant on cues provided by crowds.