Most articles and opinion pieces on the art of storytelling sye on thing to modern writers; plot. The focus these days is always on a fast-paced, gripping read that will catch the attention of modern, busy people. Description is cut to a minimum, action and plot are made as fast-paced as possible to pack the book full of thrills.
But does this mean that epic storytelling - the use of language as thing of beauty or an art in itself - is dead? Writers from Homer to Tolkein used beautiful descriptive passages, took time to delve deep into their characters' thoughts and feelings, and used a style of slower storytelling and depiction of scenes which I personally find much more powerful than modern fast thriller novels. However, publishers these days apparently mostly just don't even look at descriptive storytelling.
So what do you think? Do you like books with strong descriptive elements, or do you think that more writing than the plot needs is a fundamentally unnecessary feature in a book?
