Anna Kornbluh advocates for slowness against modern immediacy

Anna Kornbluh, a specialist in Victorian literature teaching at the University of Illinois Chicago, advocates for gravity and slowness as a defense against the overwhelming pace of modern life. In her 2024 book, ‘Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late Capitalism’, Kornbluh diagnoses a loss of perspective caused by the dizzying speed of current events.

She argues that the replacement of traditional institutions, such as political parties and unions, with social media and individualistic personal experiences has left society without stable landmarks during successive crises. Kornbluh suggests finding stability through the depth found in the works of authors like Emily Brontë and Charles Dickens, as well as through complex systems like television series and established institutions that provide necessary distance from the constant flux of the present.