Age
A friend reminded me of this...
"A book, if you expect wonders of it, should be read twice. It should be read in youth, when you are younger than its heroes, and the second time when you are advanced in age and the book's heroes become younger than yourself. That way you will see them from both sides of their years, and they will be able to put you to the test on the other side of the clock, where time stands still. This means that it is forever too late to read some books, just as sometimes it is forever too late to go to bed." -- Milorad Pavic
If you accept the premise, which I do, then when you are young you have the entirety of human creativity at your fingertips. Assuming some constant distribution applies to the ages of heroes in new works one will lose touch with new ideas and new literature year by year until, aged, there is nothing new in the world.
Truly we are creatures of an era and our entire lives are defined by loss of connection to the new.
"A book, if you expect wonders of it, should be read twice. It should be read in youth, when you are younger than its heroes, and the second time when you are advanced in age and the book's heroes become younger than yourself. That way you will see them from both sides of their years, and they will be able to put you to the test on the other side of the clock, where time stands still. This means that it is forever too late to read some books, just as sometimes it is forever too late to go to bed." -- Milorad Pavic
If you accept the premise, which I do, then when you are young you have the entirety of human creativity at your fingertips. Assuming some constant distribution applies to the ages of heroes in new works one will lose touch with new ideas and new literature year by year until, aged, there is nothing new in the world.
Truly we are creatures of an era and our entire lives are defined by loss of connection to the new.