How often have you gone to get a book, only to end up with one of the classics because the current offerings didn't grab you?
There may be a reason for that, and it's all in the numbers.
A Dartmouth college professor analyzed the literary trends in modern writing, using a formula that counted up the use of certain words, such as "at" or "of" in the books of over 500 authors.
What Daniel Rockmore found was that our modern writers aren't relying so much on the old classics for their style. Instead, they copy the style of each other.
What are those MFA students, in that case? You'd say that they don't spend all their time reading the old stuff. Once they get established as writers, they read what is being published to keep on top of market trends, and the influence of the classics gets further diminished.
Contemporary writers influence other contemporary writers, resulting in a common style that you may not find as rich or fulfilling as a juicy piece of Emily Bronte or F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Author Lionel Shriver suggests that we don't all have the patience for the sort of navel gazing that fill the pages of Dostoevsky and Dumas, therefore those classics go unread and the influence of those authors fades.
But what are we getting instead?
We are swamped with authors bemoaning some personal issue and treating it as if it is of earth-shattering importance. Rather than ponder the implications of injustice, a la Dumas, we find writers delving deep into their own psyches to wrestle their own demons, assuming that the world is fascinated by the struggle or shares the pain.
It's more than subject matter. Sentences have grown shorter and less complex. You might pick up a book and think you've grabbed some YA by mistake, but the content is not for kids.
Like anything else, literature evolves over time.
Like all aspects of evolution, some changes improve survival, while others lead down the road to extinction.
Which way might literature go?
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
The Job Of The Novelist
Gerard Donovan believes it is the novelist's job to write and use the words to pry open the eyes of those who don't want to see.
His fiction is intended to illuminate the dark corners where unpleasantness lies, to encourage readers to exit their comfort zone.
For that reason, the Irish-born author was outraged when a pro-Palestinian group tried to bully him into boycotting the upcoming International Writers Festival in Israel.
The Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign seeks to promote boycotts of all things Israeli, as a way to support the Palestinian cause. Keep in mind that the IRA didn't shy away from using violence, and you'll understand how a group of Irish people can stand shoulder to shoulder with those who think nothing of lobbing missiles into grade schools and homes...who would destroy Israel because its people are Jewish.
As part of their campaign, ISPC spokes-doctor Raymond Deane says he sent Mr. Donovan a letter, urging him to join the boycott and not attend the book fair. In the end, the doctor published an open letter because he says he never heard back and he's a man who wants answers.
At the moment, Mr. Donovan is dealing with cancer from his home in an isolated area in upstate New York. Anyone wishing to contact him need only contact his publisher.
Perhaps Dr. Deane is too busy railing against the Israelis to read Julius Winsome. It's published by Overlook Press.
As a man who believes that writers should not limit their works to boundaries set by others, Mr. Donovan is angry with Dr. Deane and the whole IPSC intimidation tactic. He had to cancel his appearance at the book event due to health concerns, but if he was physically able, he would have gone.
There are those who want to see both sides of an argument. There are those who don't think the Israelis are wrong, but are defending themselves. And in Ireland, there are many who are flat out anti-Semitic but hide behind a the facade of an Israeli boycott to hide their bigotry.
Singer Paul Simon took the heat when he went to South Africa to play with the musicians who were suffering under apartheid. He did more to help the country's artists than anyone who thought they were helping by staying at home, keeping the darkness dark in that corner of unpleasantness.
His fiction is intended to illuminate the dark corners where unpleasantness lies, to encourage readers to exit their comfort zone.
For that reason, the Irish-born author was outraged when a pro-Palestinian group tried to bully him into boycotting the upcoming International Writers Festival in Israel.
The Irish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign seeks to promote boycotts of all things Israeli, as a way to support the Palestinian cause. Keep in mind that the IRA didn't shy away from using violence, and you'll understand how a group of Irish people can stand shoulder to shoulder with those who think nothing of lobbing missiles into grade schools and homes...who would destroy Israel because its people are Jewish.
As part of their campaign, ISPC spokes-doctor Raymond Deane says he sent Mr. Donovan a letter, urging him to join the boycott and not attend the book fair. In the end, the doctor published an open letter because he says he never heard back and he's a man who wants answers.
At the moment, Mr. Donovan is dealing with cancer from his home in an isolated area in upstate New York. Anyone wishing to contact him need only contact his publisher.
Perhaps Dr. Deane is too busy railing against the Israelis to read Julius Winsome. It's published by Overlook Press.
As a man who believes that writers should not limit their works to boundaries set by others, Mr. Donovan is angry with Dr. Deane and the whole IPSC intimidation tactic. He had to cancel his appearance at the book event due to health concerns, but if he was physically able, he would have gone.
There are those who want to see both sides of an argument. There are those who don't think the Israelis are wrong, but are defending themselves. And in Ireland, there are many who are flat out anti-Semitic but hide behind a the facade of an Israeli boycott to hide their bigotry.
Singer Paul Simon took the heat when he went to South Africa to play with the musicians who were suffering under apartheid. He did more to help the country's artists than anyone who thought they were helping by staying at home, keeping the darkness dark in that corner of unpleasantness.
Monday, May 14, 2012
If We Can Have A Grexit Can We Have A Post-Chase?
Some Mondays feel more Monday-like than others, and here we are.
The wags have already coined a term for Greece leaving the euro. You'll see headlines about a "Grexit" but that's smacking too much of "Brangelina" and other cute word play.
If you're wondering about your own future in the euro zone, it isn't particularly amusing.
But with all this financial stress all around us, we need something to occupy our minds and escape from our worries about borrowing costs and market collapses and who do the Greeks think they are that they're too big to fail and Germany will cave.
What shall we call the abrupt departures that will soon decimate the trading offices of JPMorgan Chase?
Is it time to discuss the "Post-Chase" scene?
After all, the politicians are barking long and loud about the need for regulations, as if a few rules are going to fix things.
Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules.
Or at any rate, no one is going to bother following new rules when they weren't concerned with the old ones.
Is it a "steeplechase" out the door in JPMorgan's London branch?
Once powerful traders are soon to be out of a job, but when a person's made millions every year, you don't exactly feel sorry for their troubles. Is anyone really concerned about how Ina Drew will pay the rent now that she's packing up her personal effects and clearing out her office?
Let's all worry about how we are going to meet the next mortgage payment and whether or not there'll be enough left to buy a soup bone from the butcher.
The freshly sacked Ms. Drew is welcome to dinner, but it might be stone soup and if she has a carrot or two, it would be helpful if she brought the vegies along.
The wags have already coined a term for Greece leaving the euro. You'll see headlines about a "Grexit" but that's smacking too much of "Brangelina" and other cute word play.
If you're wondering about your own future in the euro zone, it isn't particularly amusing.
What shall we call the abrupt departures that will soon decimate the trading offices of JPMorgan Chase?
Is it time to discuss the "Post-Chase" scene?
After all, the politicians are barking long and loud about the need for regulations, as if a few rules are going to fix things.
Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules.
Or at any rate, no one is going to bother following new rules when they weren't concerned with the old ones.
Is it a "steeplechase" out the door in JPMorgan's London branch?
Once powerful traders are soon to be out of a job, but when a person's made millions every year, you don't exactly feel sorry for their troubles. Is anyone really concerned about how Ina Drew will pay the rent now that she's packing up her personal effects and clearing out her office?
Let's all worry about how we are going to meet the next mortgage payment and whether or not there'll be enough left to buy a soup bone from the butcher.
The freshly sacked Ms. Drew is welcome to dinner, but it might be stone soup and if she has a carrot or two, it would be helpful if she brought the vegies along.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
The $2 Billion I-Told-You-So
Those who cared about JPMorgan Chase spoke up.
The suits didn't listen.
Because maybe, just maybe, the London Whale would pull it off.
Gamblers have a tendency to believe that the next big score is coming. One more throw of the dice. One more. Another. This one for sure. Until they've used up all their money and there's no getting it back.
According to reports, those who worked at the London branch of JPMorgan Chase, the unit that is credited with losing two billion dollars in bad investments, had complained about Bruno Iksil's activities.
He's heading for a fall, senior banker Bill Winters said, as far back as 2007, but who could hear one voice over the roar of an excited crowd that wanted Mr. Iksil to succeed. There was money for them riding on it, after all.
Chief Investment Officer Ina Drew made somewhere in the vicinity of $14 million thanks to Mr. Iksil's past bets on the market. Why rein in him?
Now Ms. Drew is also in trouble, like a co-conspirator or the chief investment officer who was supposed to be minding the store but was too preoccupied with the contents of her own till to notice that risky investments were being made en masse.
Over all, no one above Mr. Iksil paid much attention to the warnings issued by those in the trenches who could see quite clearly where the bets on risky derivatives were headed. Is there any satisfaction for them now, to say "I told you so" to all those deaf ears?
That "I told you so" is going to resound in the ears of stockholders, who don't like owning shares in a company that's run so poorly. They won't vote to retain a CEO who doesn't know what's going on as billions of dollars are wasted, billions of dollars that could be used for stock dividends to the stockholders.
Ina Drew and Bruno Iksil will likely be fired for incompetence, but will Jamie Dimon survive the coming storm?
It depends on how much time he has before the next stockholder meeting, to dance around the issue, apply patches, and slap a coat of whitewash on the JPMorgan facade.
The suits didn't listen.
Because maybe, just maybe, the London Whale would pull it off.
According to reports, those who worked at the London branch of JPMorgan Chase, the unit that is credited with losing two billion dollars in bad investments, had complained about Bruno Iksil's activities.
He's heading for a fall, senior banker Bill Winters said, as far back as 2007, but who could hear one voice over the roar of an excited crowd that wanted Mr. Iksil to succeed. There was money for them riding on it, after all.
Now Ms. Drew is also in trouble, like a co-conspirator or the chief investment officer who was supposed to be minding the store but was too preoccupied with the contents of her own till to notice that risky investments were being made en masse.
Over all, no one above Mr. Iksil paid much attention to the warnings issued by those in the trenches who could see quite clearly where the bets on risky derivatives were headed. Is there any satisfaction for them now, to say "I told you so" to all those deaf ears?
That "I told you so" is going to resound in the ears of stockholders, who don't like owning shares in a company that's run so poorly. They won't vote to retain a CEO who doesn't know what's going on as billions of dollars are wasted, billions of dollars that could be used for stock dividends to the stockholders.
Ina Drew and Bruno Iksil will likely be fired for incompetence, but will Jamie Dimon survive the coming storm?
It depends on how much time he has before the next stockholder meeting, to dance around the issue, apply patches, and slap a coat of whitewash on the JPMorgan facade.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
How To Deal With Austerity
For too long, governments spent money and gave away all sorts of prezzies so that people would vote the politicians back in, year after year.
Now that the bill's come due and the party is over, all those who rode the pig's back have fallen into the muck and how does one return to prosperity when the hand-outs have stopped?
The face of Atkins Ireland, Tom Lyons, found a very clever way to pad his salary, and without having to do much hard work.
The State didn't need so much traffic and transportation advice after the Celtic Tiger expired. The big project that Mr. Lyons was to head in Dublin was put on hold due to austerity measures. So Mr. Lyons took action and opened up his own string of businesses in Limerick City.
What could be more lucrative than a string of brothels?
Mr. Lyons and his partner, Ms. Zelandia Silva of Brazil, were in the world's oldest business, a proposition that brought in enough money to pay for the many apartments that became job sites.
The gardai had been keeping an eye on Mr. Lyons for the past two years, during which time he must have been living rather well for a man whose employer was losing State-sponsored business and cutting back.
But what's a man to do when the source of his capital turns off the spigot?
You have to pay the mortgage. You have to eat.
And there's always the outside chance that a transportation project might be deemed so important that it can't be cut, no matter how austere the government wishes to appear to be. You need a second job that won't interfere with the first. Running a brothel is perfect for the situation Mr. Lyons was in.
Before long, he'll not have to worry about paying his bills, since the State will cover his housing and meals and medical care for the next several years.
After that, he might be able to re-enter the consulting business.
Who wouldn't want to take advice from a man who found a way around the problem? Human trafficking and traffic control---isn't there some sort of link in there?
The face of Atkins Ireland, Tom Lyons, found a very clever way to pad his salary, and without having to do much hard work.
The State didn't need so much traffic and transportation advice after the Celtic Tiger expired. The big project that Mr. Lyons was to head in Dublin was put on hold due to austerity measures. So Mr. Lyons took action and opened up his own string of businesses in Limerick City.
What could be more lucrative than a string of brothels?
Mr. Lyons and his partner, Ms. Zelandia Silva of Brazil, were in the world's oldest business, a proposition that brought in enough money to pay for the many apartments that became job sites.
The gardai had been keeping an eye on Mr. Lyons for the past two years, during which time he must have been living rather well for a man whose employer was losing State-sponsored business and cutting back.
But what's a man to do when the source of his capital turns off the spigot?
You have to pay the mortgage. You have to eat.
And there's always the outside chance that a transportation project might be deemed so important that it can't be cut, no matter how austere the government wishes to appear to be. You need a second job that won't interfere with the first. Running a brothel is perfect for the situation Mr. Lyons was in.
Before long, he'll not have to worry about paying his bills, since the State will cover his housing and meals and medical care for the next several years.
After that, he might be able to re-enter the consulting business.
Who wouldn't want to take advice from a man who found a way around the problem? Human trafficking and traffic control---isn't there some sort of link in there?
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
The Man Without A Clue
Every now and then, a character pops up in the real world and you want nothing more than to put him in a story.
He's so perfectly clueless. So blind to what is going on around him.
Imagine writing from his point of view. You could mislead your readers and arrive at a surprise ending that they won't see coming because they were relying on this clueless narrator and the man's blind.
Such a character is Peter Savva.
He's contesting the divorce action brought by his wife which dissolved a thirty-four year marriage.
In Mr. Savva's mind, his wife is clearly out of her mind to want to leave him. He asked the judge to order psychiatric tests of the woman before finalizing the divorce, so sure is the man that his darling could not possibly be sane.
They've slept in separate rooms for the past eight years, but she needs her space and it means nothing of any significance, according to the man who wants to rationalize everything. It isn't the marriage that's broken down, but the missus. She's had a nervous breakdown of some sort, as evidenced by her seeking a divorce.
The judge didn't see that Mrs. Savva had any sort of mental impairment whatsoever. She was merely fed up with her husband, the children were grown and out of the house, and she wanted out as well.
Not one to give up in the face of certain defeat, Mr. Savva has vowed to carry on his quest. He wants a judicial review of England's divorce laws.
The laws make it too easy for a woman unduly influenced by her mother, or her solicitors, and there's the husband left to twist in the wind when he doesn't want to be wife-less.
Now, to put this character into a scene and see where the pen takes him....
He's so perfectly clueless. So blind to what is going on around him.
Imagine writing from his point of view. You could mislead your readers and arrive at a surprise ending that they won't see coming because they were relying on this clueless narrator and the man's blind.
He's contesting the divorce action brought by his wife which dissolved a thirty-four year marriage.
In Mr. Savva's mind, his wife is clearly out of her mind to want to leave him. He asked the judge to order psychiatric tests of the woman before finalizing the divorce, so sure is the man that his darling could not possibly be sane.
They've slept in separate rooms for the past eight years, but she needs her space and it means nothing of any significance, according to the man who wants to rationalize everything. It isn't the marriage that's broken down, but the missus. She's had a nervous breakdown of some sort, as evidenced by her seeking a divorce.
The judge didn't see that Mrs. Savva had any sort of mental impairment whatsoever. She was merely fed up with her husband, the children were grown and out of the house, and she wanted out as well.
Not one to give up in the face of certain defeat, Mr. Savva has vowed to carry on his quest. He wants a judicial review of England's divorce laws.
The laws make it too easy for a woman unduly influenced by her mother, or her solicitors, and there's the husband left to twist in the wind when he doesn't want to be wife-less.
Now, to put this character into a scene and see where the pen takes him....
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Infected With Poetry
Will everything be found in wikis and search engine results?
Some say that the traditional research book, filled with bits of knowledge, is going the way of the telephone book. We're all looking up phone numbers online these days, but if you found a number in Wikipedia, would you trust it?
Or will there be a new platform for the peer-reviewed journal that is reliable like the old-fashioned journal but easily accessed by all who seek information?
Bob Stein thinks that his SocialBook is the future of publishing. Writers and readers, getting together, changing the text, producing a book....sounds like a workshop gone mad, and if you've ever read a heavily workshop-ed manuscript, you know what kind of drivel comes out.
I don't know that I'd do much reading if that was all that was out there. Maybe it's designed more for instructional texts rather than novels.
Are we headed towards a digital future? Many have declared the hard-bound book to be dead, replaced by the e-book. That's not a startling revelation, considering the amount of revenue publishers are receiving from digital sales.
Book Expo America will introduce a new offering this year at its annual get-together, and it's all directed towards self-publishing, which has been revolutionized by the e-book.
Clearly, BEA recognizes that traditional publishing is changing, as the major publishers skew heavily towards what they think are blockbusters. Readers have to go out hunting for their own entertainment, for their preferred niche genre, and e-books are inexpensive. An important consideration when you're taking a chance on an unknown author.
But what else might be considered a book?
How about some DNA?
Christian Bok wrote a poem in DNA and injected it into a bacterium.
So in the future, might we all be infected with poetry? What if we were inoculated to protect us from lethal word combinations or cliches?
It's something to think about. But how would we read what is inside our cells when we've become the book?
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