(no subject)

[ivyfic]

Two interesting stories in publishing news this morning:

New Guinea Tribe Sues The New Yorker for $10 Million
There's been a long (long) tradition of shaping stories about native peoples to fit colonial preconceptions. Perhaps that's why, in this case, the author of a story about a blood feud among New Guinea tribesmen did not bother to fact check his story thoroughly. I can't help but feel that if he'd heard the same story from an American it never would have gone to print before everyone was absolutely sure they could back up their accusations—or it would have been written in much more equivocal terms. That's why I find it so interesting that he's being sued for libel. Cause yes, he did accuse this person of theft, rape, and murder. And at least in this case, just because the accused is part of the third world isn't letting him off the hook.

Should Literary Novels Be More Like The Wire?
A professor of American literature asks literary authors to write about issues of class and social order in modern society.

In his essay, Mr. Michaels implicated three groups of writers: those who traffic narcissistically in memoir and self-examination; those who write fiction about past horrors like the Holocaust and slavery; and those who focus in their work on the tribulations of individual characters while ignoring the societal pressures that determine those characters’ lives.

By focusing on this, Michaels (I think rightfully) points out that the actual problems of modern society are being made invisible in literature. One literary agent explains that a lot of authors try to remove mentions of the contemporary world to make their work "timeless." It's an interesting sort of color-blindness—to remove all the elements that make a character what he is and therefore assume that the character's struggles are universal.

At a time when a lot of people feel that "legitimate" literature is being threatened and needs to be protected because of its inherent value to society, I think it's a valid criticism to say that literature as a whole focuses too much on the personal problems of the ruling class.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

A) Good point.
B) Also true.

As for the other point, you're right--details are no substitute for substance. But nothing is substantial without detail. Like most things, it's a case of balance.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

And talent.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

And that :)

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

I recall in The Great Gatsby, pages were dedicated to listing the names of the party guests. My English teacher said it was to depict shallowness, and pointed out how the names were derived from animals.

The branding might be similar.