The only thing really worth noting in all this - and it's something the people who run newspapers seem not to have noticed - is how interested so many people are in books. Is there anything comparable going on with pop music or movies or TV?
(I guess we shouldn't tell you about Spiderman!) Btw, something which should interest you. I was browsing through a book about JPII (can't remember which one). He spent much of his time thinking about the decline of the church in Europe. His conclusion about the church in France (where he'd lived for awhile early in his career) was that the French church spent its time after WWII recruiting intellectuals and lost the masses. Isn't this what happened with the church of literature in America during the same time period? An art, like a religion, develops from the ground up. The energy in the lit-world is coming from the bottom up. This is true even with Mr. Palooka, whose "Rant" had to have been influenced by the zeen scene of the 90s, when ranting underground zeens were everywhere in the Northwest, where Palooka is from. The underground (zeensters, anarchists, et.al) is still strongest in Oregon and Washington. As those who man the literary establishment come increasingly from more and more privileged backgrounds, they're drawn more and more to their opposite-- and so the interest in persons like Bolano and pseudo-rebels like Palooka. But I should save these thoughts for my own blog. . . . The bottom line: the world of literature IS changing swiftly. The changes will move beyond lit-bloggers, and maybe someday past even the ULA, which is still the extreme edge of change at the moment. You're well positioned to serve as a bridge between the new and the old. (The characters of my little blog narrative will be analyzing these matters further.)
(I guess we shouldn't tell you about Spiderman!)
ReplyDeleteBtw, something which should interest you. I was browsing through a book about JPII (can't remember which one). He spent much of his time thinking about the decline of the church in Europe. His conclusion about the church in France (where he'd lived for awhile early in his career) was that the French church spent its time after WWII recruiting intellectuals and lost the masses.
Isn't this what happened with the church of literature in America during the same time period?
An art, like a religion, develops from the ground up.
The energy in the lit-world is coming from the bottom up.
This is true even with Mr. Palooka, whose "Rant" had to have been influenced by the zeen scene of the 90s, when ranting underground zeens were everywhere in the Northwest, where Palooka is from. The underground (zeensters, anarchists, et.al) is still strongest in Oregon and Washington.
As those who man the literary establishment come increasingly from more and more privileged backgrounds, they're drawn more and more to their opposite-- and so the interest in persons like Bolano and pseudo-rebels like Palooka.
But I should save these thoughts for my own blog. . . .
The bottom line: the world of literature IS changing swiftly.
The changes will move beyond lit-bloggers, and maybe someday past even the ULA, which is still the extreme edge of change at the moment.
You're well positioned to serve as a bridge between the new and the old.
(The characters of my little blog narrative will be analyzing these matters further.)