I miss airport novels, and racks of paperbacks that enticed readers of diverse social strata and educational levels with vivid covers. I miss middlebrow authors and broad-appeal fiction. Literary versus genre is another tedious squabble that adds to the din of this cheerless, quarrelsome age.
Let's remember that social media has hierarchies. The best, featuring devoted journalists, is well worth consuming. One can learn a great deal about current events and what groups are thinking. At the other end of the spectrum are the legions of idiots, whose writings have all the value of graffiti on bathroom stalls. Nothing can be learned from them, and it would be a mistake to say they are representative of anyone or anything.
Thanks especially for the Nixonland stuff. I was a kid during the Nixon administrations, but around the time of his re-election I was just starting to read the newspaper. I couldn't agree more about the parallels--partly concerning the leaders in power (and their constituencies), but especially about both state and citizen "political" violence.
Yeah the level of violence was something I really wasn't taught. I knew about Kent State and Weather Underground bombings and a few other things, but was never taught about e.g. the hard hat riot where hundreds of conservative construction workers attacked anti-war protestors. I also knew a lot about Nixon's presidency, but not how he ran an an "anti-elite" populist of a sort, among other Trump parallels.
Fundamental differences in the zeitgeist. Kids who protested then didn’t want to go to Vietnam to die. It wasn’t the clueless virtue signaling or violent leftists of today. There are now people willing to kill to keep men in women’s prisons. They are fighting to keep criminal illegals in the country and to keep dollars flowing to fraudsters. It amazes me how many people don’t know or don’t care to know what they are trying to do, except they do know that all their friends think ICE is bad. There is very little parallel between the 60s and what is going on now. There is no youth movement today that isn’t paid. Aging losers with nothing better to do than burn it all down don’t count. Well meaning boomers who think illegals are fine because they will never feel any consequences don’t count. Finally, it’s laughable to clutch pearls over violence while ignoring that it is, and has always been, the most bipartisan thing ever.
What you are saying here was said about the 60s/70s protestors too. Those protestors were also accused of being paid or just lazy college students who didn't have real values, etc. Another good example of how history repeats itself. "Clueless virtue signaling of violent leftists" could have been a direct quote from a Nixon admin figure.
(And FWIW I didn't draw a parallel between the protesters per se, but between the mocking and celebration of unarmed citizens being killed by the state.)
Genres are used to sell books. Genres fulfill customer expectations. Then sub-genres like literary/sci-fi narrow these expectations even more. Actually, they expand as much as narrow. The literary reader is now a buyer, as well as the sci-fi reader.
I'd be interested in knowing your take on who's been buying Metallic Realms, Lincoln. Genre readers? Lit readers? It might be a future post. Not to tell you what to do. BTW and by coincidence I am also running a literary/sci fi novel on my Substack, if ya don't mind me mentioning it.
I miss airport novels, and racks of paperbacks that enticed readers of diverse social strata and educational levels with vivid covers. I miss middlebrow authors and broad-appeal fiction. Literary versus genre is another tedious squabble that adds to the din of this cheerless, quarrelsome age.
my judgemental take on the whole Shakespeare thing is that people on here don’t really understand drama as a medium
Let's remember that social media has hierarchies. The best, featuring devoted journalists, is well worth consuming. One can learn a great deal about current events and what groups are thinking. At the other end of the spectrum are the legions of idiots, whose writings have all the value of graffiti on bathroom stalls. Nothing can be learned from them, and it would be a mistake to say they are representative of anyone or anything.
"Well, one thing you can do is read widely yourself across genres and styles." Yes!
Thanks especially for the Nixonland stuff. I was a kid during the Nixon administrations, but around the time of his re-election I was just starting to read the newspaper. I couldn't agree more about the parallels--partly concerning the leaders in power (and their constituencies), but especially about both state and citizen "political" violence.
Yeah the level of violence was something I really wasn't taught. I knew about Kent State and Weather Underground bombings and a few other things, but was never taught about e.g. the hard hat riot where hundreds of conservative construction workers attacked anti-war protestors. I also knew a lot about Nixon's presidency, but not how he ran an an "anti-elite" populist of a sort, among other Trump parallels.
Fundamental differences in the zeitgeist. Kids who protested then didn’t want to go to Vietnam to die. It wasn’t the clueless virtue signaling or violent leftists of today. There are now people willing to kill to keep men in women’s prisons. They are fighting to keep criminal illegals in the country and to keep dollars flowing to fraudsters. It amazes me how many people don’t know or don’t care to know what they are trying to do, except they do know that all their friends think ICE is bad. There is very little parallel between the 60s and what is going on now. There is no youth movement today that isn’t paid. Aging losers with nothing better to do than burn it all down don’t count. Well meaning boomers who think illegals are fine because they will never feel any consequences don’t count. Finally, it’s laughable to clutch pearls over violence while ignoring that it is, and has always been, the most bipartisan thing ever.
What you are saying here was said about the 60s/70s protestors too. Those protestors were also accused of being paid or just lazy college students who didn't have real values, etc. Another good example of how history repeats itself. "Clueless virtue signaling of violent leftists" could have been a direct quote from a Nixon admin figure.
(And FWIW I didn't draw a parallel between the protesters per se, but between the mocking and celebration of unarmed citizens being killed by the state.)
Genres are used to sell books. Genres fulfill customer expectations. Then sub-genres like literary/sci-fi narrow these expectations even more. Actually, they expand as much as narrow. The literary reader is now a buyer, as well as the sci-fi reader.
I'd be interested in knowing your take on who's been buying Metallic Realms, Lincoln. Genre readers? Lit readers? It might be a future post. Not to tell you what to do. BTW and by coincidence I am also running a literary/sci fi novel on my Substack, if ya don't mind me mentioning it.