Miscellaneous

A Few Notable Links

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In my rummaging through the attic of the internet, I unearthed a couple of unusual, interesting, and in one case, bizarre stories. Sadly another major bookstore is closing, due to hikes in rent. The owner wrote a irate e-mail to the National Post  taking on the blindness of a government who is willing to increase … Read more

A Wee Yellow Library

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I’ve never gone through the doors of Riverton’s butter hued public library. I don’t consider visiting neighboring towns’ libraries, I assume they serve the immediate population, not the town two doors down. And considering how teeny the quaint Victorian building is, I doubt that more than a few people can fit among the bookshelves. One … Read more

When Did Children’s Books Become Political Fodder?

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I am not taking a political point of view here, just asking the question of just how and when books written by the likes of Dr. Seuss become political footballs for individuals to kick around, trying to make some kind of cultural point? I don’t remember in my childhood any group of people asserting that Dick and Jane represented a right wing notion of conformity, or Mary Poppins is anti banks. Of course many books were written in an attempt to give children life lessons and points of morality, but to classify any one of them as subversive to one group or people or another, wasn’t dreamed of. Lately we’ve seen a lot of children’s entertainment come under fire by various groups and individuals. One of the Telly Tubbies was said to represent a gay individual, Sesame Street has come  under attack for stuff groups disapprove of–The Cookie Monster–promotes bad eating habits. Bert and Ernie–two male bachelors share an apartment and that can only mean one thing, right? The entire show is blamed for ADD. Looking more closely at the issue, I suppose some people will have difficulties with any work of literature–Alice in Wonderland has been banned in China for various strange reasons, and of course Twain’s Huckleberry Finn is pulled from classrooms for its language. It’s unacceptable today, even thought it was written over 100 years ago.

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The next big thing… or the end of civilization?

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Rare book dealers have a certain image in pop culture.  They are generally a bit eccentric, standoffish, erudite, and curmudgeonly.  Librarians have a somewhat similar image, but generally are more aimed at facilitating the wide dissemination of knowledge.  The book dealer is much more personal.  They may only share their best material with a special … Read more

Phone Booth Libraries

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At first, the concept of  shelves of books as teeny libraries in New York City phone booths seemed laughable. I mean, we’re talking about NYC, where men relieve themselves openly on buildings, trashcans, and phone booths. Certainly dogs habitually find the steel like protrudents  irresistible. Then there’s the vandalism and theft found in major metropolitan … Read more

Literary trash to enduring classic

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It’s hard to predict what books will be considered “classics” decades after their publication.  Books hailed as literary masterpieces by critics often clutter up thrift shops and rummage sales a mere decade later. Things derided as utter trash end up being required reading decades later since they made such an outsize impact on the pop culture of the time that they can’t be ignored. Series that exploded and produced movies, TV, and tie in products often end up as these accidental “classics”.  They’re so big they can’t be ignored.

It’s a bit harder to predict the arc of individual books than series, just because they have fewer chances to take off. A single book is like a bullet, a series is like a shotgun blast.  The series has better odds of hitting, just because it has more chances to take off.  The same holds true for prolific short story writers or poets.  ONE of these might take off and lead people to the rest.

Of course everyone prefers tales of struggling writers that later were hailed genre defining.  We love Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. They fit our romantic ideal of the tortured artist who is not recognized until after its too late. We like our authors lives as dramatic as their tales.

We don’t love successful, prolific authors until such point as we can forget forget about their more obviously commercial nature.  Many people look back at the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy series as classic children’s series they want to share with their children… and ignore they were written by a commercial syndicate employing ghost writers to turn out books following a very specific commercial formula.  The same people that hail the early syndicate books from those series often heap scorn upon the modern continuations of those same series… even thought they’re still doing very much the same thing they were doing 50 years ago.

Charles Dickens published many of his books as serials in newspapers and magazines before collecting them as books.  Many of them he didn’t fully complete the story before begin the serial, so changed around characters and plots in response to feedback from readers.  If he was writing today, he likely would be writing episodes for a blog or for download to an ereader as a subscription… and poo-pooed as a hack that can’t get a “real” book published.

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