Thursday, August 27, 2015

Against the Establishment

Why has the American public embraced political candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders? It shows a rejection of the “business-as-usual” status quo political establishment.

The same phenomenon should be taking place in the world of literature, which badly needs a shakeup and shakeout.

Ever look at yahoo news or other online information sources? Entire staffs of editors are assigned to cover movies, music, and sports. Almost NO ONE covers the book world, which as a topic of interest has disappeared. Big-selling authors are out there, the likes of George R.R. Martin. (Or even lit-establishment novelist Jonathan Franzen.) They have ZERO personality—and in truth aren’t very good writers. There’s little reason to cover them.

This tells me that the publishing establishment anchored in New York City and their well-trained p.r. mavens have been failures. They’re doing everything wrong.

We at NEW POP LIT are confident or naive enough to believe we can do better.

In  contrast to the “go-along-to-get-along” weasels of establishment politics, actual human beings like Sanders and Trump are a welcome difference.

It’s also time to move on from the conformists of establishment literature.

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(See NEW POP LIT’s report on the new Jonathan Franzen novel, here.)

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