Enablers of the Monolith

It's sad to see hapless writer-wannabes who don't have one-in-ten-thousand chance of getting a six-figure contract gushing over Chad Harbach's "struggles" and the Keith Gessen Vanity Fair article about them. Reality check: Harbach edited Harvard's literary journal, as did Gessen. These guys are connected to the max. The door was always open for Harbach, waiting for him to walk through it.

The herd of bourgeois wannabes see before them many illusory doors, leading nowhere. The real door is closed-- though I suppose they could knock very loudly upon it, if they find it among the others.

For those few writers like myself who've challenged the corrupt system, there's no door at all. Only a blank concrete monolithic wall.

Writers Rich and Poor

A short essay of mine, "A Tale of Two Literary Worlds," has been posted at the citizen journalist website Inewp, at
http://inewp.com/?p=8888

I wrote the article after looking at the current issue of Vanity Fair at a magazine stand. Though I opened the issue because Angelina Jolie was on the cover, I found inside an essay by Keith Gessen of n+1 instead!

Keith Gessen's subject is Chad Harbach's novel, The Art of Fielding, but he also examines today's publishing world. I was struck by the narrowness of Gessen's viewpoint. I had to respond.

The Illusion

Publications like Vanity Fair and The New Yorker create the illusion of American literature. American literature is what they say it is, because they say it. They say it often enough that people believe it. Even though they represent a tiny fraction of American writers. Not the best of them either. Definitely not the most independent and original of them.

What this crowd carries is the biggest megaphone.

(Read Mood Detroit.)