[J m HofMarN]

The sad state of literature today, and what can be done about it.

[satyre]I think many people don't quite understand how bad off the literary world is today. The main problem is that there seems to be a mass influx of novels being written. In fact well over a hundred thousand a year are produced and slung at a few hundred editors if that. Everyone who takes a creative writing class in high school seems to think that they can become Stephen King, when in fact we all have better chances of winning the lottery.

Editors are unable to sort good books from bad due to the great number, like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. And so they must often shop for brands, namely looking at the genres of a work and picking out the genres that are selling these days and paying special attention to books of this sort. And thus we see the incredible number of horror, vampire and court room thriller novels propagating on the shelves of the local lotta-books store.

The problem with the current system is that it is entirely too democratized. It used to be that publishers would produce a book based upon what they had decided people should like and that people would take the publishers word. Here the publisher and the author were the kings and the peasantry had to accept any edicts laid down, for it was not as though they were apt to produce their own books instead.

Now, instead of the publishers and authors telling people what to like the people buy random books and let the publishers make sense of that and then decide which books are selling the best, only to go and tell people that those books are the best sellers and must therefore be bought. And so people imagine that they have total control over what books sell well and what books don't, and the publishers imagine that they have none.

In fact the very opposite is true. Most of the consumers in America buy things either for shinyness or for some passing interest in them. I have known people to buy dogs for their cute puppy look and then, when those dogs grew old on them, leave them chained up outback and scarcely think of them. It is the same with books. The vast majority of novels that are purchased are never read and so it is impossible for the reader to decide whether or not they are good.

The simple reason that a book sells is that it has a pretty cover and has been written by an author who's name is well known. I am entirely certain that no matter how poor and random an author one can find that if this authors name was properly hyped that he would find himself an immediate best seller.

In this case I must make it absolutely clear that democracy in the realm of books does not work in any way. I must therefore absolutely suggest a return to the monarchy and dictatorship of old, when the business of publishing had no business being involved in the business of publishing. How will this be affected you may ask. Well it's quite simple.

Literacy rates are simply too high! Even though most of those graduating from schools in America can scarcely eek out an understanding of Doctor Seus' volumes I think that far too much is done to allow Americans to participate in literary culture. Everyone purchases books these days and what are they buying?

Homer? Hemingway? Tennyson? Tolkien? Wilde? Whitman? Fitzgerald? Faust? No, of course not! They purchase books about how they can reduce the size of their backside and increase the size of their front! They buy books about the most absurd subjects or pornography that masquerades as literature. And so as the demand for such absurdities grows the publishers, too afraid to tell the people what to buy, start producing more absurd novels. And meanwhile the decent books are most likely to sit on a shelf gathering dust!

I must point out that purchasing is not tantamount to reading, just as buying an excersise device will in no way make one more fit. Covers and names make best sellers, not quality. The only people who listen to reviewers are authors and publishers. In this way a great many good reviews may well make an impression on a publishing company and allow them to choose to market a book more, thus increasing sales, but this is the only real effect reviewers have, except to eat up the souls of authors.

Now, I am not merely complaining-- I have a solution! It is bothersome that a fellow working at McDonalds is responsible for the direction of modern literature. Therefore I modestly propose that we stop teaching people to read and especially stop teaching people to write. We need to return to the days when each town had a scribner or a scroll writer or a recorder, or what have you. Reading has lost all of its mystique and snobbishness and this is the reason for the sad state of things today.

Of course one might imagine that society would fall apart without a high literacy rate such as we enjoy today. Not so! Of course there will be many who can learn how to read when they go into a place of higher education, such as managers and accountants and lawyers and clerics and other thoroughly boring forms of employ. By insuring that only a few people can read we will not only allow society to keep functioning but these few learned people will become the market testers and sole readers for all books produced!

Now, you may ask, what about selling literature? Won't the industry be ruined if people stop learning to read? Not at all! You see, people will still buy books simply to have them, exactly as they do now! However it will be quite well known that the opinions of the masses do not matter because they are quite illiterate. Control will return to the publishing companies to churn out whatever they feel will be good to publish.

And just what will be published? To paraphrase Oscar Wilde "Why, the clever people, of course!" Do you really imagine that the accountants and factory managers will write books about factory management and accounting? If one were so deranged to create the genre of "accounting fiction" there would still be no editor mad enough to publish it, unless they were significantly inebriated. Therefore all books would come from those who were either quite well off and showed a particular interest in writing or those who had taught themselves to read and write. And let's face it, if there's one thing that's interesting to read about it's well off people who are self taught.

Not a single dull book would be produced again! There would no longer be piles upon piles of indistinguishable romance novels and horror books. Rather, by eliminating the more tepid writings, literature would be condensed to include only the very creme de la creme. Now then, do not wait. The next fool you see walking along the road trying to make out the complex sentences and allegories in an Ernest Hemingway novel, take the book from them and tell them that it has been decreed that they must absolutely stop reading immediately, and never even think of writing.

And of course the teachers of English are to be convinced as well, for I'm sure they will see the wisdom in my humble opinion. Simply tell every professor of literature or writing you come across that it is in the best interests of American and global literature that he immediately defenistrate himself so as to avoid passing on the ability to read to any more souls undeserving of such. And for those who do not repent I request that they at least instruct their pupils not to dog-ear the pages, for if you absolutely must teach fools to read you may as well teach them a bit of respect while you're about the business of it!

Sincerely sensibly, J. M. Hoffman
[/satyre]

[J m HofMarN]

One quick note since I couldnt edit my message, let's try to keep comments on articles in the comments thread and just post the articles here, that way it won't get crowded.

[Madam Corvax]

I gather we agreed to post comments here, no in the other thread, right?
So:
JM HoffMarn – you have conveyed very deep thought here. I second your proposition of not teaching everyone how to read or write. I am currently writing my thesis for BA in teaching English. I am writing about the technique how to convert like 100 pages of the text into a presentation on a single A4 sheet by using a lot of colours, codes, arrows and 3D drawings, which is supposed to increase your brain capability without limits. (Funny thing is, I am supposed to write about it in a traditional way, using lots and lots of words which nobody would even bother to read.) So you see, someone have already thought about it! It is enough to teach drawing arrows and sketches, there is no need to write hundreds and hundreds of pages.

[J m HofMarN]

Madam- Yup we're posting replies here, since I decided to listen to the voice of reason (which turned out to just be Chefelf). I'm glad you liked it and keep teaching about the colors and arrows!

[Just your average movie goer]

Another great entertaining article, J M. As an aspiring writer, myself, I found it to be particularly interesting. I'd love to see a diminish in the number of people sending manuscripts off to the publishing companies.

It is sad. So many people send stuff, that the publishing companies don't even look at most of it. Nowadays, you need to pay somebody to solicite your manuscript before a publisher will read it. You have no idea if anyone would be interested in your manuscript and yet you have to pay people to even get it considered.

There is also a considerable delay in the system of manuscript perusal. You send your manuscript off to the publishing company then sometime about a year later, you're playing table tennis outside when the postman comes by. You check the mail and find a standard form rejection slip from the publishing house. By that time, you have forgotten that you even sent them a manuscript in the first place.

Generally, in my experience (as I've never paid to have my work solicited), I think my manuscripts have always gone unread, just as I'm sure no-one at a record company has ever listened to a single tape I sent them. It's these types of letters -

Dear (insert name here),

Thank you for your submission.  Unfortunately, at this time, it is not what we are looking for.

- that give it away.

However, I did try to break through one time by entering the biggest literary competition in my country. I didn't win or get any kind of response whatsoever... I didn't mind that. They didn't send me back my manuscript when I had paid them some money to do so... I did mind that one. However, this was only a minor annoyance. The thing that troubled me the most was when they printed excerpts from the winning novels in The Australian newspaper. If these excerpts were anything to go by, the runner-up novel looked really good and the winning novel looked.... terrible. It had nothing in there but crude subject matter, crude dialogue and dislikeable characters - which can be okay if they're interesting but these characters weren't. And I'd wasted my time writing one of those epic timeless masterpieces that touch on all the important things in life - love, courage, right and wrong, fulfillment etc... But then I realise that I would have done a whole lot better if I'd just written a crappy story about some annoying teenagers.


I'm nearly finished the novel that has been my pet project for the past ten or so years... another sweeping epic. I'm really happy with it now and I think when I'm finished with it, I'd really love to see it published. However, the problem is when I look at what people are buying (and possibly reading), I realise that there is no market for this novel... none at all. The only possible niche for it would be the dreaded fantasy category... which would pain me, because then it'd be shoved on a shelf next to all those Dungeons and Dragons books and the work of that demented goblin Terry Goodkind (neither good nor kind are suitable words for this man). If someone printed on my book "The next Tolkien (Tolkien no. 467)", "Movie Goer ranks with such authors as Terry Goodkind" or "Another great contribution to the Dungeons and Dragons novels of today"..... I would rather not be published at all.

I think I will stop there because it has become apparent that this post is not so much a review... it is more a personal rant, expressing my disdain for today's world of publishing.

[Madam Corvax]

Movie Goer, it is quite uncanny how similar our experiences are. Apart from the genre, because my novels were supposed to be “neo-feminist”. I sent one to various publishers and got the rejection slip several times. The other I entered into two competitions and also didn’t get the rejection slip this time. I worked my heart into these two novels… They occupy some space in the hard disc of my computer somewhere, but I hardly ever think about them now. What convinced me most to drop writing is that even my closest family could not get round to read them, which I suppose means that the book was boring to death. So I accepted the bitter facts of life that there is no way I can earn my living by writing, which has always been my dream.

That is also why I post here – I love writing and there is no greater pleasure than to know that somebody reads my pieces and perhaps sometimes enjoys them.

What you need to publish a book is clever marketing and a great deal of luck. Look at Joan Rowling. Her books are not better and no worse than any other book for children. In fact, I have read one which was decidedly superior to her efforts, because it did not include various disgusting details like ogre’s snot and smelly socks. And this book has been out of print for many years and I cannot get a copy for myself.

[Just your average movie goer]

They occupy some space in the hard disc of my computer somewhere, but I hardly ever think about them now.

Sad to say, this is actually accurate of my pet project. I am so close to finishing it but for several months now, I've been unable to muster enough interest to write anything in it. I will do it, but as I have nothing to do with it when it's finished (besides forgetting about it again), it's hard to motivate myself.

That made me think of something else.... how can it be that SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE are as commited/more commited to writing than we are? When I first started writing things, I thought "This'll be easy. Hardly anybody would try to write a novel... it's too damn time consuming... so you wouldn't have to face much competition to get a book past a publisher."

How wrong was I then? It turns out that every Tom, Dick and Harry writes novels. Our competition could be anyone! Maybe even someone we know. It could be the guy at the post office, it could be the lady next door, it could that guy who runs the convenience store.... yes, I like J M's idea very much.

Stop these people from writing. WE (ie, you, J M and myself) will write all the published novels from now on.

What you need to publish a book is clever marketing and a great deal of luck. Look at Joan Rowling. Her books are not better and no worse than any other book for children. In fact, I have read one which was decidedly superior to her efforts, because it did not include various disgusting details like ogre’s snot and smelly socks. And this book has been out of print for many years and I cannot get a copy for myself.

Very fine point. I had to read the first Harry Potter for one of our more advanced students and my God, it is full of stupid details like this. It's also got many stupid sounding names that are not designed to be said aloud. Some of it was entertaining sure... but there's so much better stuff out there.

And they make movies of it? Why?

I'm still waiting for someone to make a movie of Victor Kelleher's children's classic "Master of the Grove" and then this J K Rowling lady comes out of nowhere and people turn her novels into films almost overnight.

PS - I really, really love Master of the Grove by the way. Has anybody else read this book? I read it when I was a child and I read it fairly recently too... and it had lost none of its appeal. As an adult, I still found it to be a fascinating gripping story.

PPS - I'll add Victor Kelleher to people who can write books for us all. I'll also add Nick Hornby, Nick Earls, Terry Prachett and some others. If Douglas Adams was still alive, I'd add him too.

[SimeSublime]

That made me think of something else.... how can it be that SO MANY OTHER PEOPLE are as commited/more commited to writing than we are? When I first started writing things, I thought "This'll be easy. Hardly anybody would try to write a novel... it's too damn time consuming... so you wouldn't have to face much competition to get a book past a publisher."

PS - I really, really love Master of the Grove by the way. Has anybody else read this book? I read it when I was a child and I read it fairly recently too... and it had lost none of its appeal. As an adult, I still found it to be a fascinating gripping story.

The first paragraph there is pretty much why I haven't started writing a novel. I have what I think is a good idea, but I just don't have the time or the inclination(not to mention the writing skills)to actually work on it.

And the second paragraph, which one was Master of the Grove? I've read a few of his novels, and I particularly liked To the Dark Tower myself.

[Just your average movie goer]

You haven't read Master of the Grove? Go to your local library and find it. If you're lucky, they may even have a really old worn hardcover copy of it. My library did. It was so beautiful, while dark and haunting... I didn't want to take it back. I do have my own paperback copy now but if I ever come across it in its original hardcover copy, I will grab it like a shot.

The cover art is very distinctive... it shows a hooded and masked man with no eyes and a crow. Perhaps if you have come across it, this might jog your memory.

Anyway, it's good to see you are familiar with Victor Kelleher's work all the same. He is a very fine author.

[SimeSublime]

Wait, was that the one with the giant Diamond and Ruby? I knew that I'd read it years ago(back in primary school, in fact), but I couldn't remember it. Vauge memories of the protagonist getting hunted through a forrest, with a fox leading him through and doubling over his tracks to lose his hunters.

[Just your average movie goer]

No, that was another one. I know the one you're talking about but the name elludes me right now. It was a good read though. But The Master of the Grove is better. It's my favourite Victor Kelleher book. The Red King was pretty good as well, as was Taronga.

[SimeSublime]

The Red King sounds familiar, but I can't remember that either. I think a google search is in order. I didn't like Taronga much.

[SimeSublime]

I think the one I was thinking of was Forbidden Paths of Thaul. The Makers was his first book that I read, and one of my favourites. I also liked Brother Night, Eathsong and Fire Dancer.

Cruising through the bibliography, I noticed that he also wrote Del-Del and Slow Burn. Both really interesting reads, but very different then those above.

I should also point out that I don't think I've read any of these books in about eight years, so my memories and opinions on what was a good book may have changed since then.

Edit: Typo

This post has been edited by SimeSublime: 07 October 2004 - 11:13 AM

[SimeSublime]

Looking through some reviews, was Master of the Grove the one about the boy with the crutch? I know that I've read it, as according to my online library records, I took it out on Sep 30, 1998. So six years, not eight, sorry.

This post has been edited by SimeSublime: 07 October 2004 - 11:12 AM

[Just your average movie goer]

That's the one. It is great. I highly recommend having another look at it if you get some free time.