Mat Johnson continues to offer some interesting arguments and definitions on his blog, this time in a posting about the differences between high and low culture and their respective relationships to the marketplace.

Of interest is that he puts his reasons for trying to start a dialog at the end of the posting (which I include below). But the essay is worth a look, if only for his willingness to lay out the kinds of demands different kinds of writing have not only for their readers, but also for their writers.

Why I’m Bothering

Another thing that has come up repeatedly, from emails and other responses, is why I’m even bothering to trying to have a critical dialogue at all. For those that wonder, here is a list of my intentions for this dialogue:

1. To create an understanding of the difference between highbrow and lowbrow art in the African American community, and for an intellectual space for both of them so that they might better co-exist.

2. To make aspiring literary writers aware of the pitfalls between them and their goals.

3. To foster inter-community discussion about the current direction of African American literature.

4. To bring a discussion about quality of writing to the black commercial fiction arena.

5. To turn these resultant discussion into an anthology to be published by my new imprint, Niggerati Manor Productions ($39.95 hardcover). Then to come up with a nationwide speaking tour, charging college campuses another $8-12,000 a pop to have a live debate on their campus (think Carl Webber versus Edward P. Jones). Next, I’ll spin that off into a reality show on BET where 10 writers live together, struggling to get published, but one team is commercial and the other literary. We’ll kick one off each episode, with the tag line “You’re a hack!” This show will of course be hosted by LeVar Burton, the winner being published by Niggerati Manor Productions with us retaining the movie rights (because let’s face it, it’s all about the movie rights). Then it’s just sit back, and let the revenue streams pour in.

Now, dear reader, it’s time to test your critical thinking skills. Which of the above statements is false?

As you know, Captain America is dead.

But do you know who has earned the right to carry his shield?

Click here to find out.

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The Washington Post reports that Richard Ford won’t be returning to the fictional mindscape of the New Jersey hero who garnered him a Pulitzer Prize.

Ford has made it plain that a fourth book that would take his protagonist beyond his “Permanent Period” and into his sunset years isn’t in the cards.

“I’ve ruled it out as much as I’ve ruled anything else out. I won’t ever get married again. I’ll always be married to the same girl. And I don’t think I’ll ever write another Frank Bascombe book,” Ford said in an interview at his home overlooking Linekin Bay.

The NYTimes is reporting on an odd deal that the novelist Jonathan Lethem has going on his Web site. His new novel, You Don’t Love Me Yet, is to be published on March 13, and on his Web site he says he is willing to give away the option to make the novel into a film.

Check out the offer on his site here: http://jonathanlethem.com/freelove.html

Here is what he says:

Lately I’ve become fitful about some of the typical ways art is commodified. Despite making my living (mostly) by licensing my own copyrights, I found myself questioning some of the particular ways such rights are transacted, and even some of the premises underlying what’s called intellectual property. I read a lot of Lawrence Lessig and Siva Vaidhyanathan, who convinced me that technological progress – and globalization – made this a particularly contemporary issue. I also read Lewis Hyde’s The Gift, which persuaded me, paradoxically, that these issues are eternal ones, deeply embedded in the impulse to make any kind of art in the first place. I came away with the sense that artists ought to engage these questions directly, rather than leaving it entirely for corporations (on one side) and public advocates (on the other) to hash out. I also realized that sometimes giving things away – things that are usually seen to have an important and intrinsic ‘value’, like a film option – already felt like a meaningful part of what I do. I wanted to do more of it.

In the Feb/March issue of BookForum there’s a very interesting quote from William T. Vollman in regards to his new book, Poor People. His statements about the future of reading and of books is both bleak — that readers are losing their influence — and a bit overly optimistic — that people will read and write for the joy of it (as, opposed to, I guess political, imperialist or commercial interests). But he also seems to be describing a small group of people who are connected solely by their independent-mindedness; thus, they aren’t a pin-downable collective, but just a loose affiliation of people (perhaps in line with the “conspiracy of smart people”?).

Another thing he reminds me of is something a fellow grad student said to me about what happens to unspoken or unheard thoughts and ideas — do they just disappear? do they find ways of expressing themselves in unexpected ways?

The interview isn’t online, but here is the portion:

Bookforum: In Poor People, you write about being surrounded by people who can’t read your work. You’re a writer and also a publisher. What place do you think the book holds in our society?

Vollmann: I think that readers and writers are now simply an interest group. A relatively powerful interest group, but their influence is waning year by year. The good side of that, I think, is that it becomes increasingly likely that people will read and write only for the love of it. And that’s a very, very good thing. It’s likely that throughout history, most people have never been particularly well educated, and the world has gotten by somehow. Independent thinking is a category that almost by definition applies to a small number of people, because the great majority of people tends o think alike. So I can’t say I even find it that alarming that more and more of the people I know don’t read. It’s a little sad for me personally, but that’s only because that’s what I like to do. As I travel all over the world, and I meet people, let’s say in Yemen, for whom the only book that is at all important is the Koran, I think, well, they have very rich and interesting lives. Who am I to tell them that they should be any different? The average person is as smart as he or she needs to be. And that if we get in some terrible mess, then people are going to wake up and try to figure out what needs to be done.

I really love the novel World Light by Halldor Laxness. He is a great writer, and in that book he writes about a guy who is a true poet. He’s got this incredibly gifted sensibility; he really appreciates all the beauty around him. The only flaw happens to be that he writes terrible poems. So nobody can appreciate any of the stuff that goes on in his head. Maybe we’re all that way.

… on her blog that her new book is done. It is the latest in the series of Lizzie Stewart mysteries by the UAlbany professor in the school of criminal justice.

Sorry to have been away so long. I have been busy with the final copyediting of You Should Have Done on Monday. The manuscript is now on the way to press. (Imagine me jumping up and down).

Here’s what Publishers Weekly says:

Criminal justice professor Lizabeth Stuart investigates her paternity and her long-lost mother’s checkered past in Bailey’s fourth mystery (after 2003’s Old Murders), a story rich in history if not suspense. Raised by her grandparents in Drucilla, Ky., Lizzie never knew her mother, Becca Hayes, who abandoned her at birth. Now 39 years old and on the verge of engagement to her boyfriend, police officer John Quinn, Lizzie is especially determined to understand her past. With help from Quinn and PI Kyle Sheppard, she connects her mother to Chicago gangster Nick Mancini, who was stabbed to death in 1969. After 22-year-old Becca, who was Nick’s girlfriend and the chief suspect, disappeared without a trace, musician Robert Montgomery confessed to the crime. Decades later, Lizzie’s effort to track down the key players in this drama takes her from her home in Gallagher, Va., to Chicago; Wilmington, N.C.; and finally New Orleans. New readers might wish for more character development, but series fans should be pleased.

A new survey out today lists the most popular owned yet unread books in Briton. The story is in The Guardian.
What’s interesting about this kind of survey is even though the article says these people are trying to put “intellectual credibility” on their shelves, what is really happening is something like marketing at work. The list includes recent prizewinners and best-sellers, like Vernon God Little (a Booker prize winner) or Captain Corelli’s violin (a best-seller) — perhaps people are just buying books because someone somewhere (whether in the media, in academia or word of mouth) told them they should. And that’s hardly intellectual at all.
Here’s a sample:

It’s the literary club no author wants to belong to, but boasts the likes of Salman Rushdie, Bill Clinton, Paulo Coelho and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A survey out today of the books Britons own but do not finish shows a surprising lack of appetite for many of the nation’s most popular titles.

The bestselling book that topped the poll, DBC Pierre’s Vernon God Little, has been lauded the world over – ironically, for its explosive denouement. But 35% of respondents who bought or borrowed the Man Booker-winning satire about a Texan schoolboy in a death row reality TV show failed to get to the end.

For a take on this article closer to home, check out The Daily Prophet, a blog all about Harry Potter.