The Liminal Librarian

What is it with the little spate of literary snobbery lately? I guess the Internet really does give a platform to everyone. But really, the better question is, how can one not love Ursula K. LeGuin.

.... Edited July 10 to add...

But wait, there's more! Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Novels also point to an Erica Jong Publisher's Weekly article talking about the marginalization of fiction written by women... and give their take on it.

Labels: chabon, jong, leguin, reading, reviews, romance, sf

I'll leave this indiscriminate reporting business alone soon, I promise, but just wanted to point to this hysterical post, which includes such gems as:

4. Novels written by M.F.A.'s, or their friends and lovers, will be reviewed glowingly. The reviews will contain language such as "breathtakingly original" and "hauntingly luminous."

and

9. Each review will contain a quotation from Jacques Derrida, such as, "The epoch of logocentrism is the moment of the global effacement of the signifier." (No, I can't wait either.)

Also, as Sarah Johnson pointed out in a comment on the last post, this GalleyCat post notes that, 1) as one of the few bloggers to actually review Kohler's book, Johnson also reviews historical fiction for Booklist (and has written a book on the subject), and 2) Kohler's poor publicist has been going around trying to pitch the book to literary blogs.

Labels: blogs, kohler, litblogs, reading, reviews

I think this might rank right up there as one of the snottiest quotes ever:

Q. Does your work get reviewed/discussed much on literary blogs? If so, how do those reviews compare with print reviews of your books?

A.Occasionally someone may mention my books in a blog. I believe the dangers of this indiscriminate reporting on books is that people who have no knowledge of literature can air their views as though they were of value and may influence readers. Critics may not always be right, of course, but at least they have read and studied literature, the great books, and have some outside knowledge to refer to when critiquing our work.

Yeah, gosh, I hate publicity, don't you? I wonder what she would think if my book club dared to discuss one of her titles -- good lord, 12 people with no knowledge of literature, all airing their views at once? As if they were of value? What's the world coming to?

What's even funnier is that: this quote is part of an interview... ON A BLOG. The mind boggles.

Along the same lines, go read Karen Schneider's post on the problem with the campaign to save book reviews, and follow her links back to the discussion on Critical Mass. Which brings us to another fun quote of the day:

Seriously, though, blogs are kind of like parasitic microorganisms which feed off of a primary host. For the sake of this discussion, the host is clearly print media. Some are the good bacteria and some are transient and viral. Or maybe I can upgrade blogs to the status of some sort of interstitial or synovial fluid, buffering the vital organs of the media (newspaper, television, radio, the Internet)? But, c’mon, if newspapers are dying, then blogs are the maggots come to feast upon their corpses.

Can anyone say: Gormangate?

Labels: books, kohler, litblogs, reviews

I'm just curious if anyone will buy a book like this. What's even odder is I don't see it for sale ON Amazon... or is that just too meta.

Labels: amazon, books, reviews