“Most observers see Dave Eggers and his fans as existing outside politics. But Eggers’ literary superstardom is prompting an alternative culture that has grown up around him over the last five years. It is a San Francisco- and Brooklyn-based community of writers, artists, designers and, increasingly, children – with a growing national following. They are the readers, contributors and designers of the literary journal-cum-Web site McSweeney’s (first published in 1998) and McSweeney’s Books. They are, especially in the last year, the audiences at McSweeney’s-sponsored conferences, readings and concerts across the country. They are idealistic about education, sentimental about children and impatient with the homogeneous culture that corporations produce.”
Category: publishing
Harry – A Record Cover Price For A Children’s Book
The new Harry Potter book could weigh in at more than 1000 pages. But it will also sport a heavy price. “Scholastic Children’s Books, the U.S. publisher of J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, announced Thursday a suggested retail price of $29.99. ‘That’s definitely the highest price for a children’s novel we’ve ever seen’.”
Books Are Dead…Good Riddance
“Books suck. Most books are dopier than television or movies or even advertising (many books tend to be just collateral promotions or the lesser offspring of dopey television, movies, and advertising). Even if there are precious exceptions, the overwhelming number of big-money, industry-sustaining books are incontrovertibly dum-dum things. More cynical, more pandering than any other entertainment product. Working at a magazine where every day random books come flying in by the bushel you get a sense of the magnitude of the wasteland. Books may be the true lowest-common-denominator medium. What’s more, in the book business, you have to work in really deadening conditions…”
Booknotes – Keeping It Simple
C-Span’s “Booknotes” is a serious place to talk books. Host Brian Lamb has a big following, but the appeal of the show is in its simplicity. “This is not a show done for intellectuals. A lot of people thought it was in the beginning. They started to hear me ask some very basic questions, and they’d say: ‘Oh, my goodness, why is he asking those stupid questions?’ So: Why is he asking those questions? ‘I want to know the answer’.”
The Film Of Pi
Fox Pictures has purchased the film rights to author Yann Martel’s Booker award-winning novel, The Life of Pi. The book, which briefly caused a bit of trouble for the author after Martel revealed that he had appropriated the basic concept from a review of a Brazilian novel which he’d read years before, may prove challenging to adapt for the screen, since it is largely metaphorical, and focuses on a young Indian boy stranded at sea with a Bengal tiger.
Indie Booksellers Push States To Collect Online Sales Taxes
Independent booksellers are lobbying states to collect taxes from online book stores that have a physical presence in those states. That would mean that books ordered through Barnes and Noble’s online store would have to collect sales tax. “The issue remains whether or not online stores and their real world namesakes have a business relationship that would trigger a tax liability.”
Vatican Gives Blessing On Potter
The Vatican has given its blessing to Harry Potter. Why should the Vatican even care? Some evangelical groups have protested the books for “glamorizing magic and the occult.” But a spokeman for the Vatican says: “If I have understood well the intentions of Harry Potter’s author, they help children to see the difference between good and evil. And she is very clear on this.”
Poetry In Times Square
A young poet goes to Times Square to read poetry on the street. And people stop to listen. “The American public’s relationship to poetry is complicated. At best, poetry seems to be perceived as a rare salve to be applied in the wake of national tragedy; at worst it’s an elite parlor game. Much of the blame for such perceptions can be placed squarely on American poetry itself, which has privileged difficulty over clarity—in the process taking itself right out of public view. I don’t exactly fault modern American poetry for being difficult. The sensory experience of Times Square is as difficult as any poem and still we live within it. The power of great modern poetry is that it takes the monstrosity of Times Square and locates the human being at its heart.”
Protesting The Protesting Poets
Roger Kimball was looking forward to going to the White House next week for lunch with Laura Bush and a symposium on “Poetry and the American Voice.” Then he heard the event had been cancelled after Copper Canyon Press founder Sam Hamill had organized an anti-war protest around the event. “What about the many distinguished poets who believe Sam Hamill is a publicity-craving nonentity who spoiled their chance to celebrate American poetry at the White House? They, of course, have not been mentioned much. ‘Poets for Responsible U.S. Foreign Policy’ is not news.”
Library Use Soaring As Economy Slips
Unemployment is bad in New York, and people have time on their hands. So they go to the library. “Use of public libraries here has climbed almost 10% since the summer of 2001 and that circulation is up 12%. Computer use just for resume writing at Mid-Manhattan increased 128% over the last year. On the fourth floor of that charmless branch on Fifth Avenue, there isn’t an empty seat on a snowy afternoon…”