{"id":963,"date":"2006-05-23T13:09:11","date_gmt":"2006-05-23T18:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/market-down\/"},"modified":"2006-05-23T13:09:11","modified_gmt":"2006-05-23T18:09:11","slug":"market-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/market-down","title":{"rendered":"Market Down"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Donadio at the NYTimes has an article about why literary fiction sucks<\/a>. Okay, it’s not really about why literary fiction sucks; it’s really about why the market for literary fiction sucks.<\/p>\n

It has the dumbest concluding paragraph I’ve read in a while (soon to be topped by the conclusion of my article on disposable components in bioprocessing), despite the promise of this opening:<\/p>\n

The pride and joy of publishing, literary fiction has always been wonderfully ill suited to the very industry that sustains it. Like an elegant but impoverished aristocrat married to a nouveau riche spouse, it has long been subsidized by mass-market fiction and by nonfiction ripped from the headlines. One supplies the cachet, the others the cash.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Having run a mini-publishing house of allegedly literary fiction, I’ve taken a somewhat jaundiced view of the relationship between book and marketplace. I’m all for fantastic literary writing, but it’s pretty clear that a market relying on people with my taste is doomed to insignificance. I love great writing and wish it would sell better, but it won’t.<\/p>\n

And, despite Jonathan Galassi’s bizarre non-sequitur, it’s not because we’re living in a “post-9\/11 world.” Read all about it<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Donadio at the NYTimes has an article about why literary fiction sucks. Okay, it’s not really about why literary fiction sucks; it’s really about why the market for literary fiction sucks. It has the dumbest concluding paragraph I’ve read in a while (soon to be topped by the conclusion of my article on disposable … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Market Down”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-fx","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2497,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/its-the-f-backstop","url_meta":{"origin":963,"position":0},"title":"It’s the F*** Backstop!","author":"Gil","date":"September 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I suppose that when I ran a link to the NYMag article on \"the death of book publishing,\" I should've made it part of my F*** You, You Whining F*** series. I failed you, dear readers. Fortunately, Kassia Kroszer is out there as my F*** You Backstop with a good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1930,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/this-and-that","url_meta":{"origin":963,"position":1},"title":"This and that","author":"Gil","date":"March 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"While finishing Love & Sleep, the second novel in John Crowley's \u00c3\u2020gypt cycle, this week, I came across the word, \"rufous.\" I checked with my dog Rufus to see if he knew what it meant, but he was as clueless as I was. Probably moreso, since he's just a dog\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1590200152","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6905,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-sound-before-story","url_meta":{"origin":963,"position":2},"title":"Podcast: Sound Before Story","author":"Gil","date":"March 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 5 Greg Gerke - Sound Before Story To celebrate the publication of Middle C, the new novel by literary legend William Gass, I sat down with writer Greg Gerke, who interviewed Gass for Tin House literary magazine. We talked about Gass' position in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/8523402458_ede1142ce6_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/8523402458_ede1142ce6_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/8523402458_ede1142ce6_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/8523402458_ede1142ce6_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/8523402458_ede1142ce6_k.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":514,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/to-the-editor","url_meta":{"origin":963,"position":3},"title":"To the editor","author":"Gil","date":"March 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"On March 7, the New York Times published an article entitled, \"Literary Novelists Address 9\/11, Finally\", on the occasion of several new novels about the attacks and their aftermath.Unfortunately, your writer seems not to have researched this matter well enough. In September 2003, I published Paul West's novel, \"The Immensity\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8534,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-104-it-came-from-gen-x","url_meta":{"origin":963,"position":4},"title":"Podcast 104 – It Came From Gen X!","author":"Gil","date":"January 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: Ron Hogan & Josh Alan Friedman\u00a0- It Came From Gen X! \"You grow up imagining all these writers live in mansions and have their private, elegant writing rooms. But the working reality for most writers is not that different from the working reality for working class to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"IMG_1689","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7346\/16173422319_9431ec5c94_n.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":581,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/corporate-synergy","url_meta":{"origin":963,"position":5},"title":"Corporate Synergy?","author":"Gil","date":"July 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning, I read a neat article about co-op advertising in bookstores (better known as \"pay for play\", which helps insure that deep-pocketed publishers get the most exposure for their books).Then, on a whim, I hit Amazon's \"most-preordered books in Literature and Fiction,\" when I came across this. Evidently, The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}