Collected Miscellany

With recent books like The News From Paraguay or even The Plot Against America interweaving fact with fiction there have been some interesting discussions around the net about the place and use of history (or “what if” history) in literature(see here for an example). What is the purpose, when does it work, when does it distract, etc. As a former grad student in history and a reader of fiction I find the discussion particularly interesting even if I don’t have much to add.

I bring this up because I have just finished another historical fiction based novel, Rosa by Jonathan Rabb. The Rosa of the title is Rosa Luxemburg the famous socialist revolutionary. But what is interesting is that Rosa is not the lead character, in fact her death sets in motion the central intrigue of the book. Instead the central character is Chief Inspector Nikolai Hoffner. Hoffner is investigating a grizzly series of murders when Rosa’s body turns up matching the M.O. of the serial killer. Suddenly, the case has “political” overtones and Hoffner life gets a great deal more complicated.

Rosa takes place during that tension filled time just after World War I when chaos and violence ruled Germany; when socialists sought revolution only to create a backlash that ultimately led to Hitler. Hoffner, whose roots are awkwardly both Russian and Jewish, is caught up in this tension as he tries to solve his case while fending off the Polpo or political police. His best friend and partner having been killed in the war, he has recently been assigned a new, rather naive, assistant whose girlfriend Hoffner feels inexplicably drawn to. At the same time his devotion to his work, the nature of that work, and his prior philandering have ostracized him from his family. Hoffner is a weary man stuck in a world teetering on the brink of destruction.

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Literary agent Richard Curtis is a fellow with one eye on the future. His articles about publishing never fail to be provocative and interesting. A post written on the web site Backspace covers a sweep of contemporary history in publishing known as the here and now. The focus of the article is how email and blogging are altering the way publishers receive, evaluate and transmit work submitted for consideration. His article concludes with an assessment of blogging that might startle the literary community; he foresees the doom of literary agents. In his vision writers and editors will meet on the invisible terrain of the blogosphere.

Curtis also ranges over the ‘platform’ issue a fin de siecle development assuring the publication of famous people when the urge to write a book strikes their fancy. I’m not naming names but apparently the platform works this way: you’re a New York editor. two manuscripts are sitting on your desk, one by Al Camus, one by the renowned slugger J. Canseco. It’s pretty clear by page three of a side by side comparison that Al’s a talented writer while JC rambles a little. A quick check of the web reveals that Camus doesn’t have a web site, a glamorous photo, or even a TV appearance in his portfolio. Rumor is he’s bald. JC, on the other hand, was struck on the head by a baseball while patroling right field (the sun was out). He’s got fifty web sites, a legion of bookish fans and a tremendous amount of hair. Jose has platform. Jose gets book deal.

Curtis doesn’t try to link the importance of platform to the decline in readership book publishers bemoan; maybe that link doesn’t exist. The rise of one and the fall of the other may only be coincidence; what’s a poorly written book compared to a glam photo of the author? No one is expected to read the thing.

Literary agent Richard Curtis is a fellow with one eye on the future. His articles about publishing never fail to be provocative and interesting. A post written on the web site Backspace covers a sweep of contemporary history in publishing known as the here and now. The focus of the article is how email and blogging are altering the way publishers receive, evaluate and transmit work submitted for consideration. His article concludes with an assessment of blogging that might startle the literary community; he foresees the doom of literary agents. In his vision writers and editors will meet on the invisible terrain of the blogosphere.

Curtis also ranges over the ‘platform’ issue a fin de siecle development assuring the publication of famous people when the urge to write a book strikes their fancy. I’m not naming names but apparently the platform works this way: you’re a New York editor. two manuscripts are sitting on your desk, one by Al Camus, one by the renowned slugger J. Canseco. It’s pretty clear by page three of a side by side comparison that Al’s a talented writer while JC rambles a little. A quick check of the web reveals that Camus doesn’t have a web site, a glamorous photo, or even a TV appearance in his portfolio. Rumor is he’s bald. JC, on the other hand, was struck on the head by a baseball while patroling right field (the sun was out). He’s got fifty web sites, a legion of bookish fans and a tremendous amount of hair. Jose has platform. Jose gets book deal.

Curtis doesn’t try to link the importance of platform to the decline in readership book publishers bemoan; maybe that link doesn’t exist. The rise of one and the fall of the other may only be coincidence; what’s a poorly written book compared to a glam photo of the author? No one is expected to read the thing.

When I first came across James C. Davis’s The Human Story I was fascinated: the history of the world in less than 500 pages?! That would be quite an accomplishment if it could avoid a mere encyclopedia like listing of key events and actually tell a story or hold a narrative. Unfortunately life, and other books, intervened and I never quite got around to reading it.

Until now, of course. After having my first child and taking some time off of work, I figured I better dive into some bigger history books before my free time shrinks even more. So, in what seems apropos, I dived in and finished The Human Story while holding my newborn child or watching her sleep. And having read this history of the world I must say that I was pleasantly surprised how interesting and informative it was even for a history buff (M.A.) like me. It was sort of like a quick tour through the centuries; a sort of birds-eye view of history with a few good vignettes used to exemplify larger experiences.

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I don’t understand why some of us, book lovers I mean, champion independant bookshops. Are they supposed to combine retail trade with bibliophilia? BookAngst writes, “We LOVE to love independent booksellers, and much of the applause they receive for hand-selling is indeed well-deserved. On the other hand, for all of the hand-wringing that goes on about the big chains driving the independents out of business, for most of my authors on book tour, it’s the Indie stores that draw the smallest crowds.” So do some book lovers dislike chain booksellers (not chain media-sellers, there’s a difference) because they dislike big?

Are the same people the ones who complain about publisher-owned bookshop? Is there really anything to fear in a bookshop owned by HarperCollins or Little, Brown, & Co? I think “The Little Brown Book Shoppe” is a great name, though I guess it would be a Time-Warner store now. Some publishers already sell their books directly through their websites, and Barnes & Noble, a retailers, publishes their own line. I don’t understand why such a store would be a bad thing. If the publisher sold only his books, he would limit his resale market. If he sold his books with everyone else’s, becoming simply a good store with perhaps less overhead for his stock of books and maybe a better avenue for selling damaged merchandise or unpopular selections, then what’s to complain about? Is it that some book lovers have it in their heads that corporations are bad, that business is ugly and the bane of decent society, so chains and publisher-owned bookshops are perversion of the pure, liberating bookseller?

storySouth.com has opened voting on its top ten list of best online fiction published in 2004. They call it the Million Writers Award and the top-10 list was selected from a much longer list of notable stories on many literary websites. Early judges are writers and bloggers you may be familiar with: Sefi Atta, Rusty Barnes, Scott Esposito, Megan Powell, and Dan Wickett.

You are invited to read the ten stories selected as best from last year and choose the one you think excels above the others. If I can bare to make a choice, I’ll let you know.