RARA-AVIS: Re: Spillane and misogyny

From: JIM DOHERTY ( jimdohertyjr@yahoo.com)
Date: 13 Jul 2006


Al,

Re your comments below:

"I wasn't talking about initial publication either, Jim. I was thinking of books that go out of print and are then reintroduced. That would include twentieth century classics like Umberto Eco's FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, Max Frisch's HOMO FABER and Hermann Hesse's THE GLASS BEAD GAME, all of which were out of print in the UK during periods when I used to work in a bookstore. So was Eric Ambler's entire work. For a long time."

I see your point, but that's somewhat different from a novel that's in print virtually continually over a long period of time, which is what I understodd Miker to be talking about.

That IS a response to a continuing public demand.

"I'd also suggest that 'the public decides what gets bought' is only true on a technicality. The public cannot buy what is not available for purchase. I know many cases where initial print runs of books have sold out but the publisher hasn't reprinted."

On the other hand, if a publisher KEEPS a book in print, continuously, over a long period of time, he is responding to a public demand. That's more than just a technicality.

And, returning to Miker's "democracy" metaphor, voters can only vote for candidates who are actually running.
 If they don't run, whether because they choose not to or because their party doesn't give them material support (the political equivalent of a publisher refusing to keep a successful book in print), it may make the democratic process imperfect, but it doesn't make it something other than democracy.

JIM DOHERTY

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