My final thoughts on this:
An argument that contends that Enid Blyton's work is
'literature' but David Goodis's isn't, is one which isn't
going to convince me. The same argument would state that
Goodis was 'literature' in France, but not in the UK/US.
Baffling.
As for the democracy metaphor: what's being described isn't
democracy, it's majoritarianism. Any successful democracy
strives to treat its minorities with respect. Ditto with
literature.
Al
----- Original Message -----
From: JIM DOHERTY
To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 2:15 AM
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Re: Spillane and
misogyny
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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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 14 Jul 2006 EDT