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teacup, tempest. or not.
To this point I have avoided writing about the newest loud discussion over at the Litblog Co-op, but I find I have weakened in my resolve to keep my questions to myself. I made this resolution because I had my own run in with the Litbloggers, which began here, migrated over there (note how in the last comment to the nudge nudge post genevieve, especially, scolds me with raised finger*), moved back here, and then ran out of steam. Which was fine, though the last exchange was left hanging in midair with a question unanswered.
The newest bruhaha has nothing to do with me, to make that clear right away.
Here's the controversy: the LBC folks got together and picked a novel that they recommend that everybody read. Their mission (in their words):
Uniting the leading literary weblogs for the purpose of drawing attention to the best of contemporary fiction, authors and presses that are struggling to be noticed in a flooded marketplace.
The first book to be recommended is Kate Atkinson's Case Histories. I haven't read this novel, know nothing about it, have no opinion on whether or not it was a good choice. Lots of other people do have an opinion, though. There was a very vocal minority which found the selection of this book to be outside of the LBC's stated purpose (promoting authors struggling to be noticed) because Case Histories did get quite a lot of press and Kate Atkinson is not a new name in literary circles. (See Paperback Writer on this topic, here.)
I do have a point. Here it comes.
In the back and forth on this topic, there was some discussion of what it means to be 'struggling' and 'unknown'. Some claimed that Kate Atchinson does fit this bill; others claimed she does not. Some folks did a quick and dirty survey where they asked people at Starbucks if they recognized the name. (Coffee drinkers did not, apparently.) Others said this was not a good indication of how struggling an author was.
Here's the thing. I think we tend to get so caught up in our squabbles and discussions that we forget what a teeny tiny part of the universe we occupy. Most people won't know who Kate Atchinson is. They also won't recognize names like John Updike, Alice Munro, Toni Morrison. This is my theory, but I'm going to test it in a slightly less adhoc way.
I'm going to put together a list of ten names. Half of them will be author's names, including Kate Atchinson. Some of those will be big hitters like Updike. I won't use any ringers (no Stephen King or JK Rowling). Everybody will be living. The other names will be made up, and I'll check to make sure that they aren't authors I haven't heard of. Then I'm going to recruit between five and ten kids from my daughter's high school, and I'm going to ask them to go out into public places and ask people they don't know about the list of names.
And then I'll get back to you. Before I get started I'll post my list of names, in case you want to play along. Oh and: if it turns out I'm wrong, I'll be clear on that. If I'm right and the names on the list draw a general blank, I will have no sweeping pronouncements to make on that count. I'm just interested in how isolated we writers really are from the rest of the world.
EDITED TO ADD: the actual list. Here are the ten names:
1. Chris Clarke
2. James Robinson
3. Margaret Atwood
4. Erik White
5. Sue Kidd
6. Michael Chabon
7. David Gardener
8. Philip Roth
9. Kate Atkinson
10. Joanne Mitchell
You can download the Word document with instructions for the people who will be conducting the survey by clicking here.
*Genevieve also calls my original post sullen and morose. And I was trying so hard to be Nice.May 23, 2005 04:09 PM
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Comments
What an interesting idea. (I think I can pick out the five authors -- I'm positively certain of four of them -- although I've never read any of their books.)
Posted by: Rachel at May 23, 2005 09:46 PM
Neal Stephenson has some funny comments about this sort of thing on his website:
Some remarks on the [limited] fame that I have [without really wanting to] achievedIt helps to put this in perspective by likening me to the mayor of Des Moines, Iowa. It's true of both the mayor of Des Moines and of me that, out of the world's population of some six billion people, there are a few hundred thousand who consider us important, and who recognize us by name. In the case of the mayor of Des Moines, that is simply the population of the Des Moines metropolitan area. In my case, it is the approximate number of people who are avid readers of my books. In addition, there might be as many as a million or two who would find my name vaguely familiar if they saw it; the same is probably true of the mayor of Des Moines.
Posted by: Joshua at May 25, 2005 11:35 AM
what a sensible man. This is the author of Snow Crash, right? Because that's a favorite of mine.
Posted by: sara at May 25, 2005 06:47 PM
Yes, Neal is the author of Snow Crash.
I was one of those who did an informal survey (though I never thought to take a walk down to Starbucks). I think various online readiing communities are very insular. If you are into obscure literary stuff and you communicate mainly with likeminded souls, you assume that everyone knows what you know. My readers, who are not soley but are largely, involved with women's fiction and/or romance did not seem to be aware of Kate Atkinson or Case Histories. Which is too bad because I think this is a book that will satisfy many of them -- though not the hardcore romance readers because that aspect of the book is not particularly satisfying.
I knew five authors on your list -- and I consider myself to be fairly in touch with the literary community.
Posted by: booksquare at May 28, 2005 10:06 AM
Booksquare -- your observations are in line with mine, pretty much down the line. The only conclusion I can draw from any of this is that it's important to try to keep some perspective. That's something I have to tell myself on a regular basis.
Posted by: sara at May 28, 2005 03:17 PM