[PREV - END_OF_INTELLIGENT_WRITING] [TOP]
MERIT_INSTITUTIONALIZED
August 14, 2006
September 11, 2006
If we grant the main premises of
Kostelanetz' "End of Intelligent
Writing" (literary cliques are on the END_OF_INTELLIGENT_WRITING
rise, and this is inducing a decline in
literary quality and interest), where
does that get us?
What's the fix?
How would one go *after* this problem?
It does not look like Kostelanetz
really has a prescription of any Ah, but there is the closing
sort... after recognizing the chapter, "What is to be Done?",
problem, there is supposed to be which is essentially a plea
an upwelling of outrage and for alternative literary
protest, and then the problem will institutions, a new set of
go away... somehow. underground small presses
and so on.
But someone has to be
the editor, right? Note: he was
writing in 1974.
And the editor is
bound to have friends,
or to make friends.
Moreover, the editor is bound to have --
is required to have -- opinions, a point How could one possibly
of view, an understanding of what is worth estimate the merit of
publishing and what is not. a work without applying
a point of view?
(There are no "objective
literary standards"?)
No neutrality
But maybe: no one person in art.
has to be The Editor.
You could institute a more elaborate
bureaucracy... an editorial board And actually, some of the
that votes. more unusual things he
discusses in the final
Some sort of system of checks and chapter include new
balances in an attempt to check social institutions,
attempts at seizing control of the e.g. cells of writers
board -- e.g. subscribers get to cooperatives that agree
vote on membership of the board. to help promote the
output of all of the
First thought: this is pretty other cells...
expensive for a marginal
enterprise like a literary But doesn't that sound
magazine. like just a new group
of cronies?
But then, maybe -- at least at
the outset -- the positions
could be unpaid. Maybe there's
some expectation
Second thought: you could end up with that you can then
an extremely loyal subscriber base, "let the market
if they're continually involved with decide".
political fights over the direction of
the publication. *Any* increase
in diversity of
products would
But then, really we don't much think in give the market
terms of paper publication as far as more to work
entrepreneurship is concerned. with...
The future is the web!
So let's envision a website...
A place like kuro5hin.org,
where the prominence of a
story is award democratically,
by the votes of the more
dedicated faction of the
readers?
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