It would seem
that I can no longer
read
popular fiction
I have just now finished
the first half
of an
International Bestseller
and the only good thing
I can say about it
is that
I won’t be reading
the second half
I can’t see what
everyone is talking about
This book
is just like a bad movie
the only difference being
that it goes on
for 302 pages
They have slipped these
past me now
six or seven times
in the past
six or seven years
and I am beginning
to question
whether I am a
brilliant critic
Or just a literary snob
arguing into
the reality of
three million
hardback
copies
sold
*For Seth Godin, who provided the original, compelling argument that started me in this online madness…
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Well, come on man, you’re writing POETRY for crying out loud…geez louise…perhaps there is a 3rd or even 4th possibilty you aren’t sharing. ;)
Nah, I honestly don’t get it either, but I admit I am a literary snob with bad taste. I don’t like most of the books lit snobs are supposed to like, either. Heck, I find myself cheering for the pop fiction writers when the real lit snobs start complaining. I really like it when books written off by marketers and critics alike sell millions.
There is no point in arguing. Or in thinking the world is filled with dumb people. Public Enemy taught us an important lesson: don’t believe the hype.
The trick is in not paying too much attention to anything, while still maintaining an openness to new things. Marketers are increasingly eager to infiltrate this sacred space, but that’s for another day.
I can’t believe it is left up to me, a mere, massa…wait I am an immortal soul…
**There is an inverse relation between marketing hype and the pleasure found in a product, an object a book a meal etc etc etc. I hope Seth Godin, or someone, has blogged about this?
That was a fun poem, Robert.
You raise an interesting question my old friend.
I’ll be brief… as I don’t want to distract your dear readers from the banner add above…..
It is my learned opinion that yes, “The Marketeers” lie….
However, I have been to Powells and heartily agree, not enough can be said about the greatest bookstore in the world.
I have also been to the Perfume House and can testify it is the finest perfumery in the world…
This brings me to the point. These words used to describe what ordinary “folk” might find mundane or purposeless would not think twice about applying the same description to objects such as their, oh let’s just say for the sake of argument…
their toilet seat.
But if not for “The Marketeer”, they could not make this claim.
Yours,
Mantooth
cool… i like different opinion
damns.. im sure that everybody has diferent opinions.. but…..what it may be wrong for you .. in a religion or for someone it may be the right thing
Jeck - I’m tiring of hype. But then, I guess everyone is.
Mantooth - You are a genius my old friend.
WKD - Thanks for coming around. I’m an objective truth guy, but that’s a conversation better suited for, well, conversation.
Praise from Caesar indeed.
I see you spotted my “clue” in which I used the acronym for attention deficit disorder….. Well spotted.
Perhaps, too subtle? But I digress, as I-
excuse me, something shiny…
Yours,
Mantooth
“Cowboy: Some times you eat the bar and sometimes the bar, well he eats you.
Dude: Is that some kinda Eastern thing?
Cowboy: Far from it dude.”
(The Big Lebowski)
It’s all messed up, gone are the last bastions against the capitalist whip, the squats in London are boarded up and are now home to trendy corporate types, everyone is at least middle class, some people only shop at Waitrose because apparently it does something for their status, it’s fucked up I tell you, no one takes a stand anymore, where is the activism, if it isn’t being sucked up by anti-terror laws it’s sitting down having a sodding pic-nic on a nice piece of grass outside paliament, they say climate change will be the death of the English garden, lawns will suffer too, hedge cutting and politics is not a happy marriage, but yeah I tried to resist for as long as I could, I tried to be honest, to not sell out, I was one of the last people in university to own a mobile phone, I had long hair until I was 24 - now I have very little but I tried, have I lied as a pseudo marketer? maybe, a couple of times, I’ve got to cover my rent, I’ve got bills hiding in strange places, I need to see some of that filthy lucre, if one day I see enough of it is there anything stopping me from becoming the image of my enemy? No, sadly I don’t think there is.
I’m flattered.
Thanks so much!
Mantooth - I can’t use the “g” word twice in the same comment thread…
Andrew - You just forced me to go rent The Big Lebowski again. Thanks…
Seth - You’re very welcome. And you’re very much to blame ;)