Systemically, literary agents are pushed into fishing for supposed material value in "projects." Literary and cultural value is a kind of afterthought, nice if you can get it, given the system.
It might even be an impediment. Real literature is basically impossible to reduce to a pitch. Traditional publishing needs to sustain the image of picking up everything with real value, while it really only needs one or two good finds per year to keep itself relevant, and can invest the rest of its resources into finding celebrities to push commercial books, which is what they're good at these days.
Which is to say that writing is a solipsistic act. It is not for anyone but the writer. Even "successful" literary works sell in the low thousands. Let's face it there is a whole culture (or subculture) of aspirants, hoping, dreaming, striving for a breakthrough...while the world of readers shrinks more every day. In defense of literary agents (and I am not one) they are selling buggy whips.
Ottessa Mblahblah's book about a tall blonde femme fatale Columbia student who enjoys being painted nude while unconscious and attending parties she cannot remember is a pretty fucked up narrative to promote to ubiquity during 2018-9. The book is also not very good. I would be more concerned if an unapologetic industry that is continuing to evade accountability for the role they played through endless midtone pieces like this one was thriving.
You definitely need to publish this in McSweeney's now to meta it up a level! Hehe.
I was pretty stoked when my archetype did not appear in this write-up. Thank god.
And fuck, this was funny.
Systemically, literary agents are pushed into fishing for supposed material value in "projects." Literary and cultural value is a kind of afterthought, nice if you can get it, given the system.
It might even be an impediment. Real literature is basically impossible to reduce to a pitch. Traditional publishing needs to sustain the image of picking up everything with real value, while it really only needs one or two good finds per year to keep itself relevant, and can invest the rest of its resources into finding celebrities to push commercial books, which is what they're good at these days.
Well. That’s me told.
Somewhere between “hypocritical attention seeker” and “literature’s greatest defender,” refreshing my feed and pretending it’s research.
I feel personally attacked, accurately diagnosed and still somehow keen to share this for engagement.
Quite the achievement!
Which is to say that writing is a solipsistic act. It is not for anyone but the writer. Even "successful" literary works sell in the low thousands. Let's face it there is a whole culture (or subculture) of aspirants, hoping, dreaming, striving for a breakthrough...while the world of readers shrinks more every day. In defense of literary agents (and I am not one) they are selling buggy whips.
I am relieved by the death of the literary world.
Ottessa Mblahblah's book about a tall blonde femme fatale Columbia student who enjoys being painted nude while unconscious and attending parties she cannot remember is a pretty fucked up narrative to promote to ubiquity during 2018-9. The book is also not very good. I would be more concerned if an unapologetic industry that is continuing to evade accountability for the role they played through endless midtone pieces like this one was thriving.
one for literary translation substack pls and thank u😅
My goodness, Noor. Why am I just seeing this now? Incredible! Love how each type interacts with eachother. I want this as a deck of archetype cards.
Want to join our day-in-the-life collab? Feel like you'd write a really cool piece - https://tredecko.substack.com/p/day-of-the-___-writer-join-the-party
Thanks Trevor!! The day in the life collab seems cool, I’d love to join.
Yay yay yay! Lemme know if you have any questions :)
nothing clever, i just really really loved this.
This made me laugh with my belly.
This is gold
aspiring to the patron saint category!!! wado, this was such a fun read!
Holy shit this is amazing
Very funny! 😆😂🤪🙄
Well done.
Hello there, this made me smile many times as I moved through it. Satire (Horatian preferably) and self deprecating parody for the win!
I enjoyed the AI SLOP AI SLOP AI SLOP line. That made me laugh. AI SLOP AI SLOP AI SLOP!!!!!!