Blogs and Literary Loneliness

Thanks to Dan Green for pointing out this article. It's from the recently constituted "Intellectual Affairs" column on Inside Higher Education (which appears to be a good column in the making).

So maybe a paradise of the unfettered mind it wasn't. Still, in reading academic blogs over the past couple of years, I've often wondered if something like the old style [i.e. scholars fruitfully communicating with each other] might not be rousing itself from the dustbin of history. . . .

For every scholar wondering how to make blogging an institutionally accredited form of professional activity, there must be several entertaining the vague hopes that it never will.

The deeper problem, perhaps, is the one summed up very precisely in a note from a friend that arrived just as I finished writing this: "Do you think there's any way that intellectual life in America could become less lonely?"

I think Scott McLemee gets things exactly right here, especially that last part about making intellectual life in America less lonely. The fact is that in a country with well over 300 million people, most literary fiction is lucky if it sells 10,000 copies. You don't need to be a math genius to figure out that it's difficult connecting with other readers, geographically speaking (of course, living in a large city will change this dynamic somewhat, but still).

Lit blogs have been one of the most profound ways of connecting with other readers that I've discovered so far. They are certainly not the same as speaking directly to fellow readers, but in my experience they have made the literary life much less lonely. Even if I can't see lit bloggers face to face and talk books with them over a cup of coffee, blogs are a very personal medium that do allow readers to interact with each others personality to some extent. And it is simply nice to know that there is a large group of people out there that is consistently writing about literature and that I can read their writing and them mine.

One thing blogs allow is for lovers of literature to advertise themselves as such in a way that you can't do in real life (I suppose you could walk around with a sign on yourself). As I discovered when I started my blog back in August of 2004, other bloggers are very quick to take notice of new literary blogs that crop up. It's much easier to attract attention and develop a correspondence as a lit blogger than as a guy reading in a cafe.

How did I know that other lit bloggers were taking notice of me (and how did they notice that I was reading them?)? Linking and quoting are two tools that, if they're not unique to blogs, have become mainstays of the blogging world to a greater extent than other kinds of websites. This is important because they show us who each other is reading, and allow us to respond to what others have said. Blogs really are a medium for communication--not quite a conversation and not quite letter-writing, but something of both and a little bit extra.

UPDATE

Also see today Bud Parr and Anne at Fernham.

Comments

[Robert Nagle]

So true, all you say.

Literary blogging is where the literary action is at these days.

But I haven't seen too many serious pushes for online fiction in the blogging world. Litmags are way behind in audience building. That's the need I'm trying to address with my new project. (Launch time uncertain, esp. now that my web server is down, but it will be sooner rather than later).

"lucky if it sells 10,000 copies." The web traffic for the home page for my pseudonymous fiction site is 3000-4000 unique visitors a month. I'm getting no money or tips, but I keep my ownership rights and it doesn't preclude my ability to seek tips later on. (Ebooks, etc.). With the right venue, it would be easy to get that much traffic (and I bet you get almost as much on your weblog).

A lot of the online litblogging world is organized around the traditional publishing world (in terms of releases, interviews with bigwigs, feature stories, etc). That is unfortunate because the publishing world is only a microcosm of what's really going on. (I have a half-written essay on that subject ).

Serious litcritics like yourself face a challenge. You can be open-minded to new literary forms and distribution channels, but part of the responsibility of literary criticism is rescuing overlooked or orphaned literary works from obscurity. But we shouldn't penalize those who have been doing well under the current publishing system. Just because Phillip Roth's publisher won't release stuff under creative commons or offer reasonably priced ebooks doesn't detract from the literary value of his works.

Litblogging has an equalizing effect on the literary world; big publishers and small publishers are put on a more equal footing, and that is good.

And by the way, I have to wonder why big publishers haven't already hired ten or so of the most notable litbloggers and offered them unlimited review copies of their new releases?

[Scott]

Lots of good points, Robert. Online fiction in a blog-esque format has not taken off (although there are many online journals), but it would be interesting to see what can be done with the medium. There certainly is potential.

Also, I agree that blogs are ordering themselves around the publishing world. I do hope that as lit blogs come to forge their own system (the way political blogs already have) we will begin to figure our own norms. I see evidence of that emerging.

I think that many large publishers have begun handing out review copies to lit blogs (I have a few and I suspect that places like TEV must get 10 times what I get). They're beginning to respect our ability to move books with word of mouth, which is the only way to sell large amounts of real literary fiction.

[Jenny D]

Nice post! I can't believe how great lit blogs are--both in terms of getting reading recommendations & of feeling as if I am not a lonely maniac reader, as I often suspect, but someone surrounded by other obsessive readers and writers.

[Anne]

A lovely post--yes, yes, yes. (And thanks for the link). I love going to some stops because they're full of what's happening *right now*, others, because they're quirky and eccentric. I hope that glorious diversity continues.