In my younger days of writing, I used to send out my novel manuscripts to many publishers. The usual reply, which I was never a fan of, was that they were good, but unmarketable. I'm not sure if I want to get into it here, but I really hated that reply more than the form rejections. The latter is thoughtless and you can only get so angry at it, while the former dangles a possibility in front of you which you cannot truly understand.
This isn't to mock all editors who have responded to me (with rejections). After all, to this day, I remember the editor who told me my writing reminded him of Nelson Algren (but that was no longer in fashion). I didn't think much of what he had said, though I did read some of Algren's work (a lot of jargon that I couldn't understand [1]).
Fast forward to today and I've entered the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren's short story contest (please I want to win, though I haven't heard anything so maybe that's bad?) and now hearing more articles about this man who was forced into obscurity.
Now I'm wondering if that editor's comparison was a little too on the nose.
You see, I've just read Fink's book on the CIA and its incursion into the American literary world after WWII.
If ever you needed a reason to be paranoid, and maybe to blame the lack of your publishing success to some shady cabal, then this book will help you feed that beast within. From the start of The Paris Review, to the American lit world's need to act "apolitical"[2], you'll see how hidden forces have shaped our literary culture in many insidious ways.
For example, I always thought the "be apolitical and focus on the individual" American lit mantra to be a little banality that was the result of suburban ideology, but it would appear that there is more to it than we would think. [3] More than I thought, at least.
Algren himself was part of a blacklist whereupon his initial fame gave away to obscurity. [4] This New Yorker article really gets into it. He was followed by the FBI (the same one that drove Hemingway to suicide and also gaslit many other artists (oh you're just being paranoid, said many an agent/stool pigeon of theirs when in fact they were being followed). [5]
He final act was seeing the truth in the Hurricane framing for murder case and being sidelined once more.
I guess I'm writing about this because it only goes to confirm, against all that I hope, that being the bearer of truth conveys no rewards whatsoever. Especially if you're going up against the powers of the day.
And Algren? Well I'll be reading more of his work. It really does make more sense to do so today.
[1] Jargon is something I toy with, in terms of what I'll keep in a story. Sometimes it helps. Many times it doesn't.
[2] Always a facade since nothing is truly apolitical, though the book shows how the powers that be influence writing in America to act that way.
[3] The interplay of what's convenient to a person and how powers that be shape those positive/negative reinforcements is always at play.
[4] random aside: the man died 2 months after I was born.
[5] Also note that the FBI tried to drive MLK to suicide. Luckily the man had the wherewithal to prevent that.
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This isn't to mock all editors who have responded to me (with rejections). After all, to this day, I remember the editor who told me my writing reminded him of Nelson Algren (but that was no longer in fashion). I didn't think much of what he had said, though I did read some of Algren's work (a lot of jargon that I couldn't understand [1]).
Fast forward to today and I've entered the Chicago Tribune's Nelson Algren's short story contest (please I want to win, though I haven't heard anything so maybe that's bad?) and now hearing more articles about this man who was forced into obscurity.
Now I'm wondering if that editor's comparison was a little too on the nose.
You see, I've just read Fink's book on the CIA and its incursion into the American literary world after WWII.
If ever you needed a reason to be paranoid, and maybe to blame the lack of your publishing success to some shady cabal, then this book will help you feed that beast within. From the start of The Paris Review, to the American lit world's need to act "apolitical"[2], you'll see how hidden forces have shaped our literary culture in many insidious ways.
For example, I always thought the "be apolitical and focus on the individual" American lit mantra to be a little banality that was the result of suburban ideology, but it would appear that there is more to it than we would think. [3] More than I thought, at least.
Algren himself was part of a blacklist whereupon his initial fame gave away to obscurity. [4] This New Yorker article really gets into it. He was followed by the FBI (the same one that drove Hemingway to suicide and also gaslit many other artists (oh you're just being paranoid, said many an agent/stool pigeon of theirs when in fact they were being followed). [5]
He final act was seeing the truth in the Hurricane framing for murder case and being sidelined once more.
I guess I'm writing about this because it only goes to confirm, against all that I hope, that being the bearer of truth conveys no rewards whatsoever. Especially if you're going up against the powers of the day.
And Algren? Well I'll be reading more of his work. It really does make more sense to do so today.
[1] Jargon is something I toy with, in terms of what I'll keep in a story. Sometimes it helps. Many times it doesn't.
[2] Always a facade since nothing is truly apolitical, though the book shows how the powers that be influence writing in America to act that way.
[3] The interplay of what's convenient to a person and how powers that be shape those positive/negative reinforcements is always at play.
[4] random aside: the man died 2 months after I was born.
[5] Also note that the FBI tried to drive MLK to suicide. Luckily the man had the wherewithal to prevent that.
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.
