Stuff and malarkey

One of those bits, bobs, snark and indiscretions editions

Call for interview subjects:

Are you a reader of books? Do you read regularly between all your other obligations and entertainment options? If so, get in touch by emailing me at greeksandromans at gmail. I’ll be profiling Readers, this endangered species, and asking them about the logistics of a life that involves a lot of reading for pleasure.

Times Literary Supplement simplifies things

This is how the TLS, one of the better known literary magazines in the world, classifies literatures now:

I’ve looked at the reviews under the NAL tag and it’s about 9:1 American:Canadian. Not that the tag “Canadian literature” would make any difference in how many books from north of the border get reviewed, mind. Canadian media don’t review them either. What will the Star and the Globe do now that the Associated Press stopped doing book reviews, what on earth can they syndicate for their three inches of book coverage a week? Life comes at you.

The “South American literature” term was widely used for decades in Europe and North America, and you needed to know the region and its cultures a little bit in order to be able to distinguish between, say, Uruguayan, Colombian and Argentine literature. Borges was maybe recognizably Argentine; for Llosa, Marquez, Isabel Allende, I think way fewer people would be able to tell their nationality, outside “South American”. There are some terrific small houses now like Charco Press and keen translators that do a Herculean job of advocating for their respective South American national literature, but there is no Hispanic revival on the global level in the offing, chiefly because reading books in translation has become an extremely minority, media coverage-less pursuit.

The “European” tag is particularly eccentric (and does it include Russians, Ukrainians, Byelorussians?) though maybe it will allow the smuggling in of some less known and less translated literatures. For a time, the “North American literature” category, if it becomes widely adopted, will get some Canadian books a look in, whereas “Canadian literature” probably wouldn’t. Where do you even wedge in Quebec, which does sometimes get a share of European francophone readership market and media coverage? (The young Kevin Lambert has been shortlisted for numerous French literary awards, for example).

Do Chileans, Argentinians and Brazilians get pissed off when their culture is being referred to as “South American”, rather than Chilean, Argentine and Brazilian?

I am taking these mangled categories by the TLS seriously because they cannily point in the direction where things are heading. They may not be accurate yet, but likely will be soon.