Literary revolution from below?

"We expect literary revolutions to come from above, from the literary end of the spectrum — the difficult, the avant-garde, the high-end, the densely written. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on. Instead we’re getting a revolution from below, coming up from the supermarket aisles. Genre fiction is the technology that will disrupt the literary novel as we know it".

Shalom Auslander reviews "The Eternal Philistine"

"If satire, as they say in the theater, is what closes on Saturday night, humor in literature is what gets belittled by reviewers, ignored by the award committees, goes out of print and is never spoken about again. Comedy bravely stands up, speaks the harsh truth, attempts to show things the way they are, to teach us to see and laugh at our own shortcomings and failures. For that it is dismissed. The fate of humor in literature, one could say, is utterly tragic, but then one would be saying something funny, and one would be ignored."

Shin Kyung-sook interview

For me, writing is a path connecting this world to the irreconcilable or forbid­den, and to the oppressed and weak. 

Is it even possible to tailor a book for someone? In whatever circum­stance, I only write a story that I want to write, and I do it in my own style. One of the reasons I chose to become a writer was my desire to be free, without any constraints imposed on me. Now, when I write, I feel infinitely free. I relish this freedom, which I have only recently attained.

Publishing culture is diseased!

"Publishers have such a strong sense of entitlement that they feel perfectly justified in breaking the law to keep things how they are. They abuse their power. Worse, they think their power is deserved, that they alone can deliver rich literary culture to the unwashed masses because their insights are so keen and their judgement is ubiquitous."

Last Carlos Fuentes interview

Of course, it's my assumption: the PW interview, published on May 15 (the same day Fuentes died), is the last  published interview of the great novelist and it relates to his new novel VLAD. It has some interesting observations.

You’re a writer or a filmmaker; literature is the antithesis of making films.

Lit News: Carlos Fuentes dies

"Fuentes leaves behind a large body of work, an eloquent testimony of political issues and cultural realities of our time. Not only are friends but many readers are going to deeply miss him."


Read here an excerpt from Inez  by Carlos Fuentes

Immanuel Mifsud interview

"...we are all concerned with image, not with content."

Orhan Pamuk interview /1

I like when politics is there in my books, just below the surface, something we are aware of, but that does not force itself upon us. Of course, in Turkey, one cannot leave out this aspect.

Originality is dangerous: Salman Rushdie

“Great art, original art, is never created in a safe middle ground. Originality is dangerous, as it is at the edge."