I am a hopeful fellow tonight
There's something wrong with the world but on this darkling precipice I am hopeful. The problem is a lack of quality, but I can't help but feel that you and I and others are already pushing back against this senseless barrage of SUCK. You weren't wrong when you were 13 or fourteen or 15 or more. Almost everything sucks. But some things don't.
More potent than voting or marching, spending money is a political act. Repeat after me: Spending money is a political act. I believe that something of superior quality is worth buying. I love luxury; I despise decadence. There's a difference. Spend your money where it supports what you love. Pay for the music you love. The sandwich you love. The coffee. The books. Pay for quality and more quality will be produced. Buy good shoes. When you pay a premium for a brand, buy value not image.
This isn't new or original. But I'm hopeful tonight and that IS new and original. To me. Tonight.
I'll be the millionth person to stand up and say there's something (everything) wrong with the publishing industry. There's something obviously wrong when Meghan McCain has a book deal with an advance in the six figures and only one book of Ferenc Karinthy's (notable Hungarian water polo champion) has been published to English. But the format (books!) isn't obsolete any more than vinyl is an obsolete musical format. It will become smaller and the business needs to become smaller also because this shit is too big and good just doesn't seem to come from big.
The publishing industry isn't about books. It's about selling feces to the already shit-covered masses. Books, as a format, are replaceable to an extent, but never completely. Maybe textbooks should be digital. Maybe the university presses (Muck Fichigan) will go digital too, but I'd like to see them--EACH of them--support a small press operation. I'd like to see a massive growth in small presses--for profit or non-profit--even as the "industry" comes crashing down. I want specialized boutique presses executing excellent books with excellent design. I want them sold to excellent indie stores by excellent and well-read sales reps employed by a wide-ranging and benevolent distribution giant (big distribution still makes sense) and then sold by those excellent indie stores to a discerning public.
Vinyl isn't dead. Against all odds, vinyl sales increase every quarter, every year. Wonderful labels like the Chicago-based Numero Group do for music what presses like Open Letter and Dalkey Archive do for books. Ugly Duckling Presse and the many small presses like it are making books art again.
And I'm hopeful. Because I can go to work at a small MarketCafe if I feel like it and get an individually brewed cup of excellently roasted coffee, buy some excellent meat, and go home. And Z&H will never drive McDonald's or Starbucks out of business, because some people just want what they have to sell and that's ok. But you spend your money on what YOU like. Not just some of the time, but every time.
But more to the point, spend your money on what I like, so that it doesn't go away and leave me desolate. I am, after all, a hopeful fellow.
Tonight.
More potent than voting or marching, spending money is a political act. Repeat after me: Spending money is a political act. I believe that something of superior quality is worth buying. I love luxury; I despise decadence. There's a difference. Spend your money where it supports what you love. Pay for the music you love. The sandwich you love. The coffee. The books. Pay for quality and more quality will be produced. Buy good shoes. When you pay a premium for a brand, buy value not image.
This isn't new or original. But I'm hopeful tonight and that IS new and original. To me. Tonight.
I'll be the millionth person to stand up and say there's something (everything) wrong with the publishing industry. There's something obviously wrong when Meghan McCain has a book deal with an advance in the six figures and only one book of Ferenc Karinthy's (notable Hungarian water polo champion) has been published to English. But the format (books!) isn't obsolete any more than vinyl is an obsolete musical format. It will become smaller and the business needs to become smaller also because this shit is too big and good just doesn't seem to come from big.
The publishing industry isn't about books. It's about selling feces to the already shit-covered masses. Books, as a format, are replaceable to an extent, but never completely. Maybe textbooks should be digital. Maybe the university presses (Muck Fichigan) will go digital too, but I'd like to see them--EACH of them--support a small press operation. I'd like to see a massive growth in small presses--for profit or non-profit--even as the "industry" comes crashing down. I want specialized boutique presses executing excellent books with excellent design. I want them sold to excellent indie stores by excellent and well-read sales reps employed by a wide-ranging and benevolent distribution giant (big distribution still makes sense) and then sold by those excellent indie stores to a discerning public.
Vinyl isn't dead. Against all odds, vinyl sales increase every quarter, every year. Wonderful labels like the Chicago-based Numero Group do for music what presses like Open Letter and Dalkey Archive do for books. Ugly Duckling Presse and the many small presses like it are making books art again.
And I'm hopeful. Because I can go to work at a small MarketCafe if I feel like it and get an individually brewed cup of excellently roasted coffee, buy some excellent meat, and go home. And Z&H will never drive McDonald's or Starbucks out of business, because some people just want what they have to sell and that's ok. But you spend your money on what YOU like. Not just some of the time, but every time.
But more to the point, spend your money on what I like, so that it doesn't go away and leave me desolate. I am, after all, a hopeful fellow.
Tonight.
posted by jw at
12:20 AM
2 Comments:
I linked to this post on Twitter, because I liked it. Maybe one of the four people who "follow" me will read and appreciate it.
I owe you an email reply. But I have thoughts to get together, so it'll have to wait one more day. But I wanted to say, thank you.
-Dave
Ferenc Karinthy is a handsome man.
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