At first glance, a society based on mass consumption appears to encourage self-indulgence in its most blatant forms. Strictly considered, however, modern advertising seeks to promote not so much self-indulgence as self-doubt. It seeks to create needs, not to fulfill them; to generate new anxieties instead of allaying old ones. By surrounding the consumer with images of the good life, and by associating them with the glamour of celebrity and success, mass culture encourages the ordinary man to cultivate extraordinary tastes, to identify himself with the privileged minority against the rest, and to join them, in his fantasies, in a life of exquisite comfort and sensual refinement. Yet the propaganda of commodities simultaneously make him acutely unhappy with his lot. By fostering grandiose aspirations, it also fosters self-denigration and self-contempt.
The Culture of Narcissism (1979)
Use
the link below to read a July 2020 article about the prescient work of
North American historian and cultural critic CHRISTOPHER LASCH
(1932–1994):
I can't think of a riskier business than writing. Not only because so few succeed in conventional terms, with publication and some payment, but because it almost certainly requires banishment. First, there is the literal act of removing oneself, of choosing solitude. Then there is the psychological separation, holding oneself apart. And finally, the potential rejection of friends and family, critics and publishers… But you cannot censor yourself; successful writing never comes about through half-measures. For most people the first book is about the family, if only metaphorically, and it must be conquered as surely as the walls of Jericho.
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers (revised edition 2010)
Use the link below to visit the website of North American writer, poet, editor and agent BETSY LERNER:
The unexpected death (of undisclosed causes) of North American country/folk artist Nanci Griffith on 13 August 2021 came as a great shock to her many fans all over the world and triggered an outpouring of grief on YouTube and other social media platforms as we struggled to come to terms with what remains, for all of us, a deeply felt loss.
It's no surprise that many of these of comments were posted by people who said that Nanci Griffith's music had helped them to survive the rough times in their lives — divorce, mental and physical illness, the death of their significant other, the list goes on. This is a testimony to her gift for telling stories through the medium of music that consistently captured people's hearts, something she possessed an almost uncanny ability to do from the beginning of her recording career in 1978. She wrote in plain language but the stories she told were anything but plain, inhabiting that haunting world between the real and the imaginary that novels, if they're good, also inhabit.
There's A Light Beyond These Woods, Mary Margaret is one Griffith's tenderest tunes, with words that never fail to bring a tear to my eye each time I hear them. (She must have been especially fond of the song because she re-recorded it for her 1987 LP Lone Star State of Mind.) The fact that the song tells an entirely true story — her best friend while she was growing up in Texas was named Mary Margaret and her high school boyfriend John did die in a motorcycle accident after escorting her to her senior prom — only adds to its poignancy, conjuring up the vanished world of childhood, its hopes and dreams and disappointments, before seamlessly time-shifting to the present day. While the song is undeniably wistful in tone — friends growing up, moving on, fanciful dreams replaced by sometimes harsh realities — there's also a feeling of gratitude as Griffith acknowledges how lucky she was to have such a wonderful friend and how rare those types of friendships tend to be in life.
I'm sure that, wherever she may be, Mary Margaret shares the same sense of grief we all continue to experience at the loss of one of North American music's most gifted and original songwriters. And for her the grief must be all the more bitter because saying goodbye to a cherished childhood friend is never an easy thing to do.
Use the link below to listen to more great music by NANCI GRIFFITH:
The average sales of a work of literary fiction in its year of publication is under 500 copies. This is due to many factors, none of which will be its quality.
The success of literary fiction is down to luck. And when I say 'success', I mean any number between 1,000 and 200,000 copies sold. Apparently 200,000 is the slightly permeable transparent ceiling for works of literary fiction. Think Hilary Mantel.
When I say 'luck', I mean: a Waterstones fiction buyer happens to like the cover; the judges of a prize happen to be disposed to what the writer is doing; enough independent booksellers happen to read the same novel among all the novels they receive, love it, and handsell it to customers.
One of the above is not enough. You need all three.
The car crash economics of publishing [Weatherglass Books, 18 July 2023]
Use the link below to visit the Substack blog of independent UK publisher Weatherglass Books:
