Wal-mart is the #1 bookseller in the U.S., did you know that?
Last night we watched “Dark City”. This was a movie that originally came out in 1998 to pretty much no acclaim, though even ol’ Ebert thought it was awesome. I watched it last night and thought it was excellent. The gist is that an alien race is studying our memories, trying to figure out what makes us human. The protagonist gallops around being chased by “the strangers” who want to kill him as he gathers hints about what is happening until he figures it all out. He also has evolved the powers they have to create the world. The strangers created a dark sort of victorian era city from our memories. The protagonist, John Murdock, uses the machines to create a blissful sort of seaside resort. As the last “stranger” confronts him, John says “you were looking in the wrong place” – and then he goes off to find his sweetheart. The point being, of course, that it is what is in our heart that makes us human. Anyhow, the big movie houses all thought it was too cerebral for audiences and in trying to “dumb it down” basically ruined it. The new DVD version has the dumb stuff removed and is back to how the director/writer envisioned it.
Where I am going with this – is that currently there are a few big publishing houses (and a few big movie houses) who control what we actually get to see in the way of movies, and purchase in the way of books. This is not innately bad – however, they tend to be very conventional, and to assume most Americans ain’t too smart. They are in the business to make money. If they find a formula that sells – such as light romances (or action movies) – they publish a lot of light little romances. It’s worked for Harlequin for who knows how long! But this makes it hard for someone writing “out there” sort of things to get published, and if published, to get to their audience since they don’t usually have the sort of prebuilt “here’s a new romance like Nora Roberts”, “here’s a new mystery like Tony Hillerman”, “here’s a new thriller like Steven King” to rely on.
I do think this is going to change because of the access writers (and their readers) now have to the Internet – and to some very adequate smaller publishers and self-publishing such as Print On Demand. Writers who can’t sell their story as a specific genre – or an existing one anyway – to a large publishing house, can still publish and reach their audience. Chances are they are writing for an Internet literate group anyway if they are out here on the edge.
Us odd folks are a smaller percentage of the population. We find it easier to find like minded people on the Internet – with a larger pool of people than the local singles bar. Also many are not “out” in the mundane world, because most of the U.S. just hasn’t caught up and you could lose your job, home, etc. because of your unconventional lifestyle. So that too drives us to the Internet to find people, websites, and books, catering to our interests in a way that allows us to be anonymous.
Eventually, this is all going to make it to the Wal-Mart group. Look at Laurel K. Hamilton. Her “vampire hunter” series is little more than BDSM erotica and it is for sale out there where your babies can pick it up off the WalMart shelf – and she gets away with it. In fact, she is wildly popular. (I admit this is a pet peeve of mine – my husband is a fan and frankly I think I write better BDSM erotica and am more restrained in what I can legally write and publish as a pornographer – based in the U.S. – on the Internet, thanks to Mr. Bush)
At the same time, I do not believe that mainstream romance will go away. Not everyone is ever going to be interested in the weird shit. The fact is that 80% or so of American women are as straight as they ever were, and consider it a big adventure to be getting out of town for a day or two to an exotic locale like the Southwest or the beach or an island or some historical or magical never never land. A few days away from kids and hubby with a tall, dark stranger who says everything they wish their husband would say to them is all they want. And they’ll want it forever – even if they have a wonderful husband who says those things.
I’ve been thinking a lot about La Baker – Josephine Baker – lately. I bought several collections of vintage erotica for the foovay’s floozies project, and one of them, to my great delight, has over 200 photos of La Baker. When she got older, Josephine married a white man, and between them they adopted like 30 children, orphans from all over the world – she called them her rainbow family. Of course, they were castigated from one end to the other in the media (except in France, where they lived) of the time. Remind you of anyone now? How many children do Brad and Angelina Jolie have now of many different colors and nationalities – and oh yeah, they finally got around to getting married, didn’t they? The media makes fun of them, but also allows the viewpoint of “isn’t that WONDERFUL” to get in there now.
Sure, times they are a’changin’ – but some things are eternal truths. Like – what makes us human.
Love U
Blessedbe
Summer Fey Foovay
