Recently, I’ve been thinking about the market. Or rather, the author’s relationship to it. This was spurred by Christian Lorentzen’s excellent essay “Literature Without Literature” that was critiquing Dan Sinykin’s also excellent book Big Fiction. I enjoyed Big Fiction and interviewed Sinykin last year for this blog and I think Lorentzen is one of our sharpest critics. Sinykin looks at the role conglomerate corporate publishing has taken in shaping fiction and Lorentzen counters with an argument against the sociological reading of literature and for the artist’s role in creating art. I think you always need both the sociological / systems view and the individual view to understand the world. I suggest everyone read both.
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