Brad's Reader » Literary News

Turning Literature into Visual Art

Brad Vertrees — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:32:07 +0000

Literature doesn’t have to be just words on a page (or screen). One literary publication is taking literature out of the confines of words and turning it into visual art. Electric Literature, a website I have already profiled here, does just that. They not only publish short fiction in both print and digital form, they visualize the literature they produce.

One of my favorite parts of what Electric Literature does is taking a single sentence from a short story they publish, and then animating it. The result is an illuminating visual interpretation of that one sentence. In a way, the short cartoons (often less than a minute long) represent how one’s imagination would perceive a particular literary “bit.”

The following is one of my favorite pieces from Electric Literature. It’s simplicity shines a bright light on the sentence, making it more powerful and thought-provoking than it otherwise would be. The sentence comes from the short story Little Things by Matt Sumell.

The bookstore of tomorrow: More than just selling books

Brad Vertrees — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:37:38 +0000

First they said that big-box book retailers like Borders, Barnes & Noble and even Amazon will be the death of the independent bookstore. And to some extent, the prediction has come true. A lot of the indie booksellers have closed shop over the last decade or so.

Now they’re saying that ebooks will be the death of bookstores altogether. After all, who needs to actually go to a physical store when you can just buy an ebook with the click of your mouse?

If Jason Rovito has his way, the indie bookstore could make a comeback not just as a bookstore, but as a collective of booksellers, writers, publishers and writing and reading groups. When indie bookstores were closing down all around, Jason did the unthinkable, he opened up his own store, called Of Swallows, Their Deeds and The Winter Below.

In the article from thestar.com Independent bookstores make a comeback, Jason explains why he remains optimistic of his unusual business model, even in the face of a growing ebook market:

“But what gets lost in the process, is everything that surrounds the book materially. I think it’s an opportunity for us to think of a book as not a thing in and of itself, but as part of a larger process.”

He continues:

“The act of actually browsing in a bookshop is just as valuable, or bumping into somebody and having a conversation about the books, or seeing two books together that you wouldn’t necessarily think of, and that creates a different relationship in your mind.”

In other words, Jason is saying that books are much more than a physical object. There’s an entire process and community surrounding books that ebooks just cannot replicate. While I tend to think that the importance placed on the physical book is a little overdone (it’s the content that counts, I say). But I don’t dispute Jason’s point about the community surrounding books.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Jason’s indie bookstore venture is the idea of the collective:

Tenants, such as the Toronto New School of Writing or Public, a local arts journal, rent spaces on the shop’s third floor, drawing in like-minded readers, customers and much-needed rental income. In turn, the place becomes a kind of literary community centre where people don’t just buy books, but talk about, write and share them.

Bookstores have always been a place for book lovers to congregate. The idea behind this particular bookstore takes that idea to a whole new level by fostering people in different parts of the literary community to come together in one spot.

The Change Face of Bookstores

Just as the publishing industry as whole needs to rethink their business model and keep up with the times, bookstores need to do the same. Instead of just selling books, stores need to find ways to foster the literary community. Maybe make ebooks a more integral part of that experience.

One idea is to make more use of mini POD printers where customers can print an entire book (cover included) from an online library of millions of titles. Housing literary magazine publishers and indie book publishers (like Jason’s store does) is a great way to involve readers into the entire book “process.”

The collective also solves another problem: Paying the bills. It’s very tough for an indie bookstore to stay financially viable because their profit margins are fairly low. Spreading this risk around reduces the chances of these indie stores going out of business, and differentiates them from the larger chain stores.

How do you think indie bookstores should evolve to compete with the large chains and integrate digital publishing into their business model?

Thanks to the Teleread blog, where I first saw this story.

Amazon starts imprint to publish international titles

Brad Vertrees — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:51:01 +0000

Amazon has announced a new publishing imprint called AmazonCrossing. The goal of this imprint is to publish foreign titles that will be translated into English. Readers in the US have a history of being weary of translated titles, which make up only a small percentage of overall book sales in this country.

The online retailer began its first imprint, AmazonEncore, as a way to give exposure to great writers who are more-than-worthy of being published. AmazonCrossing has the same goal, only at the international level. Jeff Belle, VP of Books, says in an Amazon press release:

“The goal of our publishing programs is to introduce readers to terrific authors they might not otherwise have the chance to know,” said Jeff Belle, Vice President of Books. “Our international customers have made us aware of exciting established and emerging voices from other cultures and countries that have not been translated for English-language readers. These great voices and great books deserve a wider audience, and that’s why we created AmazonCrossing.”

I’m thrilled to see a major US company like Amazon working to expose readers to a wider variety of books from different cultures. One translated book that easily comes to mind is The Alchemist (aff link) by Paulo Coelho. The novel, originally written in Portuguese, has been translated into 56 languages. It has won a Guinness World Record for having been translated into the most languages by a living author (source).

One of the many parts of literature I love is how easily it crosses cultural lines. Literature is universal. One reason for this is that the human condition is the same wherever you go in the world. At the same time, cultures have their own flavors that provide a diverse learning experience for those who are enlightened enough to look beyond their own backyard.

I’ll be looking forward to seeing the titles AmazonCrossing publishes. Do you have a favorite novel that has been translated into English? Leave a comment below with your answer.

New Shakespeare play may have been discovered

Brad Vertrees — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:37:01 +0000

Looks like the Bard might have written more than his already prolific canon of plays. A Shakespeare scholar from the University of Nottingham is fairly certain of the confirmation a new play was written by Shakespeare. According this article from the AP via Yahoo! News:

After years of literary investigation, a professor at the University of Nottingham said Tuesday he’s certain “Double Falsehood, or the Distressed Lovers” was born out of “Cardenio,” a play Shakespeare scholars believe existed…”There is definitely Shakespearean DNA,” said English literature professor Brean Hammond, who has worked since 2002 to determine if “Double Falsehood” has Shakespearean roots.

As the article mentions, there is not enough proof with 100% certainty that “Double Falsehood” is based off of this mysterious “Cardenio” play.

However, there is more evidence for the existence of another Shakespeare play than just speculation about Shakespearean DNA found in another drama:

There is strong evidence “Cardenio” existed: records showed the actors in Shakespeare’s company were paid for acting in it. And Hammond said Theobald claimed he had used three of the Bard’s manuscripts when he wrote “Double Falsehood,” which opened to positive reviews in London’s West End.

As someone who enjoys Shakespeare (although I’m no scholar), it’s fascinating to think that there could be one more play to add to his folio.

Of course, there’s also the age-old controversy about whether or not Shakespeare wrote anything at all, or if his plays were written by someone else. I’m not going to get into this debate on this post because I’ve written about it here The verdict is in: Shakespeare is a fraud and Was Shakespeare a fraud?.

The possibility of another Shakespeare play is just another fascinating chapter in the ongoing research of the most famous writer in the English-speaking world.

Electric Digital Magazine helps usher in new literary revolution

Brad Vertrees — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:36:20 +0000

Ebooks are only a part of the digital revolution we are seeing in the world. Everything is becoming digitized; from literature to music and video. Computers are the new entertainment centers. Access to vast amounts of information is now at our fingertips and it’s only going to increase over time.

There’s one new literary magazine start-up that is helping take literature into the future. The quarterly publication is called Electric Literature Magazine. They are using more than just ebooks to help sell literature to a wider and more diverse audience.

What makes Electric Literature Magazine so unique? It’s not just the ebooks, which they make available on every platform possible, like the Kindle and the iPhone. According to this New York Times article, the magazine goes far beyond selling ebooks:

…they allow readers to enjoy the magazine any way they like: on paper, Kindle, e-book, iPhone and, starting next month, as an audiobook. YouTube videos feature collaborations among their writers and visual artists and musicians. Starting next month, Rick Moody will tweet a story over three days.

The article goes on to explain that this kind of new marketing has created quite the online buzz. This buzz has given the magazine a lot of exposure, and not just on the blogosphere:

With a debut issue in June and an autumn issue out last week, each consisting of five stories, the magazine has racked up complimentary reviews everywhere from The Washington Post to a blogger on Destructive Anachronism, who wrote, “High quality content + innovative marketing + multimedia could just equal the new model for literature, post-print.”

‘Post-print’ is a good term, and one we will likely hear more and more in the coming years.

A new age for short fiction

Electric Literature Magazine publishes short fiction (one of my favorite literary forms). It wasn’t that long ago when everyone wrote the short story off as a dead form. Magazines were only paying pennies on the dollar for a short story. And forget about getting a collection of stories printed by a large publishing house. In other words, the short story had been laid to rest in the grave and the literary world was throwing dirt on its casket.

Not anymore. I, along with a lot of others, have claimed that short fiction is making a renaissance because of the ebook. Short fiction is more accessible than ever before and authors are self-publishing their own works on websites like Smashwords, thus reaping more profits.

For example, I’m downloading short fiction onto my Sony Reader Pocket Edition from sites like Smashwords. The experience is great. I get a chance to read a diverse range of authors who write a very diverse range of fiction while not paying for an expensive print publication or anthology of short fiction. And more importantly, I’m still supporting these authors by paying the prices they set for their work.

Electric Literature Magazine – making literature exciting again

I’ve always found that literature is exciting. That’s just me. But in an era of incredibly short attention spans due to television, video games, and yes even the internet, it is hard to get people to sit down and enjoy a work of fiction with all these other distractions. By relying on multiple forms of media like YouTube videos, the Electric Literature Magazine is taking the ‘homework’ feel out of reading:

One thing Electric Literature seems good at is getting people to read serious literature, making it less like homework. As Sara Nelson, the books director of O, the Oprah Magazine, and former editor in chief of Publishers Weekly, said, “Anything that takes the starch out — go for it.”

Some might say this is somehow cheapening literature. I tend to think like Sara Nelson from the above quote, anything that gets people reading and away from the television is a great thing.

Listen to my interview on Conversations LIVE! Radio with Cyrus Webb

Brad Vertrees — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:44:24 +0000

Today I had the privilege of giving an interview on the radio show Conversations LIVE with Cyrus Webb. I was contacted a few weeks ago by Mr. Webb as a result of a blog post I wrote (Author sells self-published book one copy at a time) about Christopher Herz who hand sells his book on the street to individuals. My interview focused on that and more.

You can stream the interview directly from your browser via the BlogTalkRadio website here. Or, for all you Apple fanboys (and girls) out there, you can listen in iTunes here (opens in iTunes).

Here’s what the interview focused on:

- Some more personal information about myself, more than you’ll find on this blog’s about page. How my love affair with literature began. My writing and so forth.

- Using Twitter to promote my blog. My experience using Twitter and how it has helped my blog.

- Literacy and ways everyone can help those around the world who are illiterate. A little on how technology can also help with this.

- Self publishing and how authors can get their work out there in a more personal way than traditional publishing.

I had a fun time doing this interview. It’s a half hour long so I encourage everyone to give it a listen. Also, check out Mr. Webb’s other interview shows. He has very interesting guests on and many published authors. He is also a big advocate of literacy in America and around the world.

Vampires, zombies and the faddish nature of literature

Brad Vertrees — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:36:14 +0000

When I first began studying literature in college, I thought of literature as something pure – far removed from the superficial world of pop culture. I had read a lot of popular fiction in my life, but all that went out the window when I began dissecting literature at the college level. Looking back now I realize that I was a tad bit too idealistic in my thinking and I now realize that yes, even literature is subject to the whims of pop culture.

Like every other art form out there, literature goes through phases of what’s popular and selling, and what’s not. For a while now it has been books featuring vampires and vampire-like characters. For this we can thank Stephanie Meyer and her incredibly popular Twilight series that is described as a young adult vampire-romance mash-up that appeals mostly to teen girls (but I know adults who love the series as well). Never mind that books like Bram Stoker’s Dracula (aff link) have been around since the 1800s.

The newest fad in literature has appeared to take hold, and it’s filled with zombies. Ever since the strangely popular Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (aff link), the market is becoming (or will soon become) filled with zombies invading popular characters (both real and fictional). And according to this article from the Examiner, seems to confirm the zombie trend in literature:

Last month, deputy publisher Anthony Ziccardi announced that the company will be publishing seven zombie books in conjunction with the small horror publisher Permuted Press. Ziccardi was quoted as saying that Pocket believes the horror genre, especially zombie themed horror, “will be a growing category at retail.”

This just goes to show that, like any other business, publishers are always on the lookout for the next big thing. Of course, this is always a gamble. The zombie craze can die a quick death, leaving publishers with multiple titles that won’t sell. Or, they could find a gold mine with zombies and we might see zombie-related books hitting the shelves for the next few years.

One book I’m particularly looking forward to is a planned book about Beatles and zombies:

Pocket Books has announced that it has purchased the publishing rights to Paul Is Undead: The British Zombie Invasion by Alan Goldsher. The book, which portrays all the Beatles as zombies and Yoko Ono as an eighth level Ninja Lord, will be published here in the United States in June 2010.

Sounds pretty cool to me!

What has been your favorite literary fad in the past? What would you like to see in the future? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Various groups seek to lift injunction in Salinger sequel case of ‘Catcher in the Rye’

Brad Vertrees — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:49:31 +0000

I’m no fan of JD Salinger. I’m talking about the man, not his writing. You can read my reasoning in this earlier post What do authors owe their readers. Mr. Salinger is not helping his case in an ongoing legal battle where he wants to prevent publication of a ’sequel’ to his infamous novel Catcher in the Rye.

You might recall that on July 1, an injunction was ordered by a judge that prevented the publication of the sequel by Swedish author Fredrik Colting called 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye. Since that ruling, groups ranging from free speech advocates, librarians, the Associated Press and others have been filing briefs with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to get the injunction lifted. The appeals court will start hearing arguments on September 3.

An article from Publishers Weekly, Groups urge Injunction to be Vacated in Salinger Case, details the arguments the various groups are making on behalf of the Swedish author. It’s interesting to note that some of these groups are not saying that Mr. Colting did anything wrong by writing and then trying to publish his sequel to Catcher in the Rye. What they do say, however, is that an all-out ban on publication is overly harsh.

Here’s what the brief said that was filed on behalf of several media organizations:

“In the interest of free speech we don’t ban ruinous, libelous communication, we assess monetary damages,” the brief notes. “It belies logic to conclude that authorial dignity deserves greater protection.”

The major library associations filed a brief that said, in part:

“Prior restraints are strongly disfavored precisely because they have the potential to cause grave damage to free speech rights,” the library brief asserts. Indeed, Colting’s book may be an infringement, the brief concedes, but “the question of whether to ban publication pending that determination demands a more careful balancing of the important interests at stake.”

It is also important to note that the article states that Salinger did not register his novel’s main character, Holden Caulfield, for copyright protection. I’m not a lawyer, but I think that fictional characters still fall under the same copyright protection as the written work they appear in. That said, Salinger probably has every right to challenge Mr. Colting and his 60 Years Later follow-up. However, an outright banning the book from publication leads us down a slippery path and sets a dangerous precedent.

This will be an interesting case to follow and see how it plays out. Honestly, if I were Mr. Salinger, I’d be flattered that someone would even want to write a sequel to one of novels. I’d at least want to read the manuscript before it were to be published.

What are your thoughts on this case? Should the courts allow the sequel to be published, with the author only paying monetary damages for copyright infringement? Or should it be banned from publication? If you are a lawyer or have good knowledge of copyright law, I’d be very interested in hearing from you (of course, comments from all are still welcome). Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Scribner releases modified version of Hemingway novel ‘A Moveable Feast’

Brad Vertrees — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:51:15 +0000

I first read about Scribner’s plans to release a modified version of Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast (aff link) in this New York Times OpEd back in July, but have only now gotten around to writing about it. This story brings up a lot of questions about what publishers owe to the authors and novels they publish, especially after the author has long been deceased and can no longer speak for himself.

In this particular case, Scribner is going to be publishing and shipping a modified version of Hemingway’s book A Moveable Feast to bookstores around the country (and probably the world). I haven’t seen this new version yet in my local bookstore, though I’m keeping my eyes open.

The changes made to the book are the result of one of Hemingway’s grandsons who did not like the way the novel portrayed his grandmother:

The grandson has removed several sections of the book’s final chapter and replaced them with other writing of Hemingway’s that the grandson feels paints his grandma in a more sympathetic light. Ten other chapters that roused the grandson’s displeasure have been relegated to an appendix, thereby, according to the grandson, creating “a truer representation of the book my grandfather intended to publish.”

This brings up a whole host of ethical questions for the publishing world. Can and/or should a publisher really do this? Even the person wanting the changes holds the copyright to the work, shouldn’t they have to publish a separate book instead of forever changing the original?

While those aren’t easy questions to answer, they are questions that need to be addressed, especially today where digital content has thrown a wrench in the copyright machine.

A Moveable Feast was first published by Scribner in 1964, after Hemingway died. By all accounts, the manuscript was pretty much complete and Hemingway intended it for publication. So why would Scribner want to change Hemingway’s work in such a dramatic fashion? And, as the NYT OpEd points out, what happens if family of other prominent people mentioned in the book (think: F. Scott Fitzgerald) don’t like the way their own family member is portrayed?

As an author, I am concerned by Scribner’s involvement in this “restored edition.” With this reworking as a precedent, what will Scribner do, for instance, if a descendant of F. Scott Fitzgerald demands the removal of the chapter in “A Moveable Feast” about the size of Fitzgerald’s penis, or if Ford Madox Ford’s grandson wants to delete references to his ancestor’s body odor.

I’d be concerned too. And I’d certainly hope that anything I have written would be preserved ‘as is’ for publication, even after my death. Okay, maybe the publisher could clean up my writing and correct the occasional spelling error or typo, but I definitely wouldn’t want any major re-writing to be done in the name of sparing someone’s feelings. Publishers, after all, have a responsibility to the authors they publish, and then to the readers:

All publishers, Scribner included, are guardians of the books that authors entrust to them. Someone who inherits an author’s copyright is not entitled to amend his work. There is always the possibility that the inheritor could write his own book offering his own corrections.

I totally agree with the above assessment. If the grandson does not like the way A Moveable Feast depicts his grandmother, then write a new book offering the new corrections. Scribner needs to leave the original alone.

Do you think Scribner should be allowed to make these changes to Hemingway’s work? Leave a comment below with your thoughts.

The intersection of tattoos and literature

Brad Vertrees — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:35:50 +0000

I love literature, there is no doubt about that, but I don’t think I love literature enough to get it tattooed on my skin. Yet some people have done exactly that and these literary tattoos are the subject of a printed anthology that a few brave editors have decided to put together.

People get all sorts of stuff tattooed on their bodies: Everything from animals, dragons, names/pictures of children and various symbols that hold special meaning for the wearer. I even have a tattoo on my arm that I got over a decade ago when I was in the US Navy. Back then, and even now, I never considered a ‘literary’ tattoo.

According to this LA Times Book Blog article, Justin Taylor and Eva Talmadge from HTMLGiant are asking for submissions from anyone with a literary-related tattoo on his/her body:

We are seeking high quality photographs of your literary tattoos for an upcoming book. Send us your ink! …All images must include the name (or pseudonym) of the tattoo bearer, city and state or country, and a transcription of the text itself, along with its source. For portraits or illustrations, please include the name of the author or book on which it’s based. We’d also like to read a few words about the tattoo’s meaning to you — why you chose it, when you first read that poem or book, or how its meaning has evolved over time. How much (or how little) you choose to say about your tattoo is up to you, but a paragraph or two should do the trick.Please send clear digital images of the highest print quality possible to tattoolit@gmail.com.

I don’t think I’ll be running out to the nearest tattoo parlor anytime soon to have my favorite Emily Dickinson poem enshrined on my skin. Once the anthology is published, however, it will be very interesting to see the diverse number of tattoos and literary references that people have chosen to be permanently inked on their bodies.

Would you ever get a tattoo of a line from your favorite poem or novel tattooed on your body? And if you already have one, please share your experience with the rest of us by leaving a comment below.

Brad's Reader » Literary News

Turning Literature into Visual Art

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