http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/ Since 2004. The blog of the critic, writer, and editor, Scott Esposito Wed, 23 May 2012 13:19:02 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/#comment-7722 Business Plan Writers Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:08:12 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/09/on-correlating-sales-and-quality.html#comment-7722 Hi, This is really great work. Thank you for sharing such a useful piece of information here in the blog. <a href="http://www.bizplancorner.com" rel="nofollow"> Business Plan Writers</a> Hi,
This is really great work. Thank you for sharing such a useful piece of information here in the blog.
Business Plan Writers

]]> http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/#comment-7721 Allen Taylor Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:22:06 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/09/on-correlating-sales-and-quality.html#comment-7721 I suspect the same factors that have led to the decline of short story publishing has also affected poetry. I suspect the same factors that have led to the decline of short story publishing has also affected poetry.

]]> http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/#comment-7720 Scott Esposito Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:06:48 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/09/on-correlating-sales-and-quality.html#comment-7720 True, some intellectuals have long been opposed to the middlebrow, but Reagan-era conservatism also did a great deal to drag any tinge of intellectualism out of mass entertainment. True, some intellectuals have long been opposed to the middlebrow, but Reagan-era conservatism also did a great deal to drag any tinge of intellectualism out of mass entertainment.

]]> http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/#comment-7719 Cynic Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:00:29 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/09/on-correlating-sales-and-quality.html#comment-7719 Publishing might be an adequate explanation if this phenomenon were restricted to paperback fiction, but it's not. Mid-century marked the apex of the middlebrow. The newly-ascendant postwar middle-class attended college on the GI Bill, moved out to the suburbs, and consumed culture in an aspirational fashion. If you wanted to be respectable, you had to read the right books, see the right films, read the right articles. Of course, this was easy to mock - and it was endlessly ridiculed and denigrated by intellectuals, who despised and reviled what they perceived as the mindless conformity of the vast middle class. Dwight Macdonald led the charge, but he was hardly alone. By the end of the era popularly known as the 60s - around 1975 - the middlebrow was just about through. The new ethos of authenticity and individuality served, ironically, to legitimize mass-market, lowbrow works. After all, it was the establishment which looked down on such works - and screw 'em. It's too easy to blame corporatism or Reaganism. Nope, we gone done it to ourselves. Publishing might be an adequate explanation if this phenomenon were restricted to paperback fiction, but it’s not. Mid-century marked the apex of the middlebrow. The newly-ascendant postwar middle-class attended college on the GI Bill, moved out to the suburbs, and consumed culture in an aspirational fashion. If you wanted to be respectable, you had to read the right books, see the right films, read the right articles.
Of course, this was easy to mock – and it was endlessly ridiculed and denigrated by intellectuals, who despised and reviled what they perceived as the mindless conformity of the vast middle class. Dwight Macdonald led the charge, but he was hardly alone. By the end of the era popularly known as the 60s – around 1975 – the middlebrow was just about through. The new ethos of authenticity and individuality served, ironically, to legitimize mass-market, lowbrow works. After all, it was the establishment which looked down on such works – and screw ‘em.
It’s too easy to blame corporatism or Reaganism. Nope, we gone done it to ourselves.

]]> http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/#comment-7718 deebs Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:08:35 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/09/on-correlating-sales-and-quality.html#comment-7718 I don't know the stats, but given my sense of things I wouldn't be surprised if the post-70's also saw the trend toward less good movies dominating the box-office. I don’t know the stats, but given my sense of things I wouldn’t be surprised if the post-70′s also saw the trend toward less good movies dominating the box-office.

]]> http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/#comment-7717 Scott Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:05:23 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/09/on-correlating-sales-and-quality.html#comment-7717 Seems like the decline of corporate publishing's interest in short stories is more of a symptom than a cause. Although, given the way things are going with emergent technologies surrounding ebooks and online publishing, I wouldn't be surprised if short stories become economically viable in the near future. Seems like the decline of corporate publishing’s interest in short stories is more of a symptom than a cause. Although, given the way things are going with emergent technologies surrounding ebooks and online publishing, I wouldn’t be surprised if short stories become economically viable in the near future.

]]> http://conversationalreading.com/on-correlating-sales-and-quality/#comment-7716 Chris Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:00:31 +0000 http://conversationalreading.com/wordpress/2009/09/on-correlating-sales-and-quality.html#comment-7716 Do you think the death of the short story market had an effect? Do you think the death of the short story market had an effect?

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