Things worth sharing this weekend (10/5/24)

Oct 05, 2024

Thanks for reading Josh Spilker! This post is public so feel free to share it.

The right books will find you

October 1, 2024

I jibe with this recent note from Luke Burgis:

Meanders a bit, but overall point is good— don’t expect success from literary publishing
Yes—sometimes I find it disappointing that literary fiction is now just a tiny subset of the algorithmic attention economy, but rather than complain about, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s important for writers to make peace with this.

“Revisiting connections with TV characters gave us a sense of control. We knew what lay in their futures, and the calm and predictability of their arcs balanced the uncertainty in ours.
I’ve been thinking about the “stagnation of culture” a lot, but we’re also in uncertain times (haven’t we always?)
So maybe we’ve always wanted old things, we can now just access them even faster

I may have shared this before, but it’s good
My ideal literary editor is someone interested in all of America and wants to read as many different American stories as possible. There are hundreds of different Americas, and I want them represented in the books I read. I want urban stories and suburban stories; I want to read about rural folks and southerners and even the annoying rich people on the Upper East Side; I want to know what’s going on in Native American reservations and the inner city and every American locale in between. This is a selfish desire, because I’m genuinely interested in America and its people; I think tons of readers—and writers—have the same desire, but they’re not currently being served by the mainstream literary marketplace. We want to know what’s happening outside the big cities and the “cultural” centers over-represented in literary fiction. It’s a massive, beautiful, strange, infuriating country, and I want to know all about it. Too many editors live in a bubble and are content residing inside it forever; they want to drag us inside that drab, safe bubble with them.

just one clip after another
Zadie Smith doesn’t want you looking at her bookshelves (Wash Post)
“I think the problem is, I feel like interiors and books are used as a kind of social and political capital, meant to express something about you. But I just don’t have time,” she said. “I’m aware, when I go to certain writers’ studies, they’re beautiful and everything is perfect. That kind of energy, I can only put into writing.”
I enjoyed the framed picture of Zadie Smith and Eminem on her bookshelf

True crime story! Australia!
Feels like “The Red Parts” by Maggie Nelson
Shorter than The Nix
s/o to McNally Jackson in Brooklyn where I bought this while my daughter was learning how to trapeze
Will get back to you after I read more of it

I’m at a music festival this weekend, seeing some old bands, some new bands, seeing some old friends, maybe making new ones, nostalgia, etc.

Keep going,

-Josh Spilker