Blog round-up: “Street” lit vs. “Real” lit
CVK
A recent New York Times opinion piece by Nick Chiles entitled “Their Eyes Were Reading Smut” has sparked some debates in the blogosphere. Chiles complains about the fact that bookstore chains like Borders not only relegate works of African-American literature to their own section, but in that section combine “serious” literature (Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison) with what’s often termed “street lit” or less flatteringly, “ghetto fiction:”
We were all represented under that placard, the whole community of black authors - from me to Terry McMillan and Toni Morrison, from Yolanda Joe and Benilde Little to Edward P. Jones and Kuwana Haulsey - surrounded and swallowed whole on the shelves by an overwhelming wave of titles and jackets that I wouldn’t want my 13-year-old son to see: “Hustlin’ Backwards.” “Legit Baller.” “A Hustler’s Wife.” “Chocolate Flava.”… as someone who makes a living as a writer I felt I had no way to compete with these purveyors of crassness… I don’t want to compete with ‘Legit Baller.’
Here’s what other blogs are saying:
The Bible of Hip Hop : “if you’re not ready to compete with “Legit Baller” it might be time to unplug the mouse and turn in your carpal-tunnel prevention wrist rest, because “Street Lit.” isn’t going anywhere.”
Screed: “don’t we have permission to be trashy, too?”
Butta on…: “Black publishing is the new music industry. Just like how that putrid garbage otherwise known as “Laffy Taffy” and the gangsta’s gangsta 50 Cent rise to the top of the charts, their literary equivalents are flying off the shelves and vendor tables. All flash, cash, sass, and ass and very little to no substance.”
J’s Theater: “He also notes that publishers have a responsibility to balance out the books they publish. But is this true? … The responsibility publishers have is their bottom line. Social and artistic responsibility I agree should be part of the equation, but they’ve gone the way of the great auk.”
Lyonside wrote:
Is this all Borders? Or just ones in certain areas w/ certain demographics?
Here’s the problem I see: Terry McMillan and Maya Angelou are radically different genres and are studied in “mainstream” high school and college classes - why are they in an “African American” section?
African-American or Afro-centric studies should surely have their own section (like any other major ethnic or historical section).
Give me my local library, where they lump the romance/trashy paperbacks all together, and the literature in another, and the poetry in another.
Posted 06 Jan 2006 at 11:28 am ¶
justin wrote:
The Borders where I live, in NZ, has Ellison in with general literature, But my local video rental has a shelf for foriegn films and a shelf for New Zealand films. There are other shelves with movies on them.
Posted 06 Jan 2006 at 1:16 pm ¶
the joy princess wrote:
I love Chiles’ rant. I noticed the same thing and it irritates the fire out of me. Can’t the bookstores at least create major displays of quality black lit to balance that trash out! As Napoleon would say: gosh.
Posted 06 Jan 2006 at 4:42 pm ¶
KayStar wrote:
At the very least, they should label the shelves in the Black section so you can still find Literature, Plays, Romance, Trash, etc. within the section of black authors. The genres shouldn’t be lumped together just because the authors are Black.
Posted 07 Jan 2006 at 9:45 pm ¶
Pop Cultist wrote:
“On Essence magazine’s list of best sellers at black bookstores, for example, authors of street lit now dominate, driving out serious writers. Under the heading “African-American Literature,” what’s available is almost exclusively pornography for black women.”
This sounds like a Marsalis brother griping about how Fiddy Cent gets so much more love than an accomplished musician like himself…
Well, he may have a point - but when your market prefers shallow lowbrow fare and lacks sophisticated appreciation, go call a waaaaaahhhmbulance! That’s just how American youth are - drawn to the most superficial, lowest common social denominator - aka “pop culture.”
Posted 08 Jan 2006 at 1:05 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:
The Borders I go to has writers like Smith, Morrison, Baldwin and Wright listed under Literature, while the more pop titles like Sheisty and Stella Got her Groove back lady are either under Afro-American Writers or Black Interests. In fact, I’ve seen McMillian under both “Chick Lit” as well as the AA section. Its a small thing to bitch about; I don’t think that people are bitching at Emily Bronte’s books being near Jackie Collins novels. There is a market for both genres and just because I prefer traditional lit doesn’t mean that I’m above reading Donald Goines, which leaves me to another complaint.
If you are going to do any sort of Lit, whether it’s Traditional or “Street” make sure you do it WELL. I like quality to my trash, and Goines was the master of that. His books grabbed you by the tits and completely immersed you into the world he wrote about, head-first. Most of the “Street lit books” are either weak imitations or out-right rip-offs of his work, It’s kinda how when “Bridget Jones Diary” became such a success and all of a sudden half of the female population in Europe thought they could write a book. Major problem being that few of them could do it WELL and in such a memorable fashion that you actually liked the characters and you would pick up a book by that author in the future.
Posted 09 Jan 2006 at 9:04 am ¶
Renu wrote:
I don’t know, the Borders near me has only one Lit section. So you get your “ghetto lit” with your Toni Morrison, your Tom Clancy with your Salman Rushdie, etc. I don’t see why this is even a topic. Nobody complains that Shakespeare or Kafka got shelved near “The Devil Wears Prada”… It’s not a question of whether one is better than the other. I personally find Goethe bone-dry and would take Harry Potter any day. It doesn’t make me a less educated person, it’s more a question of what speaks to me or piques my interest.
I’m purely glad people are reading more these days, and if it takes Harry Potter or “street lit” or whatever to get people to turn off the TV and actually read words off a page and use their imaginations, well then god bless street lit.
Posted 12 Jan 2006 at 10:08 am ¶