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June 03, 2004

BEA REPORT: THE BOOK BABES

Well, Ron and I will be on C-Span tomorrow. Check your local listings.

In a sparsely attended session, the Book Babes brought the Poynter show to a live audience and beat all of their usual familiar themes. Margo still decries what she sees as the “white, male” (clearly, she doesn’t read Maslin/Kakutani) “literary snob” ethic that dominates the major review outlets.

babesOne of the more disturbing aspects of the outing is that they apparently equate “respect” (book critics get none, it seems) purely with “dollars” – the ability to move books in Oprah-like quantities.

Oprah and Imus were touchstones the ladies returned to again and again as they sought, in their words, to eliminate the barriers between high and low and to focus instead on cultural relevancy. That they managed to do this without serious consideration of the role of the internet (too “21st century,” they called it) suggests that they are stuck in a pattern of thought where TV coverage is held out as the gold standard – apparently, that’s sufficiently 20th century. Although last we looked, we had actually already entered the 21st century.

By fixating on the Oprah model, and looking for ways to try to bring it to the print world – more feature type coverage, author stories, etc. – they overlook the key that makes Oprah and Imus successful: They are established, trusted brands, friends of the family. Newspaper coverage will never be able to do the same (although blogs very well might). In fact, in the sound bite of the day, someone asked “If newspapers can’t find the truth on WMD, how can we trust them on books?”

The usual inanities came through in quantity – apparently, Margo feels all “books have to be universal” and that literary fiction is “all cerebral, not about the heart.” Apparently, we serious book people are all very 19th century in their eyes, sitting around having leisurely book chats. (Although watch for an upcoming column on new or neglected writers - I suggested it, and they've promised to do it.)

More serious, though, is the contradiction in their message – which I called them on in my question. They decry the “lemming” mentality in the rush to cover the same books, and they talk about the decreasing space allotted to book coverage, but they also decry that NYTBR has never covered The DaVinci Code – as if that book needs any additional press.

bea_012Ron pressed them on the notion that perhaps these coverage crises were somewhat manufactured, and a lively to-and-fro ensued, which he’s sure to write about in detail. Here’s Ron putting the tough questions to the ladies.

Underneath the silliness, it pains me to admit that the ladies do have the kernel of a sensible question – how to provide for the deepening of book coverage. That they don’t have a workable solution might ultimately be due more to the intractability of the problem than any shortcomings of the babes themselves.

Oh, and Margo earned my ire when she misquoted Woody Allen, talking about “a whale” that needs to move forward or it dies.

It’s a shark, babe.

Posted at 10:28 AM |

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Comments

Ed

How could anyone confuse a shark with a whale? Particularly when the shark in context with "Annie Hall" is funny and the whale is not.

Posted by: Ed | June 03, 2004 at 01:28 PM

T.

Sweet jumpin' Jesus. That pretty much speaks for the whole enterprise, no?

Posted by: T. | June 03, 2004 at 01:33 PM

Dan Green

Great stuff. Only on a blog would you get such ongoing coverage of an event like this. You should tell that to some of the people there.

Posted by: Dan Green | June 03, 2004 at 02:02 PM

MG

Great post, Mark. Can't wait for your next dispatch.

Posted by: MG | June 03, 2004 at 04:17 PM

Jeff B

So did a certain little petition come up at any time? Heh.

Posted by: Jeff B | June 03, 2004 at 08:59 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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