By Bill Croke on 2.20.04 @ 12:05AM
Never read a book whose author is on the cover.
In a more genteel time author photographs were found on the back
of a book's dust jacket, or a smaller one was on the back inside
flap. If the book were a novel, short story or poetry collection,
work of history or other scholarship, the author -- whether man or
woman -- would usually be photographed posing before bookshelves,
as if to advertise erudition. If the author was a man, he wore a
tie and jacket, however threadbare. A woman would be perfectly
coifed, and wearing a dress, or skirt and blouse. And in that
genteel, politically incorrect time, these writers would actually
live like writers, and might be pictured with a burning cigarette
between their fingers, or even holding a cocktail.
The advent of "twelve step" programs over the last two decades
has marked the decline of American Letters. The literary commissars
now inhabiting the theory swamps of the academy not only write
badly, but forswear alcohol and tobacco, get eight hours of sleep a
night, worry about their carbohydrate intake and gulp down vitamin
supplements. Yet blooming with health and vigor, they can't seem to
cut it in the world of Quality Lit. Ironically, the academy is
witness to both good personal health and a dying American literary
culture. After all, who else would think it important to write
endlessly and turgidly on the lesbian motifs found in the work of
Virginia Woolf or Willa Cather. But back to those book jackets.
Another aspect of American Literature's decline is the modern
author's photo. Maybe the true worth of a contemporary book is
noted in the absence of that photo on the cover. This bit of
cultural narcissism hasn't found its way on to the fiction lists
yet (give it time), but the nonfiction rolls sometime show us more
pretty faces than the covers of Vogue and GQ,
Michael Moore notwithstanding.
Browsing in bookstores over the last few years you wouldn't even
have to read titles or writer's bylines to know that this
bipartisan chic community is populated by the likes of Oprah
Winfrey, Dr. Phil McGraw, Al Franken, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter,
Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Chris Matthews,
Michael Savage, and the aforementioned Mr. Moore. The pedagogic
visage of George F. Will graces the front of his new collection of
columns (not for the first time). Even the admirable William F.
Buckley, Jr. regularly commits this sin of pride. This is an
ingenious way to market books in a videotropic culture, of course,
in that all these folks have paid their dues in innumerable green
rooms.
The majority of books published nowadays aren't by "writers,"
per se, but celebrities: Hollywood stars, television talk show
hosts, political pundits, ex-Presidents (also their wives and
anyone else close to the Oval Office during their Administration),
sports figures (many times tainted by scandal), and politicians
lately retired or disgraced, or the young and ambitious ones about
to embark upon their dismal careers. And they're all on the covers
of their books.
It's hard to tell who's responsible for all this photogenic
preening. The self-help craze in the 1980s first gave us pictures
of sympathetic-looking psychologists on book covers. Mr. Buckley,
Mr. Will, and other public intellectuals early on embraced the
idea. Rush Limbaugh twice landed his face on the bestseller lists
in the early nineties. Maybe this is yet another trend that Mr.
Limbaugh popularized even if he didn't inaugurate it himself.
Some of the new literati -- especially on the Left -- don't even
bother to write their own books. The ghost trade is certainly
flourishing as of late. For instance, Al Franken's Lies and the
Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the
Right employed over a dozen Harvard Kennedy School of
Government "researchers." Hillary Clinton's Living History
credits three named ghost writers. More books than ever are being
published in a country that has fewer and fewer readers, and those
readers read books by writers who don't write.
As for me, I have a more serious taste in literature. Having
enjoyed Jimmy Carter's thought-provoking poetry, I think I'll take
on his new novel (The Hornet's Nest: A Novel of the
Revolutionary War). Who knows? Maybe he'll win another Nobel
Prize.
topics:
Trade, Hillary Clinton, Television, Sports, Books, Hollywood
