OsmosisBabies is sick of celebs getting a free pass to publication. Do you think they're polluting the literature pool?–Sparkitors
Music died the day Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Richie Valens died in a plane crash. Literature died the day publishers decided to start accepting manuscripts from reality television stars. Now, I pride myself on my ability to ignore pop culture, so I am not always the best person to talk to about current events. Maybe this isn't a recent deviation, and it's simply a trend I am only now seeing, but—and correct me if I am wrong—I was under the impression that the publishing industry existed to publish books written by knowledgeable authors, those with meaningful ideas and beliefs, who seek to use literature to edify readers and elicit an emotional or intellectual response.
They are not supposed to publish books written by a guy with abs that are exercised more than his brain, or by a particular 16-year-old pop singer who sounds like he has been castrated. As mentioned, I may be wrong about this being a new phenomenon, but it is certainly a despicable one.
Justin Bieber, I will admit, is a boy who has defied all odds. He is a Canadian pop star—a phrase that sounds oxymoronic in and of itself—the world’s only 16-year-old male soprano, and, most mind-boggling of all, is apparently literate enough to write his life story. Why anyone is interested in reading it is a separate question. He is famous, I suppose, but so is the guy who inspired the “Double Rainbow” song, and no one is asking for his autobiography. The book, I can already tell, is destined to be a flop. What can you expect to find in a book from a kid who was not even clever enough to title it Leave it to Bieber?
Mike Sorrentino, alias The Situation, is another case of a celebrity attempt at literature. Personally, hearing that he was writing a book impressed me. Prior to learning about it, I did not realize he could read, let alone form a coherent sentence. I was interested in what he has to say, so I looked up a synopsis of the book online. A few lines in, I felt I needed an idiot-to-English dictionary to understand what in the holy name of God he was going on about. What the heck is a GTL? What about a wingman? And will someone please, please explain what a grenade could possibly be, other than an explosive? When I got to the part of the book’s description in which he mentions going to “get your hair did,” it was egregious to the point that I finally broke down and started crying.
I would have no problem with these two being authors, provided they had something interesting to write about. It is an abuse of fame for them to force their life stories down our throats. But, like the glamor-craving, celebrity-hunting society we are, we ebulliently gobble it up. It is narcissism to its fullest extent: using books as a media to talk about the only thing these boys know anything about: themselves.
What I lament, though, is how the general public is sitting by and letting this go on. It seems that the publishing industry is no longer choosing books eclectically but is instead encouraging celebrity sources. Plenty of unknown authors with great stories to tell are being rejected by publishers, while Bieber and The Situation get a free pass into the literary world based on their fame. I find it infuriating that people who complain over reading something in English class are the same people who will be buying these books, reading these books, and enjoying these books. They will assume that Leave it to Bieber is the best story ever, that The Situation is the best author in the world, and yet they will never take the time to compare their books to something worth reading to see if their assumptions stand true.
This is partially due to laziness and partially due to America’s want for cheap, superficial, instant satisfaction, but no matter how you slice it, my complaints with this system…could fill a book.
Do you think the publishing industry relaxes its standards when it comes to pop stars? Does it irk you to see Bieber's book on the shelf alongside Hemingway and Shakespeare, or are you just glad to see people reading?
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