Friday, January 29, 2010

Ferlinghetti's City Lights

When I stumbled upon City Lights Publishers's website and twitter account, I was really excited. Founded by beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights has been a feisty, fiercely independent press since 1953. I thought there could be no better way to kick off a study of publishers’ new media innovations than this major piece of the American cultural canon. After listening to their podcasts, I felt both inspired and disappointed.

The podcasts are wonderful; their first podcast features no other than Lawrence Ferlinghetti, himself, reading from his latest book, “Poetry as Insurgent Art". Ranging from national political satirists to poet laureates, their monthly podcasts continued to delight. My personal favorite was “ A celebration of Holderlin” which presented new translations, including one never before heard in English, from Nietzsche’s favorite poet.

So where was the disappointment? The website surprisingly did not feature a comment section. So when I listened to Holderlin’s idea that a poet's job was "to sing the traces of the fled gods", I had no place to talk about this striking idea. I sat, looking for a place to stuff my enthusiasm, while the sounds of the lively audience reached my ears.

As a child of beat poetry, City Lights prides themselves on engaging in and encouraging others to participate in our cultural discourse. Indeed, they succeed in motivating their audience. As they approach their first-year anniversary of podcasting, I hope they expand their website and give it the room not only to broadcast cultural discourse but to absorb it as well.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Independent publishers engage in the new media era

The independent literary press has always had its work cut out for it. The publishing world, particularly in the last fifteen years, has become drastically concentrated into the hands of a few international media giants whose first order of business is turn-and-burn bestsellers. Now there is nothing wrong with a great story or entertainment for entertainment’s sake, but an overload of enjoyable, yet empty, diversions does not enrich us. Without a balance of voices that speak to the deeper chords of human experience, our lives are flattened, cheapened.

Struggling to maintain a presence in a publishing world dominated by fleeting amusements, small-scale publishing houses are gaining ground by engaging in new social media practices that, ironically, were initially popular for the quick entertainment they provided. The independent press now tweets, updates their Facebook statuses, diggs other publishers’ releases and blogs about the literary world (interesting that companies that survive by selling words now offer them for free).

Media Bistro’s Gallery Cat has declared that independent literary presses are actually leading the publishing industry’s transformation into the new digital era. Online, armed with social media tools, indy publishers have gone interactive. They have distinct personalities: some, like Soft Skull, are edgy and boisterous, others, like the Etruscan Press, are contemplative and graceful. Our smart phones, readers and notification boxes now light up with small updates that life is rich, exciting and full of great literature.

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