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My supervisor, Everna, won me over today:
First, I was bitching about how blockbusters -- whether books or movies or music -- are surefire things and not "popular" in the way we really understand that word. The publishers tell us it's a "must-see", the vendors buy them by the ass-load, and we throw money like sheep's wool in summer: Instant HIT!
Another manager disagreed, saying that fun, breezy, mindless arts are what all "real" people really want. (She was telling me I should fill my "general fiction" with fun bestsellers and not new literary fiction.)
Everna cut in and said that she was afraid that all serious work was being edged out and that we were helping. Yaay!
Then, some vapid, private school students came in. One told me, "I need dystopian literates in the year 1984." I asked, "Are you writing a paper on dystopia in the novel 1984?" She smiled brilliantly and said, "I don't know. I am asking for my friend who didn't feel like coming over here right now."
I leaned in to Everna and said, "What the hell?" She said, "They're bourgie, bourgie, bourgie" and then "Can I help you?" with a big grin on her face.
Mental high-five.
First, I was bitching about how blockbusters -- whether books or movies or music -- are surefire things and not "popular" in the way we really understand that word. The publishers tell us it's a "must-see", the vendors buy them by the ass-load, and we throw money like sheep's wool in summer: Instant HIT!
Another manager disagreed, saying that fun, breezy, mindless arts are what all "real" people really want. (She was telling me I should fill my "general fiction" with fun bestsellers and not new literary fiction.)
Everna cut in and said that she was afraid that all serious work was being edged out and that we were helping. Yaay!
Then, some vapid, private school students came in. One told me, "I need dystopian literates in the year 1984." I asked, "Are you writing a paper on dystopia in the novel 1984?" She smiled brilliantly and said, "I don't know. I am asking for my friend who didn't feel like coming over here right now."
I leaned in to Everna and said, "What the hell?" She said, "They're bourgie, bourgie, bourgie" and then "Can I help you?" with a big grin on her face.
Mental high-five.