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MERIT_INSTITUTIONALIZED

                                              August    14, 2006
                                              September 11, 2006

If we grant the main premises of
Kostelanetz' "End of Intelligent
Writing" (literary cliques are on the          END_OF_INTELLIGENT_WRITING
rise, and this is inducing a decline in
literary quality and interest), where
does that get us?

What's the fix?
How would one go after this problem?

It does not look like Kostelanetz
really has a prescription of any        Ah, but there is the closing
sort... after recognizing the           chapter, "What is to be Done?",
problem, there is supposed to be        which is essentially a plea
an upwelling of outrage and             for alternative literary
protest, and then the problem will      institutions, a new set of
go away... somehow.                     underground small presses
                                        and so on.
But someone has to be
the editor, right?                              Note: he was
                                                writing in 1974.
And the editor is
bound to have friends,
or to make friends.

Moreover, the editor is bound to have --
is required to have -- opinions, a point        How could one possibly
of view, an understanding of what is worth      estimate the merit of
publishing and what is not.                     a work without applying
                                                a point of view?

                                                    (There are no "objective
                                                     literary standards"?)

                                                        No neutrality
But maybe: no one person                                in art.
has to be The Editor.

You could institute a more elaborate
bureaucracy...  an editorial board             And actually, some of the
that votes.                                    more unusual things he
                                               discusses in the final
Some sort of system of checks and              chapter include new
balances in an attempt to check                social institutions,
attempts at seizing control of the             e.g. cells of writers
board -- e.g. subscribers get to               cooperatives that agree
vote on membership of the board.               to help promote the
                                               output of all of the
   First thought: this is pretty               other cells...
   expensive for a marginal
   enterprise like a literary                     But doesn't that sound
   magazine.                                      like just a new group
                                                  of cronies?
       But then, maybe -- at least at
       the outset -- the positions
       could be unpaid.                                  Maybe there's
                                                         some expectation
   Second thought: you could end up with                 that you can then
   an extremely loyal subscriber base,                   "let the market
   if they're continually involved with                  decide".
   political fights over the direction of
   the publication.                                      *Any* increase
                                                         in diversity of
                                                         products would
But then, really we don't much think in                  give the market
terms of paper publication as far as                     more to work
entrepreneurship is concerned.                           with...



The future is the web!


   So let's envision a website...

   A place like kuro5hin.org,
   where the prominence of a
   story is award democratically,
   by the votes of the more
   dedicated faction of the
   readers?



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