Their Eyes Were Reading Smut
Nick Chiles has written a scathing indictment (okay a little sensational on my part) on Street Lit in the NYT. Boy is he angry.
I don’t have the energy to launch into my own rant about how I feel about street lit, personally I’m a little tired of talking about it. Street lit ain’t my thing.
But perhaps I can muster a little energy....I wish people would pay more attention to craft. As someone who doesn’t consider herself a full-blown writer but trying to write a book, you got to respect the fact that writing is an art form not to be taking lightly, remember the days when you didn’t dare step to the mic if you rhyming skills weren’t up to par? I wish that street lit was an intro, not a stopping point, into the myriad of literature available. I wish there wasn’t so much division. I wish they would stop calling it hip hop literature. I wish the media wasn’t giving so much attention to the same old stories (yes we know who Vicki Stringer is, and I personally respect her hustle, but her books just ain’t my thing), if I read another piece about the “Phenomenon sweeping the Black community”, AGHHHH.
I’m done for now. More later. Maybe.
Check out Danyel Smith's rant on the same subject.
posted by Felicia Pride @ 11:37 AM
6 Comments:
Working in publishing, you learn it is a trend oriented industry. Thus if one things works, publishers run out and try to find 100 more like it. Street lit is working (well in some capacities as analytically explained to me by Carl Weber) because there is demand for it. However, the space (and I'm talking about media space, shelf space, and attention space) for AA lit is small thus balance is even more important--where our Toni Morrison's, Percival Everett's, Eric Jerome Dickey's, J. California Cooper's, and Nikki Turner's can co-exist.
This is certainly the topic of the day, isn't it? LOL!
I don't get into those books (tried reading one and my eyes immediately started hurting) but I do not doubt that there is a place for them. However, there needs to be balance and I don't think they should represent the majority of our literary diet.
Canada hasn't been consumed by this type of writing as much as the US, YET. I wrote a feature on "street lit" a year and a half ago for our local paper here in Montreal. Throughout the research when I spoke with indie booksellers here and in Toronto the opinion was the same: Canadian readers just weren't as enthusiastic. Black Canadian readers are still interested in Caribbean-Canadian culture, and the "street lit" books just don't reflect that, although Toronto has shown a growing interest, as it has become overwhelmingly Americanized. Some of my girlfriends are indulging in Zane, Eric Jerome Dickey, and the like. I engage in light reading sometimes for fun, but there are moments when I can't stand some of these books. They shouldn't be a place to start reading Black literature. Hurston, Kincaid, Ellison, Morrison... are places to start. "Street Lit" books are the junkfood of fiction. The reality is if parents and educators don't raise the bar and prepare a balanced literary diet for young readers then those readers are unanimously going to choose the McDonald's of literature.
I'm over "urban lit" or hip hop lit as it is called, also. It is trendy now but I think that trend will soon peak. Look for Christian lit to the next “Phenomenon sweeping the Black community". Or are we in the midst of that trend now? ;-)
Folks have jumped on the bandwagon, once again and they are looking to make some $$ while they can. Remember when every other book was a rip off on Disappearing Acts? How many Zane imitators can the market handle? I really don't care if it is hip hop or not, I'd like the writing and editing to be on point. I'd like a plot -- some storyline PLEASE.
Let them read smut. There's plenty of people out there who ARE NOT reading smut. Why don't authors simply persue them instead of ragging on the authors of "street lit"? It sells people. Leave it alone.
This has to be one of the most creative post titles. Ha ha ha, thanks again.
AB
Post a Comment
<< Home