MORE THAN REALISM OR ITS RIVALS, the dominant literary style in America is careerism. This is neither a judgment nor a slur. For decades it has simply been the case that novelists, story writers, even poets have had to devote themselves to managing their careers as much as to writing their books. Institutional jockeying, posturing in profiles and Q&As, roving in-person readership cultivation, social-media fan-mongering, coming off as a good literary citizen among one’s peers—some balance of these elements is now part of every young author’s life. It’s a matter of necessity and survival, above and beyond the usual dealings with editors, agents, and Hollywood big shots. The ways writers used to mythologize themselves have either expired or been discarded as toxic. In the old gallery there were patrician men of letters (Howells, Eliot), abolitionists (Stowe), adventurers (Melville, London, Hemingway), madmen (Poe), shamans (Whitman), aristocrat expatriates (James), bohemian expatriates (Stein, Baldwin, Bishop), playboy expatriates (Fitzgerald), denizens of café society (Wharton), romantic provincials (Cather, Thomas Wolfe), small-town chroniclers (Anderson), country squires (Faulkner), suburban squires (Cheever, Updike), vagabonds (Algren), cranks (Pound), drunks (West, Agee, Berryman), dandies (Capote, Tom Wolfe), decadents (Barnes), butterfly-chasing foreigners (Nabokov), cracked aristocrats (Lowell), recluses of uncertain eccentricity (Salinger, Pynchon, DeLillo), committed radicals (Steinbeck, Rexroth, Wright, Hammett, Hellman, Paley), disabused radicals (Ellison, Mary McCarthy), radicals turned celebrities (Mailer, Sontag), activist women of letters (Morrison), alienated children of immigrants (Bellow), neo-cowboys (Cormac McCarthy), hipsters (Kerouac), junkies (Burroughs), and hippies (Ginsberg). In the end there is only the careerist, the professional writer who is first, last, and only a professional writer. The original and so far ultimate careerist in American literature was Philip Roth.
https://www.bookforum.com/print/2801/the-life-of-philip-roth-and-the-art-of-literary-survival-24390
Poll Results
| Option | Votes |
| recluses of uncertain eccentricity (Salinger, Pynchon, DeLillo) | 6 |
| bohemian expatriates (Stein, Baldwin, Bishop) | 2 |
| butterfly-chasing foreigners (Nabokov) | 1 |
| disabused radicals (Ellison, Mary McCarthy) | 1 |
| vagabonds (Algren) | 1 |
| suburban squires (Cheever, Updike) | 1 |
| country squires (Faulkner) | 1 |
| romantic provincials (Cather, Thomas Wolfe) | 1 |
| alienated children of immigrants (Bellow) | 1 |
| neo-cowboys (Cormac McCarthy) | 1 |
| junkies (Burroughs) | 1 |
| madmen (Poe) | 1 |
| adventurers (Melville, London, Hemingway) | 1 |
| and hippies (Ginsberg) | 0 |
| committed radicals (Steinbeck, Rexroth, Wright, Hammett, Hellman, Paley) | 0 |
| radicals turned celebrities (Mailer, Sontag) | 0 |
| hipsters (Kerouac) | 0 |
| activist women of letters (Morrison) | 0 |
| patrician men of letters (Howells, Eliot) | 0 |
| cracked aristocrats (Lowell) | 0 |
| decadents (Barnes) | 0 |
| abolitionists (Stowe) | 0 |
| shamans (Whitman) | 0 |
| aristocrat expatriates (James) | 0 |
| playboy expatriates (Fitzgerald) | 0 |
| denizens of café society (Wharton) | 0 |
| small-town chroniclers (Anderson) | 0 |
| cranks (Pound) | 0 |
| drunks (West, Agee, Berryman) | 0 |
| dandies (Capote, Tom Wolfe) | 0 |
| the original and so far ultimate careerist in American literature (Roth) | 0 |
― Zach_TBD (Karl Malone), Tuesday, 16 March 2021 22:43 (three years ago) link