Creative 06/17/2022

This week, James Patterson believes in reverse racism and Ottessa Moshfegh’s latest novel is channeling “Shrek.”

by | June 17, 2022

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JAMES PATTERSON SAYS WHITE MALE WRITERS ALSO SUBJECT TO RACISM

This week, 75-year-old author James Patterson apologized and got gecancelled (that’s German for canceled, literally) for telling UK publication The Sunday Times that authors in his demographic (read: white men over 50) who struggle to find work experience “just another form of racism.” Patterson said, “What’s that all about? Can you get a job? Yes. Is it harder? Yes. It’s even harder for older writers. You don’t meet many 52-year-old white males.”

It’s hard to imagine where the writer is getting his information. It’s certainly not experiential: Patterson is a bestselling author who has written books with public figures, including Dolly Parton and Bill Clinton. According to the Sunday Times, he has sold close to 450 million books in the last fifty years. In other words, he’s rich — so rich that The New Yorker recently published an article about his wealth. 

Predictably, Patterson’s comments inspired anger, outrage, and frustration among his critics. “James Patterson thinks white men are facing racism in publishing,” author Frederick Joseph tweeted. “From a Black man who has had over 50 rejections of books (all of which are now bestsellers) because white editors didn’t understand them or ‘already have Black male authors’ 
 shut up.” 

Rebecca Caroll, author of “Surviving the White Gaze: A Memoir” tweeted, “Imagine being born the year Jackie Robinson was the first Black MLB player in history, and then growing up to be one of the richest authors in America talking about struggles for white men is ‘another form of racism’—James Patterson GTFO.” 

Patterson’s perception is unequivocally, factually wrong: From 1950 to 2018, 95 percent of the English language fiction books published by central publishing houses in the US were written by white authors, The New York Times reported in 2020. As such, Patterson’s vocal anxiety about a dearth of opportunities for white men in publishing isn’t based in reality. In 2020, mainstream media shed light on the persistent racial inequity in the publishing industry and the uphill climb against an increasingly out-of-touch Old Guard.

In his Twitter apology, Patterson wrote, “I apologize for saying white male writers having trouble finding work is a form of racism.” He continued, “I absolutely do not believe that racism is practiced against white writers. Please know that I strongly support a diversity of voices being heard—in literature, in Hollywood, everywhere.”

Some writers replied to Patterson’s comments on Twitter, and implied that he uses a ghostwriter. “Which ghost writer do we think wrote James Patterson’s apology tweet,” wrote Rosiee Thor.  Xiran Jay Zhao added, “Extremely bold words from someone whose whole schtick is slapping his name all over books other writers wrote.” Lisette Lanuza Sáenz joked, “I wonder if James Patterson knows any writers. I mean besides the guys who write his books.”

So, of course, I did some research for us. 

In a 2016 interview with Patterson for The Washington Post, titled “James Patterson mostly doesn’t write his books
” the newspaper depicts Patterson as “maintaining a stable of writers that rivals this year’s field at the Kentucky Derby.” In other words, Patterson may come up with the broad concept of some of his 260 New York Times bestsellers, but the person actually putting pen to paper is likely one of Patterson’s many hired ghost writers. The reason? According to the Post, the comically prolific author simply must outsource his novel ideas because he has too many to feasibly write in the course of a human life. 

A tale as old as time: a white man complains about reverse racism and the hardships white men experience in publishing. Further scrutiny proves that he is outsourcing his own work to other, less wealthy or well-known writers. Putting his name on their work has made him a millionaire, who, as he boasts in his biography, hangs out with some of the world’s most powerful people. 

YOU CAN PUT “OTTESSA MOSHFEGH” AND “SHREK” IN THE SAME SENTENCE

“Lapvona,” the latest novel by literary sweetheart Ottessa Moshfegh got panned in a review in The New Statesman. “I found the setting and characters alternately reminiscent of the animated movie ‘Shrek’ and JK Rowling’s kingly romp, ‘The Ickabog,’” wrote Johanna Thomas-Corr, a sentence which landed like cold water on this millennial reader (with a battered, highlighted copy of Moshfegh’s “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” always in reach). The book, which dips between different characters’ storylines in a plague-infested, violent, and generally depraved medieval town, is a significant departure from Moshfegh’s other novels – both in terms of its content and, it appears, its reception.

TLDR – THE LITERARY DRAMA ROUNDUP

-“Star Trek: The Next Generation” star LeVar Burton described book bans as “bullshit” on “The View.”

-A trailer for a forthcoming film adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion” starring Dakota Johnson dropped, inspiring 
 erm
 feedback, including that it brings too much anachronistic “Fleabag” and “Bridgerton” energy to the Austen classic.

-Lawyer Michael Avenatti was sentenced to four years in prison for “cheating porn actor Stormy Daniels out of nearly $300,000 she was supposed to get for writing a book about an alleged tryst with former President Donald Trump,” The Associated Press reports.

-The yearly outrage cycles on Twitter about autofiction and “Lolita” are converging this week.  Some writers are, once again, angry about autofiction (just, y’know, generally), with one user suggesting that this is the only autofiction they will support (guess what it is), while another argues in defense of “Lolita” from the perspective of a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I’m at the autofiction discourse. I’m at the “Lolita” discourse. I’m at the combination autofiction and “Lolita” discourse. 

BLOOMSDAY!

-June 16 was Bloomsday: like Lindsay Lohan telling Aaron Samuels that it’s October 3rd in “Mean Girls,” Bloomsday marks the day that James Joyce’s feverish, poetic, and iconically confusing series of musings about one man’s experience of every emotion (and even some new ones!), “Ulysses,” takes place  in Dublin. This year also marked the 100th anniversary of the book’s publication, inspiring tributes ranging from a “citywide, multi-event celebration” in San Francisco to walking tours around Dublin. Today, with the controversy over book bans continuing to foment ill-will and bad vibes, the cultural backlash in response to the original publication of Joyce’s opus is particularly timely: as Kevin Birmingham put it for Slate, “‘Ulysses’ was illegal to publish, sell, import, or advertise in the United States for over a decade.”

BEST OF LIT TWITTER

-Michigan’s Literati Bookstore says, “The title of your memoir is the last text message you sent.” Unfortunately, mine was “what film are you seeing with your dad tonight?” but some of the other comments (like this and this) are gold. 

-Thank goodness for tweet thread compilations of resources, am I right? This week Vauhini Vara, author of “The Immortal King Rao,” shared a thread of “programs — including the one where I’m a mentor — that offer mentorship, teaching, community and manuscript edits for serious writers.” Check it out here. 

–This video of the cast of Broadway’s “A Strange Loop” finding out that they won the Tony for Best Musical is instant serotonin.

IN MEMORIAM

-Renowned diarist and artist Duncan Hannah died this week. Having made a name for himself as a central fixture of the 1970s New York scene (captured among the likes of Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, and David Byrne), Hannah went on to become a gifted multimedia artist. Critic Michael Kimmelman described Hannah’s work as “a curious, half-dream, half-nightmare landscape just on the edge of no place.” Meanwhile, Hannah defended his paintings as “a love letter to art history.” 

DEALS, DEALS, DEALS

-“A Stranger in Olondria” author Sofia Samatar sold her sci-fi novella, “The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain,” to Emily Goldman at Tordotcom Publishing. The book is scheduled to publish in 2024.

-Childrens’ author and illustrator Brian Selznick, who wrote “The Invention of Hugo Cabret,” will publish a new picture book, “Big Tree,” next spring. Selznick described the book, which is for children ages seven and older, as “one that reminds us to stop and listen to the world around us, and to help those who need to be helped.” 

-Pantheon Books will publish “The Revolution Is Here,” an autobiography by Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls. 

COMINGS AND GOINGS

-Callie Garnett is now editorial director at Bloomsbury. Garnett is replacing Jonathan Lee, who left last month to pursue work in television. Garnett started at Bloomsbury as an editorial intern in 2014. 

WRITING PROMPTS AND CHALLENGES

-This week, I learned that author Janet Fitch, who wrote “White Oleander” and “The Revolution of Marina M.,” has a YouTube channel where she regularly shares her thoughts about craft and advice for writers trying to break into the publishing industry. I’m especially curious to check out videos like “Writing a Synopsis That Doesn’t Suck” and “Dysfunctional Characters”!

AND EVERYTHING ELSE

-On June 11 (last Saturday), the annual Lambda Literary Awards took place online. This year’s winners include “100 Boyfriends” (Brontez Purnell, Gay Fiction), “Let The Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993” (Sarah Schulman, LGBTQ Nonfiction), and “Stone Fruit” (Lee Lai, LGBTQ Comics). The awards organizers sparked headlines this spring after rescinding their nomination for author Lauren Hough’s essay collection, “Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing.” The brouhaha transpired on Twitter (obviously), when Hough went to bat over “The Men,” a freshly-published book that some users believed to be transphobic.

–PEN America United, the ongoing union effort at literary nonprofit PEN America, won “voluntary recognition” of their union this week. In a Medium post detailing their efforts and eventual success, they wrote, “We want to address the present conditions at PEN that have contributed to an untenable work environment and threatened our ability to sustainably continue PEN’s vital work: the low wages, scarce opportunities for growth and professional development, lack of transparency in organizational decisions, and ensuing rapid staff turnover, among others.” From here, they will move on to the next phase: The bargaining table.

-The National Book Critics Circle announced the committee to determine the longlist nominees for its 2022 Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. The committee includes Diego Båez, Mandana Chaffa, Jaquira Díaz, and Jo Livingstone. 

-Amazon announced this week that it would cease delivering Kindle eReaders to retailers in China beginning immediately. The corporation plans to shut down all Kindle operations in China by 2023. The decision was reportedly made due to stiff local competition from JD.com and Alibaba, according to CNN. 

-Did COVID bring an end to the traditional BookExpo? Publishing industry members are reluctant to go back to the costly, in-person conventions of yore, Publisher’s Weekly reports. If we do go back to book fairs, they say, they’ll be different.  

-Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, and John Wiley & Sons are moving into the final months of their copyright infringement case against Internet Archive for scanning and lending print library books. The case has been ongoing since summer 2020. 

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