Lauren Conrad, of The Hills fame, is reading Craig Clevenger’s The Contortionist’s Handbook. Let me repeat…no, just read that sentence again; this is text, not audio, you lazy bastard.
What does this mean to those of us who have long been in the know about Clevenger’s amazing writing? The optimist in me says, “great, maybe good literature will catch on to the reality TV addicted masses.” The pessimist in me, one admittedly self-interested, says, “there goes my dirty little hipster secret.”
This forces the question: are some books considered good, simply because they aren’t so widely accepted? Think of the hipster elitist who will parade his love of fifteen obscure films before admitting his having read even one best-seller. The logic is always that the blockbuster shit is crap.
For the most part, I would agree (Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is one recent best-seller that I would defend to the grave). Best-sellers often cater to the lowest common denominator, ensuring commercial success, but by intention never willing to alienate a reader, re: never willing to say anything truly important. This isn’t the hipster in me talking; this is the commercial model, tried and true.
So, when something like this happens, where a celebrity endorsement pushes a book that by no means caters to the lowest common denominator, what happens? Is this how paradigm shifts start? After Oprah’s promotion of The Road, has the audience for intelligent post-apocalyptic books increased? Or, will future post-apocalyptic books simply be dumbed down, giving the new audience what they want, but not willing to push the genre even further?
For now, this once, I think I have to give a reality star my blessing.
