I really, really want to read Stephen Colbert's I Am America (And So Can You!). Although I do not watch The Colbert Report on a regular basis, I greatly enjoy the show and Colbert's sense of humor. Several of my friends (whose tastes I trust) have recommended the book to me, one going so far as to read me a portion of the book (as if I needed the extra convincing). Every time I walk into a Borders or a Barnes and Nobles I see row upon row of the book sitting prominently out with the best sellers, mocking the pennies that jingle in the pockets of my sweatpants.
I want this book.
But why? As I was reading Ohmann's "The Shaping of a Canon: U.S. Fiction 1960-1975," I could not help but examine my own method's for choosing a book to read. (Although, I must be honest, with the amount of books I have to read for school, I rarely have the time to read anything that is not found on a syllabus.) I don't read The New York Times, but I do base much of my reading off the recommendations of others. In fact, I still exchange book recommendations with some girlfriends from high school. It's not impossible to imagine that, through a trickledown effect or degrees of separation, the recommendations I receive can be traced back to "elite" critics. I don't find that much has changed since the time period the article tackles. The middle class or professional-managerial class still plays the deciding role in determining the success of books (movies, music, etc). And, when traced back, the root of these decisions can probably still be found in New York, or other metropolitan epicenters.
Why do I want to read I Am America? To be slightly cynical: because Stephen Colbert was a success on The Daily Show and the higher ups decided it would be profitable to approve a spin off show and the show was (and is) highly successful and the higher ups (in whatever field) approved a book because they knew the fan base would make it profitable and that the soaring sales figures would garner attention...yada yada yada.
I would still like to cling to the belief that I want to read the book because I find Stephen Colbert amusing because I need to believe that my tastes are intrinsically determined. Because that helps me sleep at night.
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2 comments:
I'm curious - what role do you think time plays in the way that a canon comes into shape? Do you think that the things that end up on the bestsellers lists should be considered canon, by vote of popularity, or would a bestseller have to stick around for longer than something like "Love Story" in order to qualify?
Let's hope that question actually makes sense, shall we?
What happens when the elite class attempts to become non-elite? I wonder whether it has become "intellectual" to deconstruct the ideologies that Ohmann's gatekeepers uphold. I see this especially in our postmodern, post-1960's era. What do you think?
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