The reclusive writer

Whatever happened to the reclusive writer? When I first became interested in writing seriously, which is to say trying to write "literature," in the sixties, my model was "the reclusive writer," someone like Salinger or Pynchon who wrote and gained a following but otherwise was not to be seen. No interviews, no readings, no photos. Just the work. Do the work and that's all that matters. That's all that's necessary.

There were more "social" "serious" writers to be sure, including someone like Hemingway, writer as great white hunter, or Mailer, writer as boxer, as wise guy. But being invisible, being reclusive, was a very respectable way to go. No one ever said you hurt your "career opportunities" by choosing this route.

How different today! I was looking through a respected "advice book" by a contemporary literary agent, advice telling beginning writers how best to serve their career interests, and it's mostly social advice, networking advice, becoming visible, making a brand, becoming even more visible advice. The reclusive writer today is dead in the water. Indeed, memoirs by editors from an earlier era of publishing today reveal the same difference (the same story is found in the film industry, i.e. The Monster That Ate Hollywood), how today the perceived TV charisma of an author can factor into the decision to buy or not buy a manuscript.

It's all about marketing today. (Someone needs to write a book about how the PC changed the marketing industry, which kicked this trend in the butt -- changed by making projections so easy to manipulate, which in turn led to the death of "the literary novel" as "a bad investment". From a bottom line perspective, this makes perfect sense.)

There's a nice passage in the film Sideways about this, when Miles hears from his agent that his book was rejected -- and why. Everybody loves the book. No one knows how to market it.

But maybe all of this is still in flux. Maybe brilliant reclusive writers are lurking in cyberspace, their work available if only you could find it.

I think cyberspace needs a few brilliant literary critics with tough, first rate tastes to bring attention to such work.

I don't think the reshaping of literary culture is over yet. Not by a long shot. I won't be around to see how it all turns out but I think the reclusive writer will be reborn. I think the work matters first and foremost -- and there will be extraordinary "discoveries" to bring this home.

I'll never know if I'm right.