The more I think about it, the more I believe the rise of self-promotion is the greatest change in literary culture in my lifetime. When I was getting my MFA, we considered it to be crass, desperate, anti-literary. Only hacks and charlatans considered it. If you wanted publicity, there were more creative ways to get it: get drunk and punch somebody out like Mailer; become an extreme recluse like Salinger or Pynchon; hunt big game like Hemingway. Self-promotion for commercial benefit was an insult to the importance of literature. Bad taste and desperation.
Well, what can I say except ... R.I.P.
Well, what can I say except ... R.I.P.
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