Well I like some alliteration as much as the next punter, but oh how I yearn for an embargo on the pointless pun, the reliance on cliche and most of all, on marketing people being the source of so much of our visual and aural culture!
*sigh*
no really, this week I was lucky enough to go to one of the big publishing houses' annual Christmas preview. There's not really a lot of publishers in Australia and less and less of them are financially capable of throwing a bit of a booze around in a nice hotel so that booksellers and their crews know more about their books. In the logic of the market, it always seems to work out that the people with the blandest (sorry! "Most Popular") books have the most money - and consequently, one really doesn't need more information on those titles, but they're the ones who throw the parties.
John Grisham is publishing a new legal drama - well, who would have thought!? I wonder who'll buy that?
Someone's written a great book? Let's give it a cover image of some steps in Greece - that'll keep it in the not-too-hard basket!
Got a crime novel about a murder? Obviously it's a "quiet and picturesque place before the horror descends".
Sitting there, in the dimly lit room, watching the wanky powerpoint display, it struck me that this is what passes for the heart of publishing - and therefore for a big chunk of that most noble art - literature - yet what is being showcased other than the house red? Why it is "Marketeer". A strain of English that dulls and numbs as it chews up the words of glory in our language and once done, turns to the German style of kludging words together to get what they want. How many times does it take, being bludgeoned with another poster, blurb or presentation claiming something is "unputdownable", before we all just give in and accept that it will be in the next edition of the Macquarie and it's our generation who put it there?
I'd really rather hoped we might sort global warming.
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