The Gutenberg Bible 3AM magazine has a new interv…
The Gutenberg Bible
3AM magazine has a new interview with Steven Wells of Attack! Books. In an earlier blog, Chris gave a tentative welcome to this new publishing venture as it tries to give literature the edge Punk gave music. There are loads of things I�d like to say about it, mainly about the misunderstandings about what constitutes �serious� literature. However, it�s impossible to criticise without appearing to be a snob bent on keeping �the masses� down. Also it’s impossible to argue with somebody who speaks in capital letters.
But seeing the Gutenberg Bible on display on the British Library�s website, I was reminded of the trouble over translating it into the vernacular. Before it was translated, one had to be a member of the ruling elite to be able to get the education to understand Latin and so read the damn thing. This meant the clergy could control what the laity knew of what the Bible says on any matter. The elite feared translation would mean the masses would become unruly. (Wasn�t one of the first English translators burned at the stake?) The elite’s fear correlates with the argument put forward by Attack�s own Bible, The Intellectuals and the Masses by Oxford don John Carey. He reckons the famous Modernist writers wrote books in order to exclude �the masses�. I�ve argued against this profoundly wrongheaded notion in my article on Paul Celan. Yet the �serious� literature rebuked by Carey and Wells is not in Latin, is it? So how can it be elitist? Everyone who can read has access to it. Perhaps what they really mean is, �the masses� aren�t fit for such hard-won visions, so we must keep them happy with easily digestible pap, much like the English congregations were in late antiquity.
All I can add here is that three of Modernism�s great names, Kafka, Proust and Beckett, all dismissed by Carey, are more radical than anything Wells� manifesto can ever hope to encourage. And Beckett is particularly disliked by the dominant London literary scene; Martin Amis cheerfully acknowledges it in his revolting book Experience. Wells has more in common with conservatism than he might imagine.
Other SpikeMagazine.com posts of interest:
- Conquest of vision
- ‘Steve Reads Bestseller’ Shock For the eighteen…
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- Gutenberg Needs Volunteer Proofreaders
- Codshit Conspiracies OK, so Codshit Blog might …
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