Since my vacation to Las Vegas was cancelled I decided to blow the "gamblin' money" I'd been saving on music and books. I bought some good new albums but I had a hard time finding something decent to read.
Scouring through book stores is one of the greatest things in the world, and one of my favorite time-wasters. When it fails to end in the triumph of finding something to read, I'm left with a definite itch. Why couldn't I find anything that piqued my interest? I'll explain.
While I'm pretty much set on what kind of music I listen to and the kind of films I like to watch, my taste in literature is very eclectic. I admittedly love a good crime novel but once you wander past the writings of James Ellroy and Scott Phillips the pickings are disturbingly slim. So, I like to have an open palette for books that spans across genres. I only require that it interests me and makes me think. I’ll go into a book store, pour over the shelves and find something that meets my criteria. This last trip left me cold.
Every synopsis I read started out with "Carl, a disenfranchised black man..." or "Sara is a struggling and vulnerable young woman..." or "Manuel picks strawberries..." and on and on it went. It was all the same bourgeois agenda with different names and locations. Now, I’m positive that every book written in the last decade didn’t subscribe to the self-pitying underdog; I just couldn’t find one outside that realm. Anyway, I was left thinking as to why we have hundreds of books about the same stale and tired story? Every one was some sort of bestseller or had Oprah's stamp of approval (who made her some a literary authority anyway? I’d like to see her credentials). Am I the only one who finds these literary soap-boxes that force-feed the reader a healthy dose of altruism to be contrived and boring? I’m totally fine being the pooper at this particular pity-party if that means I’ll be able to find a decent read the next time I stop at the Barnes and Noble.
My problem is that the cutting edge on which great literature sits has become dulled by political correctness and social climates. It’s like these authors don’t want to take chances anymore. I mean, the only person who probably hasn’t heard about the “racial climates” of America is Paris Hilton and seeing as how she’s illiterate I’m guessing she’s not the intended audience. Seeing all these books is like staring at the same word written over and over: it loses all meaning. Same thing happens with these books. But what can I really expect from a generation of idiots who say things like “lol?”
LMAO!
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