June 3, 2007
More than a few books on my shelves come from [Prospero's][1] in Kansas City. Sitting here in my living room chair, I can look over and see two more recent - and, unfortunately, still unread - purchases: "Clockers" by Richard Price and "The Sportswriter" by Richard Ford. There are dozens more strewn throughout the house, some of them even by authors not named Richard. Since a friend introduced me to the store six years ago, no trip to the funky little 39th Street neighborhood has been complete without a stop into the store for some browsing and purchasing.![][2]I'm a fan, in other words. And there's other Lawrence connections; Prospero's co-owner is Will Leathem, who has done some P.R. work for City Hall here, and who makes occasional appearances at poetry readings around town. I've met him a time or two - he seems like a nice guy.So I was perplexed last week when Leathem and his partner recently gathered a bunch of unsold books in storage, invited the media - [and then set the books on fire.][3] The reason: No one was buying the books; hell, no one would take them for free. So theProspero's guys decided on the bonfire as, essentially, a protest against the closing of the American mind.I wasn't going to weigh in on the matter until this morning, when I opened up the New York Times to find the Prospero's guys taking their message of book-burning to the nation. (It's behind the Times' pay firewall, so I'm not gonna link - but the Prospero's guys also [explained themselves on their Web site][4])So let me say this: What a dumb thing for some supposedly smart guys to do.Even book lovers know that there are far more books written and printed each year than can ever find an audience. And the mediocre ones seem to proliferate in the used bookstore afterlife - I estimate there are at least three copies of Brett Lott's "Jewel" in every used store in America. (Take a look sometime, if you doubt me.)In fact - as the Prospero's guys noted in the Times' article - the book industry accepts this fact as part of the cost of doing business. Millions of unbought, unwanted books are "pulped" each year rather than sit in a warehouse and gather dust for eternity. As much as I love literature, I find it hard to shed a tear over such matters. (I might feel differently, I suppose, if I were the author whose much-labored-over masterpiece was being recycled.)And few tears will be shed over the copies of "The Hunt for Red October" and "The Bonfire of the Vanities" that were sacrificed to the flames; if they'd had the courage of their convictions, the Prospero's guys would've set fire to copies of the Mark Twain writings they quote on their Web site.But there's a difference between what the book industry does and what the Prospero's guys did - the difference being showboating.The book industry - with all its faults - isn't trying to make some statement with pulping. It's just recovering costs so it can go on and print and sell the next books. What the Prospero's guys did, though, was commit a very public act of destruction using symbolism that, until now, has been exclusively the province of oppression and tyranny. ![]5And in doing so, they insulted me, their customer, and all their other customers. I've been buying books from them - more, in fact, than I can possibly read in the near term. Anybody who walks into Prospero's does so, in fact, because they love books, too. Our minds are not closed.I'm not suggesting that Leathem and his partner should've kept storing unwanted books for eternity. But by making such a spectacle of themselves, the Prospero's guys ended up emulating the old cover of National Lampoon - "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog" - and sent the wrong message. [1]: http://www.lawrence.com/places/prosperos_books/ [2]: http://prosperosbookstore.com/images/book_burning_prosperos_book.jpg [3]: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/may/28/store_owner_makes_fiery_plea_readers/ [4]: http://prosperosbookstore.com/ [5]: http://cghs.dade.k12.fl.us/holocaust/book_burning.jpg
Comments
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Joel (Joel Mathis) says...
J.D.'s take is here:
http://www.evolution-nextstep.com/arc...
June 3, 2007 at 1:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
leslie (Leslie vonHolten) says...
Last week when I read this story, I was so surprised by how stupid it was that I re-read it twice to make sure I didn't miss something. I don't even need to make the Nazi comparisons to be offended. So, my mind is closed because I didn't purchase books I don't want to read? That's idiotic.
I, too, usually stop at Prospero's when in KC, but now I'm reluctant to go again.
June 3, 2007 at 2:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Joel (Joel Mathis) says...
To be clear: I didn't need the Nazi comparison to be offended, either, but I felt the need to point out that book-burning doesn't traditionally have a place on the right side of history in art and civil liberties. If you're going to appropriate imagery that's so resonant, you risk damaging the message you're trying to send unless it's A) really well done or B) in the service of a really great cause.
I'm not sure either criteria apply here...
June 3, 2007 at 5:21 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says...
As the owner of a bookstore, I can understand his frustration with hordes of unsold books, but they can always be donated to the Friends of the Library - not in lots of thousands perhaps, but they are always glad to take hundreds. To burn them in such a manner less reminiscent of Nazis than of 5-year-olds: I'm going to break my things so you'll pay attention to me.
In the past 2 years I have bought a total of 2 books from brick-and-mortar stores. Frankly, I think the business model is dead. Your average streetside bookstore simply cannot carry the titles that an online store can, and its future is probably limited to those looking for a pretty but destined-to-go-unread coffee table book or new paperback that will be mostly read before it's accidentally dropped in the bathtub.
But the business those stores have lost out on has been more than made up by internet stores and people cleaning out their garages. This week I received in the mail an 1853 leather-bound copy of Sallust's "Jugurtha and Cataline" and a 1921 hardcover of Caesar's "Gallic Wars" (both in Latin), plus hardcovers of Caesar's "Civil War" - with works by others about same battles - and "Gallic Wars" (this one in English), an "autiobiography" of Septimius Severus (a history written by a Palestinian historian in the first person), plus a hardcover of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica. For all those, including shipping, I paid a total of about $60. There is not a streetside store in the world that can provide those titles, not to mention coming anywhere near that price.
So while I can sympathise with the frustration of having unmoved inventory, not only do I think the act of burning such publicly* is wasteful, I think it's no more meaningful** than the Luddites breaking into English mills to destroy equipment. It is a tantrum thrown by a child who finds the world leaving him behind.
* I have burned or trashed literally thousands of books for a multitude of reasons, but always privately.
** It is possibly counterproductive and possibly good advertising. Time will decide that.
June 3, 2007 at 8 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
clayhill70 (anonymous) says...
I take a certain amount of pleasure in thinking that many of the
unsold copies of Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael
Savage books have been turned into pulp and made into toilet
paper and disposable diapers.
June 3, 2007 at 8:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says...
The books mentioned above do not even include the dozens of old books I have downloaded (and occasionally printed complete) from sites such as Gutenberg or Archive.org. Whether scholarly compendiums or popular works, if something is out of copyright, it can usually be found somewhere online. Many of these - like the 1902 work I criticised in arguing that the Germanic god Odin was probably a real person
http://elborak.blogspot.com/2007/05/w... , are not available for purchase anywhere. And why would I purchase it anyway when I can print it off, bind it myself, and thereby have a copy I don't need to feel guilty about highlighting or scribbling in? I have a filing cabinet filled with the works of late Roman historians, with hagiographies, and (surprise) with books that I purchased later just because they were so good I wanted a nice copy for my real shelf.
JD put it best: Tom Wayne is protesting his own lack of business acumen. The internet has allowed anyone to accumulate a private library that would be the envy of the Greeks of Alexandria.The fact that they no longer need to pay Mr. Wayne to populate it can hardly make a worthy protest. Everyone who wants a copy of the Hunt for Red October probably already has one anyway.
June 3, 2007 at 8:27 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Joel (Joel Mathis) says...
Bill:
Let me add a note of moderation to your Web triumphalism.
I think you're right that the Web will dominate the market for specialty books -- I have to have this obscure thing, and I have to have it now -- but I think that as long as people still, you know, go outside, they're going to want to have places to go to. General interest bookstores are definitely going to be squeezed by the Web, too - I suspect the smartest booksellers will have a foot in both the real and virtual worlds.
June 4, 2007 at 6:42 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says...
Wow, Joel, you sure killed this thread. Serves you right for moderating my triumphialism ;)
June 4, 2007 at 3:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Joel (Joel Mathis) says...
I'd like to think that it happens to me so often because I repeatedly make brilliantly incontrovertible statements.
(Sigh.) That's just self-delusion...
June 4, 2007 at 5:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
El_Borak (Bill Hoyt) says...
Notice I didn't argue with you.
June 4, 2007 at 5:23 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
thetomdotdot (anonymous) says...
Yes, but brilliantly incontrovertible self-delusion.
June 5, 2007 at 7:14 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
JohnB (anonymous) says...
I wasn't going to comment on this--everything I would have said has been said above--but, weirdly, this very issue came up yesterday while I was book-browsing. Of course I blogged about it; here's the link, if you're interested:
http://blogmeridian.blogspot.com/2007...
June 5, 2007 at 8:09 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
MickiMichelle (anonymous) says...
The "Prospero's guys" as they are so fondly referred to as...have names. Tom Wayne and Will Leathem. I just wanted to point out how obnoxious it was to see "the Prospero's guys" so many times while reading.
Everyone:
I may be one of few but, I don't believe they were protesting for publicity, I don't think it was a desperate need to get customers, and I don't find that it was insulting in ANYway. You say you've gone into the bookstore a number of times you even refer to yourself as a "fan"...have you ever talked to Tom? Seemingly you have not. He is SO far from the "cry for customers" type...I'm assuming this might surprise you? I realize this is your opinion this is my opinion type of thing...but wow...talk to the guy or something people. Can't you see when a person wants to make a point? In order to get a point across anymore you have to take drastic measures. Call the press, the national guard, fuck...call the pope if you want to be heard.
But it's nice...because it worked. I see this book burning as a test, to see if people even care...and apparently a few of you do. And maybe it even sparked an interest in some people to turn off the T.V. and pick up a book.
June 7, 2007 at 1:28 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Joel (Joel Mathis) says...
Hi Micki:
Welcome to L.com commenting.
Sorry for annoying you with the "Prospero's Guys" stuff. I did mention Leathem. I've met him, as I said, and I believe I've talked to Tom once before. As I said: Seem like nice guys. I haven't been to KC since this event, so haven't had the chance to enter the store or talk to them since - believe me, I won't shirk the opportunity.
That said, I'll take issue with this: "I don't believe they were protesting for publicity."
So who called the TV stations and newspapers, then? I won't say publicity was the entire point, but Leathem and Wayne were clearly courting the publicity.
Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. But their execution, like I said, left quite a bit to be desired - at least from my standpoint.
June 7, 2007 at 11:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )