All Hail the Internet, Keeper of the Sacred and the Profane

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In Kevin Pickard's January 19, 2016 article on Electric Literature, "Should Fiction Be Timeless? Pop Culture References in Contemporary Novels,"  he discusses the fact that there is a debate within the writer community that  goes back to the 1980's when pop culture really became a pervasive part of our society. The old school folks on one side believe that any kind of reference to pop culture should be omitted in a work so that it has a sense of "timelessness." On the other side, there are those, like Brett Easton Ellis, who intentionally use pop culture to situate their work in a specific time and place. Pickard argues that there is no real right answer, that it is up to the author to decide whether the specific cultural context is a necessary part of the story or not.

He does go on to state that the endeavor of creating timeless fiction is in and of itself "nonsense," and through a quote from David Foster Wallace's essay, "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction," makes the point that even if you omit references to pop culture, by the setting, the language you use, the level of technology even passingly referenced, you are putting the novel in a particular time and place; however, he also makes the point that omitting such references does serve a function, using  Hanya Yanagihara's novel, A Little Life, as an example, in which the desired function is "to give her novel a 'fairytale quality,' where it seems out of time," which I can definitely buy as an artistic choice. However, Pickard also makes the point that while Yanagihara's novel, and the other in this category that he discusses, Jesmyn Ward's novel, Salvage the Bones, both, while omitting pop culture, include many references to high art, including "artists, poets, and filmmakers."

While creating this distinction between high art and pop culture might in and of itself be an artistic choice that serves a function, perhaps as a reflection of a character's interest, as is the case with Yanagihara, if the goal of omitting pop culture is to create a sense of seeming "out of time," then by including "high art," it implies that "high art" is more timeless than pop culture.

I agree with Pickard's premise the debate itself is missing the point, and that the discussion should be focused on the fact that "allusions are intentional and malleable features of building a fictional world," but I wish to add a nuance that Pickard doesn't consider: that the pervasiveness and availability of the Internet slows the fade from relevance works that are set in a specific time and place, so that the idea of "timelessness" being a function of helping works endure for future generations is itself somewhat of a moot point.

Furthermore, whereas once upon a time, when literacy and class differences allowed for what we consider to be "high art" to endure, and what we consider to be "pop culture," or, to follow the implied dichotomy, "low art," to disappear over time, the Internet has blurred that distinction by allowing pop culture to endure past it's prime as no other technology before has permitted it to do. Of course, public education systems and higher levels of literacy across all classes have also helped what appeals to the masses to have a longer lasting impact.

If television, cinema, and radio helped to create this hyperreal postmodern world of Lyotard's, where  the dichotomy is blurred and "low art" is placed as being equal to "high art," then the Internet has only further complicated the distinction to the point where it is no longer really even valid.

In a world where classically trained musicians play pop songs, and pop stars make works of high art, it is possible to read something like American Psycho, and if you aren't sure what the author is referencing, you don't have to seek out your parent's record collection, you can simply Google Huey Lewis and the News and find the music on Youtube.

Even in works with pop cultural references that have long since faded into obscurity, like if you were compelled (probably in a graduate seminar) to read Herman Melville's The Confidence Man, where, even in a highly annotated edition, the references are difficult to understand, with the internet, you can perform the kind of research that even relatively recently might have forced you to go to several different libraries and spend hours or even days searching through archives or microfilm, in order to understand the text even better.

While it might still take some extra work, the internet has vastly simplified this process, and it has in fact even extended what constitutes as contemporary pop culture, since fads are able to extend the amount of time that there is still an audience left to participate in them.

And really, it's not always necessary to understand to the fullest extent what is being referenced as long as you understand the context. While you might not be familiar with every song that  Easton Ellis refers to in Less Than Zero, you know the story takes place in LA in the early 1980's, and so you are able to get the idea fairly quickly, especially when you add in the lifestyles of the characters, the many mansions, and the mountains of cocaine and other drugs that are consumed.

Not to mention, who doesn't still love music from the 80's? As I am sure that any host of any karaoke night at any local bar will tell you, the music is almost as popular today as it ever has been. It takes longer for it to fade from our cultural consciousness since it is still a relevant part of our culture today, which in turn makes it easier for audiences to understand when referenced in a novel, since it still exists and is within our ability to easily grasp.

So, if you feel like including a pop cultural reference in the novel that you're writing, go right on ahead. So long as we don't go through some kind of complete cultural collapse, which I suppose is possible, as it does happen from time-to-time, the Internet will still be here to make it possible for your future readers to understand just exactly what the hell it is that you are talking about, and chances are, it might even still be relevant. However, if for some reason we are sent back to the dark ages, if anything survives, it will at least be a clue for some future archaeologist. I'm sure they'll be wondering just exactly why the Hell we were so obsessed with these Kardashian people.

Spring Breakin'

It has been a quiet, relaxing Spring Break, for me, thus far.  I have spent a lot of time watching Star Trek and Lie to Me on Netflix, and my wife and I have also gotten into The Following with Kevin Bacon.  In spite of my general laziness over this time period, I have also been working on school work, both work for my classes, and the class I am teaching--I am just doing it at my leisure. 

I have also spent time thinking about my novel, Out in the Garage, and finishing a final edit of it.  I have made a personal vow that, after I get done with it this time, I am not going back to it again.  I have some great ideas for my second novel, tentatively title Consequences--which I believe will be even better than the first, since I have a better idea of what I am doing and I have already more or less mapped it out, beginning to end (as it is somewhat based off of a movie script I wrote).  In fact, I am also brainstorming a third novel, as well (called Born in 1984-- I am waiting to write it third as it is going to take more research and studying than I have time to do right now, since I need to focus more on finishing school and finding a job).

Consequences is altogether a different novel than Out in the Garage.  For one, it is narrated in a third-person omniscient voice, and is in the past tense, and it has more of a story arc and plot than Out in the Garage.  It is more apparently social criticism--although I wouldn't really consider it satire.  It is more social criticism in the way that The Great Gatsby is social criticism.  I am really looking forward to being able to sit down and work on it, but, first things first.  I have to be satisfied with Out in the Garage.

While I certainly could have left it the way that it was, and after a lot of deliberation I am not doing anything extreme, just cutting the fat.  One thing I have been considering, mostly due to my insecurity, more than anything, is my use of the present tense.  It is this that has pushed me to make changes--although, rather than going backwards and using a past edition of the novel, I am pushing forward and making it work more in the way that I had in mind.  One common error that people have is that they assume that by using the present tense it is taking place in the present, or that the narrator is experiencing it in the present.  Rather, it is merely another way to narrate the past.  

I decided to use it for a variety of reasons, but my biggest reason is that I like the way that my writing sounds in the present tense--it gives it a poetic, musical quality, which is important, in particular, for this novel, since it is designed to be a sort of novelization of a rock opera (that doesn't really exist, but I have honestly thought of making one).  If you take a look at the book (if you happen to have a copy), instead part being divided into parts, it is divided into sides A and B, and, while I haven't label the chapters as tracks, I haven't labeled them as chapters either.  It is not intended to be the narrator experiencing and describing things as they are happening, and, most of the time, when any writer uses it, if they are using it as it is intended to be used, it isn't intended that way, either.  John Updike referred to it as being  similar to time sense  in a movie (referring to Rabbit, Run).  In fact, Less Than Zero by Brett Easton Ellis and Waiting for the Barbarians by JM Coetzee are both also written in the narrative present.  While I am no Updike, Easton Ellis, or Coetzee, I strive to be, and will continue to study them closely (and many others, as well).

The changes I am making aren't major, I am not adding anything, I am just trying to make the story (and the ideas within it) more clear; I am cutting out parts that only distract the reader (and I am also trying to catch any remaining typos).  While I know it goes against the status quo of publishing to go back and make changes to a book that has already been published, as a self-publishing author, I have more freedom to do what I want, and part of my reason for self-publishing is to discover what works and what doesn't.  I can be as experimental as I want to be, and it's not like I have a big readership or anything like that, so, I must need to keep trying and keep honing what I am doing.  That being said, I do understand that I can only reasonably do so much to one novel before it's time to move forward--and I am nearly to that point, I just need this one last push, this one last effort, to get it to where I will be comfortable with leaving it and moving forward.

It shouldn't take too much longer, but I am trying to be thorough.  Once I re-release it, I am not going back to it again.  It will remain how it is at that time, and anything I learn I will just apply to the next project.