I would agree with that, but, pomo style, I cannot say in advance whether I would deny it or not. I left out of my remarks explicit references to bookreading as such. I think UNESCO publishes some statistics on it, but I think they refer to books sold mainly which tells you very little. My impression in Holland is that women read more published books than men, but that men write marginally more than women. A feminist companion of mine, who was a professional writer, said to me in 1990 that "you should write a book if you are convinced that it needs to be written, that it ought to be written, and for no other reason."
J. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Devine, James" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 7:08 PM Subject: Re: [PEN-L] What is to be done in Argentina > my feeling is that for a book to have a big impact, it has to "fall on a fertile field." That is, the societal situation -- including the balance of class forces -- has to be such that people are looking for the kinds of ideas that the book presents. > > ------------------------ > Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Jurriaan Bendien [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 10:05 AM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: [PEN-L] What is to be done in Argentina > > > > > > > do you think that writing a book can have that big an effect? > > > > Whether or not a book has a "big effect", depends I think on numerous > > factors, and a publisher would affirm this: > > > > - its content and form > > - who wrote it > > - the life and doings of the author > > - the specific context it is written in, or written for > > - who it is written for > > - how the book is marketed > > - whether it is bought in order to read it, or for some other > > reason or > > fashion (a book might have an effect which has nothing to do > > with its real > > content, or it might sell lots of copies without its content > > influencing > > anybody very much). > > > > I have commented on the anthropology of the uses of books as cultural > > artifacts already once before on Marxmail, referring to postmodernist > > culture. If you consider Marx's book Capital, it had very > > little readership > > in the 19th century, and if it did, this owed more to Marx's political > > engagements or reputation probably. It became a hit in, of all places, > > Russia. Pamphlets or short books by Kautsky, Lafargue, > > Engels, Mehring, > > Bebel, Jaures, Lenin etc. were far more popular, and there > > were literally > > hundreds in that genre. > > > > Rosa Luxemburg, Isaac Deutscher and Ernest Mandel all > > remarked upon the > > fact, that even among selfstyled Marxists in the 1920s, > > Marx's magnum opus > > had mostly not been read beyond the first volume or extracts > > thereof (it > > wasn't exactly holiday reading of course), never mind digested and > > understood. Only after the founding of the Marx-Engels Institute and > > subsequently the transformation of Marxism into a state > > ideology, were large > > quantities of the book sold. > > > > To this day, communication theory remains a very much > > under-researched topic > > in Marxist circles. > > > > References: > > Ernest Mandel, The place of Marxism in history > > Paul Dukes, October and the World > > > > (According to the Guiness book of records, the bestselling > > book of all time > > is the Bible, the highest circulation magazine is the US > > Parade, and the > > honour of the highest circulation attained by a newspaper went to > > Komsomolskaya Pravda selling just under 22 million copies in 1990.) > > > >
