It’s an intro course in language arts, but here’s Rupture sussing texts and context re Da Capo and other collected works with canonical pretensions:
How is it that the notion of a CD containing “The Best Music of 2006” would be preposterous while the idea of book collecting “The Best Music Writing of 2006” is readily accepted?
Is it due to qualitative differences between music and writing? Does authority swoop down in the gap separating (source) art and (secondary) reportage? Is writing about music easier to rate than music itself? What rhetorical techniques does music journalism employ to gain understanding — or at least the appearance of semiotic control — over sound?
Every anthology a ghetto.
2 responses to “Oh no love! You’re not alone!”
The process of choosing the texts for these anthologies is slightly different than for best of discs. The music is often chosen based on sales and popularity, whereas the texts are chosen from a wide range of magazines, with varying levels of circulation, and narrowed down by the main editor, then given to the guest editor who chooses his or her favorites to include. So it comes more down to the editor’s individual guidelines. And his or her tastes. It’s not democratic at all, of course, and yes, there is a gateway because the writers in those magazines passed the first test by getting published in “respected” journals (I’m basing this on the short stories since those are the ones I have read over the years). Perhaps since the short story is a precious form that is relegated to special issues and the littlest of little magazines it does not initially seem as irksome an idea to collect the “best” as it might to collect the best music, but then you see the same writers over and over again. It can become agravating especially knowing that until you have an agent your work will probably not be read at all and if it is, and rejected, you won’t find out for about 4 months anyway. What a great system. I guess it weeds out the fainthearted. This probably doesn’t have anything to do with what you’re getting at but oh well!
No I think you’re pretty much right on the mark. I think that’s what Jace/Rupture was getting at too actually, but to him one was just a little more absurdly racialized than the other.