What a surprise: the Wall Street Journal (well, Juan Williams, writing there) finds there's: 'Precious' Little of Value in Ghetto Lit.
This is apparently: "the fastest-growing segment of African-American letters, a genre called "ghetto lit" or "gangster lit.""
(This claim seems anecdotal rather than factual; I'd love to see the numbers (and definitions ...).)
Anyway, Williams is no fan:
Also increasingly absent are textured stories about rising above the realities of poverty, alienation and racism. Those redemptive works, with their calls for black people to be seen as fully human -- think of Native Son or Invisible Man -- are on the remainder table. It is hard to believe, but legendary black writers telling stories about the full scope of the black experience, from Langston Hughes to Toni Morrison, are being pushed aside. Inspirational books on black history or the civil-rights struggle are now for the classroom only.Okay ..... (All this still sounds pretty anecdotal to me, but ... whatever.)
And he also argues:
The poor might like gangster lit or ghetto lit for its reflection of their lives. But they are a secondary market. What makes the genre dominant at this moment is that middle-class black women have made it their escapist reading. They are the ones publishers seek to titillate and thrill.I'm looking forward to the reactions to this piece (especially from "middle-class black women" -- though since they're apparently so lost in this worthless second-rate escapist reading they might not get to the WSJ's opinion pieces ...). Add a Comment
