Tuesday News: Oyster, Apple, book covers, and desert romance
Publishing Newsad blocking / Apple / book-covers / Google / imperialism / Oyster / sheiks / subscription services14 Comments
Oyster, a Netflix for Books, Is Shutting Down. But Most of Its Team Is Heading to Google. -Oyster announced yesterday that is going to be shutting down its subscription service “over the next several months.” News spread quickly that Google had purchased Oyster, although Google apparently does not want the story told that way. Instead, they are paying for staff. In the end, it may not matter, especially if what the Oyster folks are “excited” about isn’t a new subscription service at Google Play Books.
Those opportunities may happen at Google. A rep for the search giant confirmed that “a portion” of the Oyster team has joined Google Play Books, its online store for books. People familiar with the company say that CEO Eric Stromberg and co-founders Andrew Brown and Willem Van Lancker are part of the team joining Google.
Google is resistant to the notion that it bought Oyster. But sources said it will end up paying investors, who put a reported $17 million into the company, for the right to hire some of its staff. In other words, this is an acqhire.–Re/Code
Why does this brilliant, bestselling book have such a cheesy cover? -So the crappy part of this story is that some readers are apparently upset with Elena Ferrante’s book covers because they look like “cheap” Romance novels. *sigh* So let’s get past that to the more interesting part of the article, namely that the covers are actually aiming for “vulgarity,” which is apparently not vulgar enough for American readers, who find them to be, well, amateurish. So beyond some cultural differences around book covers, there’s an interesting debate here about how difficult it can be to brand an author in a way that matches the author and publisher’s vision for the books. And how, perhaps, the proliferation of self-published books has influenced the way American readers, in particular, interpret cover images.
But Sandro Ferri, Europa Editions’ publisher, says the covers were not an accident of too many cooks in the design kitchen, but rather a conscious choice. Writes Ferri in an email to Quartz, “The ‘vulgarity’ is our intention. We don’t want to make the typical ‘literary’ cover designed for an audience of ultra-sophisticated readers. … Ferrante’s novels are a mix of popular literature and highbrow, intellectual writing. We want to communicate this though our covers as well.” . . .
Though Ferri says that the intended irony is evident to fans, it appears to be lost on an American audience, for whom the cover designs evoke the aesthetic of Lurlene McDaniel or Danielle Steel. If the intention was irony, says Heller, “They’re not vulgar enough. They’re generic. They look like stock photographs.” Says Carter, “If they’re trying to be ironic, it would have to go further. It would have to be ten times cheesier than they are. These are the most generic, standard thing possible.”–Quartz
What Apple’s ad blocking fight is really about -An interesting article on the way Apple’s new ad-blocking functionality undermines the indirect revenue generation advertising facilitates, not only as a means to satisfy user frustration with more and more ubiquitous and intrusive advertising (and possibly stick it to Google), but also as a salvo in the battle over how best to make money (paywalls, anyone??).
But there’s a reason advertising has been the dominant model for so long. Information-based products have some unusual economic properties that make it both difficult and counter-productive to charge users directly. Like other so-called “public goods,” the cost of producing valuable information is entirely up-front, in its creation. That’s especially true for digital content. The cost of broadcasting the signal or serving up the bits to you — what economists call the marginal cost — is essentially zero. In the case of the Internet, you pay for the device and the network connection.
That means content producers have little reason to spend money trying to exclude non-paying customers, and, indeed, some powerful incentives not to. Not only is the marginal cost of supplying additional viewers zero or close to it, but another economic principle makes information more valuable the more it’s used. Media that is popular exhibits a kind of gravitational pull, accelerating its appeal in what is known as a “network effect.” Allowing if not begging users to share links through social media for the material they like — a virtual water cooler — helps that content find its largest and most interested audience.–Washington Post
New Texts Out Now: Amira Jarmakani, An Imperialist Love Story: Desert Romances and the War on Terror – Very provocative interview with Amira Jarmakani, whose new book on desert Romance novels and the “war on terror” takes on the relationship between desire and cultural hegemony. We’ve talked about this more generally in terms of how Romance so often ends with marriage and children, perpetuating a specific model of family as a the nucleus of society. Jarmakani is an Associate Professor at Georgia State University and the interview includes an excerpt from her book.
Desert romances are overwhelmingly set in fictionalized Arabia, a landscape I describe as “Arabiastan” for reasons explained in the book. As if to corroborate the argument that desert romances bear no relation to actual events, virtually every novel takes place in a country invented by the author, and the creation of fictional settings is one of the key tactics authors use to circumvent the surfeit of reality that threatens the viability of the sheikh-hero. Another tactic the authors employ is to use distinct ethnic, cultural, and religious markers to exoticize sheikhs without overtly racializing them or associating them with terrorists. Consequently, desert romances speak directly about race, gender, and religion, even as they claim to be universal and “color-blind” fantasy stories.
Desert romances therefore offer a unique perspective on the war on terror through their development of an under-analyzed figure: the liberal-enlightened Arab leader who chooses to ally with the US in the war on terror. Precisely because desert romances must combat what the general reader thinks she already knows about the reality of the Middle East in order to operate as fantasy narratives, they demonstrate how desire—at the collective, social level—mobilizes and animates contemporary US hegemony. As fantasy narratives that nevertheless obliquely reference reality, desert romances serve as immensely useful indirect articulations of the way that desire motivates contemporary technologies of imperialism mobilized in the war on terror. Focusing on the three specific imperialist technologies of security, freedom, and liberal multiculturalism, An Imperialist Love Story demonstrates romance to be a salient lens through which to understand how the war on terror works, and how it perseveres.–Jadaliyya
It is not just the Sheikhs who get the fantasy treatment in the romance genre, but also the dukes, the cowboys, the Navy SEALS, the pirates, the billionaire CEOs, the Highlanders, and many more. I’m not sure how much of that fantasizing is a statement on the war on terror. I haven’t read any desert romances, but remember enjoying The Dream Hunter, which was most definitely pre-9/11.
@Jo: Exactly. And I could add to the list: rock stars, sports stars, motorcycle club members, any aristocratic male- particularly ones born sometime before the last 30 years or so. 99.9% of historical romances set in the UK and elsewhere are basically set in a Disneyland version of history without disease, tooth decay and the mindset of the era. How many Robyn Carr-esque small towns do people know of? I’ve been to Ireland many times, but never the Ireland of Nora Roberts. I’m not saying what the author wrote isn’t accurate, but I cannot think of one type of romance from any genre or era that isn’t about changing reality into something palatable, enjoyable or even magical for its targeted audience.
While romance does engage in a lot of fantasy, those other examples are more or less figures in Anglo- culture written by Anglo-writers. Of all the other non-Anglo cultures in the world, those writers appropriate this particular aspect of Arab culture. Why is that? And what new resonance does that take on in the current media narrative and global situation? I doubt writers can escape being influenced, one way or the other. It’s worth exploring.
And I really don’t think we can equate Nora Roberts writing about Ireland (however fantasized) to Nora Roberts writing about Fantasy Arab Land (as a hypothetical example). It’s well enough that some groups can laugh off absurd Scottish high land stereotypes as fictional nonsense. A Native American may not feel so complacent about White writers profiting from stories about magical, savage half-breeds because of their lack of visibility and ownership of their own story in mainstream narrative. (Disney’s Pocahontas is back in the news, for similar reasons, I believe.)
I have even seen media stories of American war veterans who are peeved at what they see as the one-dimensional tortured, depressing portrayal of them in military films that Hollywood peddles all the time. (Ha, I wonder what they think of how they’re portrayed in romances?) Anyway, I don’t think it’s reasonable to just dismiss it as romance = fantasy, so so what. Apologies for the double post — I missed Christine’s response before I made my first comment.
@Imani: You’re absolutely right. We should not dismiss prejudicial depictions in romance. In fact authors should make sure they get their research right and not turn non-Anglo characters/cultures into caricatures and ‘exotic’ beings. I am simply wondering whether this fantasizing of cultures is a post 9/11 phenomenon or has it been inherent in the romance genre for decades before that.
@Jo
Oh, books about sheikhs have been around in Romancelandia for a long, long time.
I recall an old HP by Anne Mather (from 1980) featuring a sheik/Arab prince hero. (Sandstorm is the title, FYI). While not as prevalent as Greek tycoons in the old HPs, they were there in all the ‘exotic’ glory.
The fantasizing is not a new (ie post 9/11/2001) phenomenon.
Wow! That comment on Arabiastan and the war on terror is a lot of multisyllabic words about nothing much. The desert romances are often written by the same writers who have Greek, Italian, Russian and Highland heros. You can even check this fact on Harlequin, put sheikh in the search bar and click on the authors to see their other books.
Are romances set in Greece “immensely useful indirect articulations of the way that desire motivates contemporary technologies of imperialism mobilized” in the demand for austerity to stay in the Eurozone? Do the romances with Russian heros say anything “immensely useful” about sanctions for appropriating Crimea? Do the Highland heros say something about romance and devolution?
Enquiring minds want to know.
@Barb in Maryland: Thanks Barb.
Personally, if I were to read a book with a Muslim hero, I would prefer him to not be associated with terrorists. I’m tired of all the Muslim terrorists in Hollywood and on TV shows (yes, I’m Muslim). Community’s Abed Nadir was a breath of fresh air – just an everyday guy with not even a hint of terrorist association, phew! I don’t know how bad the sheikhs in romance are but I’m glad they’re not political. Who knows how many un-PC stuff would be unleashed in those scenarios.
Jarmakani isn’t arguing that sheikhs didn’t exist in Romance before 9/11 — she’s looking at how the books that have come out in the wake of 9/11 are constructing both the Arab male and Arab society, largely from a Western POV influenced by the war on terror. Her work is part of a long tradition of scholarship that looks at how the West has characterized the East (aka Orientalism, the erotic exotic, etc.), largely for its own purposes (which gets right at the fantasy landscape of the sheikh Romance), and addresses the interesting dynamic whereby the sheikh Romance hero has, arguably, become even more popular since 9/11, while actual Arab males are so consistently demonized and even criminalized (e.g Ahmed Mohamed and his science project clock).
Without question, other tropes in Romance are problematic, including the Native American hero, who is so often constructed as the “noble savage” or the misunderstood outsider who, it turns out, is really a white man raised as Indian (surprise!).
It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t read these books or have them written – but maybe it’s a good thing sometimes to think about how tropes and characters sometimes play into larger stereotypes about groups and categories of identity, and how we often accept these stereotypes so easily because they are confirmed to us over and over again through many messages in our culture, including tv, movies, books, etc. (this goes back to the argument about how the black book group would be pegged as rowdy on the train, while a group of white women, equally loud, might not elicit the same response). Awareness can offer the opportunity to challenge these stereotypes, rather than reinforcing them, which, when you think about it, is something people often look to Romance for — e.g. the lovers no one thought should be together, because one is of the “wrong” class or culture, etc., fall in love and have their HEA, showing that society is shallow and wrong. So, while there are ways in which the genre challenges these kinds of backwards ideas, there are some blind spots, too.
@Janet: I confess that I had only skimmed the interview earlier (bad Jo!). I have read all of it now and the author does talk about the existence of sheikh heroes pre-9/11, and fantasy vs. reality in romance. From what I understand, she says that even though romance authors do not touch the war on terror in their stories, the overall depiction of a liberal US-friendly sheikh adds to the Western thinking that the Arab states need US “imperialist technologies” to prosper, which she disagrees with. Am I getting this right?
@Jo: Jo I don’t know if you ever watched the show Bones, but in the later seasons there is a Muslim character who becomes a regular on the show and a love interest of one of the other main characters. He is an observant Muslim, a scientist and definitely NOT a terrorist. He’s the first fictional character I thought of when I read your post above. Hopefully there are others on shows I don’t watch that other posters may know of.
@Jo: I don’t think she’s doing the judgments so much (good/ bad, agree/ disagree), but yes, I read the aspect of her argument about imperialist technologies pretty much as you describe it. I *think* she’s mostly analyzing the dynamic, but I haven’t read the book yet so I can’t draw any substantial conclusions about her argument.
@Imani:
No, it’s not hypothetical. Nora Roberts has a 1980s book set partly in a fictional Middle Eastern country, Sweet Revenge. However, it’s not the hero who is of Arab descent, but rather the heroine (she has an Arab father and an American mother).
Thanks for the clarification Janet. And thanks for the rec Christine.